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If
you go WAY back, 1982 to be exact which is like an
eternity in "net years", with a tenure
the PC Industry, you'll know that Hercules
was the first company ever to develop high
resolution graphics for the computer.
At that time, things were in a drab monochrome
output but it didn't take long before this leader
and giant in this market was releasing true
"Windows Accelerators". Remember
names like the "Graphite" and the
"Dynamite"? They were all the rage
and 2D speed was king.
However,
the unforgiving and relentless pace of Personal
Computing and specifically 3D Graphics technology
soon nearly rolled over this historic innovator
and creator of the high resolution color
desktop. It was by the figurative "skin
of their teeth" that Hercules was scooped up
soon after they closed their doors admitting
defeat, by a France based up and comer by
the name of Guillemot. Guillemot, then
heavily involved in the 3D Graphics seen, decided
to keep the long heritage of the Hercules name and
began to release products in the Graphics space,
with the brand recognition they needed to truly
penetrate the US market.
These
days the folks at Hercules are doing what they do
best only they are letting the folks at nVidia
blaze the 3D Graphics trail. This is a
HotHardware look at a Hercules product based on
the GeForce2 GTS Graphics Processor. We have
come a long way from the monochrome and 2D
days. Let's see if Hercules / Guillemot can
live up to their good name.
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| Specifications
Of The Hercules Prophet II GTS 64 |
| A
reference design? Not quite... |
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- NVIDIA GeForce2
GTS GPU
- RAMDAC/Pixel
Cycle: 350 MHz
- Memory: 64MB DDR
SDRAM
- Bus Systems: AGP
2x/4x (including fast writes and execute mode)
or PCI
- Standards: DPMS,
DDC2B, Plug & Play
- Video Modules:
VGA, TV and DVI Output Connectors
- BIOS: VESA BIOS
3.0 support
- API Support:
DirectX 6, DirectX 7, OpenGL
- Internal/Memory
Interface Clock: 200MHz/166MHz
- Horizontal SYNC
Signals: 31.5Hz - 108.5Hz
- Vertical Refresh
Rate: 60Hz - 200Hz
- Robust Cooling
of key components with heat sinks on the
processor and memory chips
- Game Demo and
DVD Player Bundle Including, Power DVD, Tonic
Trouble, Rayman2, Monaco Grand Prix
Racing2, and Speed Busters
Click
All Images For Full Viewing
Unlike
the Elsa
card we reviewed a couple of weeks ago, the
Prophet II GTS 64 has all the goodies loaded up
here. It comes with DVI and TV out in
addition to the analog VGA connector. Those
of you that were hoping to play games on the
60" Big Screen TV, as well as DVDs, you're in
luck with this card. We feel all
manufacturers that are designing a 64MB card
should have these features on board. Since the
cost of the card is already up there, why not give
the end user the "full boat"?
Hercules had their marketing caps on when they
came up with the feature set of the Prophet II 64.
| Finally,
unless you have a vision problem (hey, it
could happen...) you'll notice that the
Prophet II 64 is adorned in a pretty blue
PCB and pretty blue heat sinks all
around. This is above and beyond the
call of duty for most OEMs doing nVidia
based cards. It is a welcome
feature. We'll see if those RAM
coolers / heat spreaders, really add value
in our over-clocking section.
For now, it
is safe to say that Hercules went the
distance in making the Prophet II GTS 64 a
high
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| quality
piece of gear. Stability with this
card should also be excellent at
reasonable clock speeds but the proof, as
they say, is in the pudding. |
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