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Relative to
the results we've already seen, the 3D Prophet 8500 does
much better in 3D Mark 2001. The ABIT Siluro Ti 4200
64MB is still able to best both ATI cards, but the
competition is much closer.
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Return to Castle Wolfenstein |
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Another game based
on the Quake III engine |
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The ATi
Radeon 8500 fares well in both resolutions here. It
was able to beat the GeForce4 Ti 4200 hands down.
Unfortunately, the 3D Prophet is unable to keep pace and is
bested by both competing products.
Hercules is
an interesting predicament. To begin with, the 3D Prophet
8500 is handicapped somewhat by a memory timing issue, which
is supposedly rectifiable. As a result, competing
cards based on NVDIA and ATI processors are able to
get an upper hand. Furthermore, Hercules does not
include the same bundle as ATI. We'd like to see the
necessary hardware to take advantage of all of those video
output ports. The 3D Prophet is also more expensive
than many of the GeForce4 Ti 4200 boards we have found.
Of course, we also have to consider that ATI's
next-generation product is right around the corner.
Once that hits the streets, prices on RADEON 8500 boards
will be forced down even further.
The card's
main redeeming quality is a knack for overclocking.
Hercules mentioned that board was clocked at 275/275MHz only
because a few of their samples wouldn't make the jump to
290/290MHz or even 300/300MHz. Even if they had, we'd
only be seeing performance comparable with what ATI is
achieving on their 275/275MHz product. Hercules
clearly needs to fix whatever is ailing the 3D Prophet.
At that point, I'd be more than happy to re-evaluate the
performance of the card, especially if it is still able to
hit 308MHz with stability (or even higher)!
Come
get some in the HotHardware PC Hardware Forum, now!
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