A supposedly great new card, the Hercules Prophet 4500 64mb graphics card may not work on your computer. I know that this is the Prophet 34mb category, but this review is only to give some advance warning for those of us who want more 3D power for the new cool games, but know very little about graphics cards. Read the following in case you are having problems with this card, or if you were thinking of purchasing one. Remember, this is not really a review, since I never really got a chance to see what this card could do. This is advise, which may or may not be relevant for other cards, from other manufacturers, that you are shopping for.

If you’re having difficulties with your new Hercules 4500 64mb graphics card (fuzzy picture, degrading horizontal lines, etc.), it may be that your AGP bus is incompatible, i.e., you have version 1, not version 2. (Essentially, an AGP bus is a slot in the back of the computer that allows for better graphics.) A Hercules rep, who seemed occupied with other matters, pointed out the possible incompatibility issue to me after we did all the usual reinstallation of drivers and deleting of the old ones to no avail. If you are fairly computer literate, but you don’t know your AGP bus version number, go to www.downloads.com and download a free diagnostics program called si soft (use the search to find it). Within that program, open the “main board info” to reveal your computer’s AGP bus version. If you have version 1, take back the card. It just won’t work. That’s what happened to me. (Bummer, cause the card came with Myst III, which I became addicted to!) I have a Dell Pentium III; 700mhz; Win98. Good luck.

Update: I took back the card, bought the Radeon 64mb card from ATI (online--I forgot from whom), and am very happy with it. The card is, of course, compatible with AGP bus versions 1 and 2. Ciao.


Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 160