Overclocking
A GeForce3 review wouldn't be quite the same if I didn't try to overclock the card. I don't want to disappoint people so here it is GeForce3 Ti 500 overclocking.The Hercules Ti 500 is equipped with some pretty chunky heatsinks to start with, but to help keep the core that bit. cooler some arctic silver thermal compound was applied to the blue orb cooler. On installing "Coolbits" registry file to allow overclocking it became apparent that there was lots of scope for overclocking, the sliders go all the way up to 300MHz for the core and 625MHz for the memory. After a bit of benchmarking and a few lockups I eventually got the card stable at 270MHz core and 590MHz memory.
At this speed the card was very stable so I ran a number of benchmarks to see the difference that it made.
3DMark 2001
Max Payne
| 640*480 | 800*600 | 1024*768 | 1280*1024 | 1600*1200 | |
| Default | 109.7 | 98.6 | 83.2 | 69.8 | 53.5 |
| Overclocked | 112.5 | 104.6 | 88.5 | 73.8 | 59.8 |
Quake3
| Quake 3 | 640*480 | 800*600 | 1024*768 | 1280*1024 | 1600*1200 |
| EHQ Default | 188.3 | 185.5 | 170.4 | 132.3 | 97.4 |
| EHQ Overclocked | 188.6 | 186.7 | 176.8 | 145.3 | 111.3 |
The Old Versus The New
The main difference between the original GeForce3 and the new GeForce3 Ti 500 is the frequency of the memory and the core. To see what this offers in terms of performance gains in today's games I ran a couple of benchmarks first using a normal GeForce3 and then using the new GeForce3 Ti 500.
Quake3
| Quake3 | 640*480 | 800*600 | 1024*768 | 1280*1024 | 1600*1200 |
| GeForce3 Ti 500 | 188.3 | 185.5 | 170.4 | 132.3 | 97.4 |
| GeForce3 | 187.1 | 182.5 | 159.8 | 118.3 | 85.1 |
One final benchmark showing how the old GeForce 3 performs against the new GeForce3 Ti 500
| 3DMark 2001 | 640*480 | 800*600 | 1024*768 | 1280*1024 | 1600*1200 |
| GeForce3 Ti 500 | 8862 | 8481 | 7740 | 6565 | 5310 |
| GeForce3 | 8830 | 7986 | 7242 | 5924 | 4627 |
As you can see there is a difference between the two cards but not a huge margin. If you already have a GeForce 3 the difference you will get by upgrading to the Ti 500 is fairly limited, besides the new hardware features, which aren't implemented in any games yet, to my knowledge.
If you look at the actual difference in speed in percentage terms between the old GeForce3 model and the newer Ti500 the differences become more apparent.
In Quake 3 the percentage difference between the original GeForce3 and the Ti 500 FPS is pretty small, the table below shows the percentage difference.
| Resolution | GeForce3 | GeForce3 Ti 500 | % Difference |
| 640*480 | 187.1 | 188.3 | 0.65% |
| 800*600 | 182.5 | 185.5 | 1.65% |
| 1024*768 | 159.8 | 170.4 | 6.65% |
| 1280*1024 | 118.3 | 132.3 | 11.85% |
| 1600*1200 | 85.1 | 97.4 | 14.5% |
In 3DMark 2001 the percentage difference between the original GeForce3 and the Ti 500 scores shows the same sort of story as in the Quake 3 results above. Its only in the higher resolutions that the extra speed starts to make any noticeable difference to the results.
| Resolution | GeForce3 | GeForce3 Ti 500 |
% Difference |
| 640*480 | 8830 | 8862 | 0.37% |
| 800*600 | 7986 | 8481 | 6.20% |
| 1024*768 | 7242 | 7740 | 6.90% |
| 1280*1024 | 5924 | 6565 | 10.80% |
| 1600*1200 | 4627 | 5310 | 14.80% |
A maximum gain of just short of 15% in the highest resolution and in the lower resolutions the benchmark gains a tiny 0.37% advantage with the Ti 500. When you look at the results in percentage terms like this they seem pretty small, and to be honest if you already have a GeForce3 there really is not much point in getting the Ti 500.
Conclusion
Well Hercules have done it again they have produced a very solid graphics card based on Nvidia's latest graphics processor. Whether I would buy a Ti 500 card is still up for debate though. The GeForce3 Ti 200 is available for around 100 less, and offers all the hardware features of the Ti 500, the only difference being slower core and memory speed.
The Hercules 3D Prophet III Titanium 500 is the graphics card to have if you crave the ultimate in speed and visual quality. If your on a budget go for the GeForce 3 Ti 200. If you already have a GeForce3 then stick with it there really isn't much point in changing for the minimal performance gains you will achieve. If you are some overclocking junky who just cant resist the latest hardware and the highest benchmark figures then get one now but otherwise I wouldn't consider a Ti 500 unless I was still using a GeForce 2 or lower card.
If your still using an older card, a TNT2 or GeForce 1 then its a very worthwhile upgrade to the GeForce3 Ti cards. The decision is yours but either way you cant go wrong with the Hercules range of GeForce Ti cards. As I have said before its just a matter of time before new features are implemented in games and applications. The Ti range of cards will see you well into next year before Nvidia bring something bigger and better out. Lets look forward to the future with more realistic computer graphics and realistic animated people.
