How to add life to a PC
Written: Sep 23 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Price, performance, 32 meg memory, TV-out
Cons: Not cheap, manual lacking, Bundle switch of XingDVD for PowerDVD in recent boxes
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| caffeine68's Full Review: Hercules 3D Prophet |
My machine is starting to show just a little bit of its age, and some of its purchase decisions which were PERFECT 16 months ago are starting to turn into thin ice and crack.
One of those great decisions was the Voodoo3 2000 PCI. The bargain priced, and still VERY good 3dfx chipset video card.
Unfortunately, it was starting to show its age, and I wanted a card with a faster, newer chipset. Something that COULD handle 32-bit textures, unlock a few new higher resolution modes at high color, etc.
Thus, I went looking for my new upgrade to bring my machine back to the speed it once felt like it had. I found it in the Hercules 3d Prophet DDR-DVI.
I was an early adopter which accounts for the purchase of a PCI card, but this turns out to be a hidden benifit in the long run.
My slant on this review is two fold.
Since I have in hand a still good quality PCI card with mature drivers, and a NEW card (the 3d Prophet)which will gladly co-exist with it. I now have superb performance with a dual monitor configuration.
AGP if done properly, such as it is in this card will usually be faster, the older PCI card can be used for a second display (monitor required of course)
Why fight 3dfx vs Nvidia when you can have BOTH?
At least if your older 3dfx is the PCI flavor.
When I went looking for my new card, I was of course looking at the 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP as my first choice, however since I plan on using the card at high resolutions both in games and my desktop. Full screen Anti-Aliasing which is THE main push of the newest voodoo cards is of VERY little use and/or benifit to me.
The higher the resolution you run, the less you'll notice the 'jaggies' that the voodoo card gets rid of.
Which its not supported all that well yet by the game programmers, I feel that a HARDWARE T&L (Transform and Lighting) engine is the PROPER direction to go at this time.
Additonally, where I was shopping for my card, the voodoo 5500 was $50 higher.
$250, which is what I paid for my Prophet 3d DDR-DVI is the most I'd suggest for ANYONE to pay for a video card.
For the curious, the DDR stands for Double Data Rate which is a reference to the memory on the card. This particular card which has the Geforce256 chipset has 32 meg of memory which allows for Truecolor (16.8 million colors) all the way up throuh 1920x1440, and highcolor (65,000) at 2048x1536.
Personally, I use the card at 1280x1024 on a KDS VSi 17 inch monitor. Expect an opinion on this monitor later.
The DVI is a reference to the ability to connect the latest (though still quite expensive) flat panel LCD displays.
I have seen TWO flavors of product boxes for this card, one with Cyberlink's EXCELLENT PowerDVD 2.50 dvd player program bundled, and one with XingDVD included. (2.55 is the current version and should be upgradable from the cyberlink website)
If you have a chance, the PowerDVD is superior. The XingDVD is passable, but I'm spoiled by PowerDVD which I purchased separately quite a while ago.
DVD playback on two different machines I've tested this card in was flawless. The two machines were an Intel Pentium III 450 MHz, as well as an Intel Pentium III 733 MHz
This card has TV-Output, in Super video, and a converter cable for composite (RCA jack)
BEWARE, macrovision copy protection will NOT allow you to make video tape copies of your dvd's (you can try tvtool for an easy way to switch between monitor and tv, or if your monitor supports ultra low frequency.. dual display. Tvtool has a switch for disabling macrovision, I haven't tried it. I own the disc, why do I need to copy it?)
Installation of the card, its drivers, demos and bundled software were extremely easy. Despite the manual being very slim on details.
Windows 98SE, and Windows 2000 both have drivers for this card (win2k on website, not on the cd that came with MY card)
It happily co-existed with my Voodoo card that I mentioned earlier with no conflicts or strange behavior.
It has a VERY easily overclockable core and memory setting built into its driver/utilities.
I wouldn't push that too far, nor do you really NEED to. Its already a fast card.
Other feel good features would have to include the included (thin, it won't get in the way) fan mounted on the card to keep it cool, as well as second source (reference) drivers from Nvidia (the Detonator 3.x drivers are great) just in case anything EVER happens to Guillemot/Hercules that they chose to no longer support this card (VERY unlikely)
The technical demos that came with the card are definately eye candy, the demo games are there, nothing spectacular.
Do you really want to pay for full version games without manuals? or get a great video card you won't need to replace next month?
If you have a good PCI card, put this one next to it and have the best of both worlds. If your just looking for ONE great card at a price less than $400 for the Geforce2 64 meg versions. So yes, there ARE better cards, but THIS is a great card for what your paying.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 250 + tax
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Epinions.com ID:
caffeine68
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Member: William Austin
Location: Mansfield, OH
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 1 member
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