Fast Enough for You?
Written: Dec 26 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast, reliable, great picture quality
Cons: None
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| echan383's Full Review: Hercules 3D Prophet II GTS 32MB |
32 MB of DDR RAM, heat sinks on all the RAM chips, massive heat sink/fan combo, blazing fast speed, and super picture quality… who could ask for more? Well, there wasn’t anything on the market that could surpass this bad boy when it first came out, and there are only a few cards that can beat this thing now.
Like all the new Nvidia chipsets, the GeForce2 GTS incorporates a Graphics Processing Unit, or GPU. It’s like a miniature CPU on your graphics board which handles all the functions of drawing 3D objects and rendering them. There are typically four portions to rendering a 3D image: transform, lighting, texture, and color. On older graphics cards transform (moving pixels from one point to another) and lighting were handled by the computer’s CPU, which slowed many processes down. But now with the implementation of the GPU, the graphics card carries almost all the weight of graphics processing, leaving the CPU free to speed up the rest of the game.
Another unique feature that is found only on the GeForce line of cards is the Double Data Rate (DDR) RAM. Armed with 32 MB of this special RAM, the GeForce2 processes operations twice as fast as cards with normal RAM. Thus, it can run at a higher (total) clock speed than other cards. A handy feature that is apparent on only the Hercules 3D Prophet II GTS is the heat sinks on the RAM chips- these help dissipate excess heat, and keep the card from frying itself. If you wanted to overclock your 3D Prophet II, you could do so with much more confidence, since overclocking increases the heat output of the card.
To top it all off, the 3D Prophet II GTS supports resolutions of up to 2048x1600, and 32-bit color, with astounding clarity and bright pictures. If there’s anything wrong with this card, I’ve yet to experience it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 245
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Epinions.com ID:
echan383
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Member: Eric Chan
Location: Lexington, MA USA
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Music. Computers. Reading. These things I enjoy.
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