SURREY - November 8th 2002 – Hercules is proud to announce that the 3D Prophet 9700 will come with an exciting software bundle, including the full retail version of the recently released No One Lives Forever 2: A spy in H.A.R.M.’s way™. This time around, we find Cate Atcher, the sexiest spy in video game history, battling her sworn enemies in the international H.A.R.M. syndicate and a horrific project that could bring about a third World War. Widely considered one of the best Quake-like First Person Shooters, No One Lives Forever 2 combines exceptional playability with caustic humour (tons of wild new weapons to discover), as well as highly impressive fluidity and graphics quality.

3D Prophet 9700 features future-proof 3D architecture which enables full hardware acceleration of the latest APIs (Application Program Interfaces) – Microsoft’s DirectX® 9 and OpenGL® – to help reach new levels of realism in current and future games. The boards build on ATI’s most recent 3D innovations (SMARTSHADER™ 2.0 with programmable Pixel Shaders 2.0 & Vertex Shaders 2.0, TRUFORM™ 2.0 and DirectX®9 Displacement Mapping), employing SMOOTHVISION™ 2.0 technology for 2X/4X/8X/16X anisotropic filtering and 2X/4X/6X FSAA mode. The end result is perfect image quality with no graphics artifacts whatsoever.

“The launch of the new 3D Prophet 9700 board and the No One Lives Forever 2 game bundle reaffirms Hercules’ commitment to producing the best customized graphics accelerators on the market, employing ATI technology”, says Danny Jack, Product Manager at Hercules. “As the number of hardcore gamers continues to grow exponentially, new games are naturally making use of all the latest 3D features available, and to experience these innovations in all their glory, PCs must be updated with the right equipment. Hercules’ continuing mission is to offer gamers the very best 3D technology combined with industry-leading, dependable designs and manufacturing standards for maximum processing power.“

In this spirit, 3D Prophet 9700 delivers unparalleled performance, generating extremely high frame rates with optimal fluidity in geometrically and texture-heavy games. Plus, thanks to CATALYST™ drivers, gamers can look forward to stable, high-speed performance with regular updates and improvements.

3D Prophet 9700 is based on ATI RADEON™ 9700 architecture, featuring:
· 8-pixel pipeline architecture, clocked at 275MHz
· Microsoftâ DirectX 9 hardware acceleration, processed by 8 Pixel Shader
engines and 4 Vertex Shader engines
· An impressive 256-bit DDR memory interface, optimised by ATI HyperZ™III
intelligent memory bandwidth-saving technology.

3D Prophet 9700 is ideal for hardcore First Person Shooter gamers. It offers unsurpassed stability even at the highest clock speeds, thanks to a unique copper-base cooling fan and complete heatsink coverage (RAM and back of the CPU). Copper’s high thermal conductivity ensures phenomenal heat dissipation and acceleration potential. Furthermore, Hercules’ silent fan (<28 dB) also delivers the performance needed to ensure stability without generating distracting noise from the fan to help keep things cool.

The 3D Prophet 9700 provides cutting-edge video and multimedia support, thanks to advanced hardware technology and PowerDVD 4.0XP, which also comes bundled with the board. Separate VGA, DVI-I and TV outputs, combined with VIDEOSHADER™ technology, enable enhanced DVD playback on CRT and flat panel monitors or a TV set. Moreover, FULLSTREAM™ features provide superior Internet video streaming, while HYDRAVISION™ allows for easy dual-screen display on any combination of outputs.

Availability:
3D Prophet 9700 will be available from the end of November 2002 and will be priced at £299.99 including VAT.