Conclusion and Score
Price is of utmost importance when forming a conclusion about this card. Consider the following prices, available from a well known UK hardware vendor.ASUS ATI Radeon 9600XT/TVD - £164.38 inc VAT
Hercules 3D Prophet All-In-Wonder 9800SE - £161.56 inc VAT
Firstly the ASUS 9600XT, yet to ship in quantity I might add, with performance similar to 9800SE as we've established, with VIVO features to allow video capture. Compare that to the 9800SE with the aforementioned performance, the All-In-Wonder feature set (PVR, TV on demand, EASYLOOK etc) the RemoteWonder radio remote and possible chance of software modification to 9800 Pro. If the All-In-Wonder feature set grabs you, there's no contest. Even if you don't really want the All-In-Wonder features and you're in the market for a mid-range card, the Hercules is hard to resist.
The possible softmod on its own is also a valid reason to give the card a try. Even if unsuccessful, which it quite possibly might be, you'll still own a card with excellent mid-range performance, a strong DX9 base and the All-In-Wonder features. The choice of 9800SE variant makes it all possible, giving rise to the memory bandwidth performance that keeps the Hercules competitive with the 9600XT.
I honestly can't think of a more compelling graphics card purchase in recent times. It fits so many possible scenarios. It'll play Half Life 2 and Doom 3 when they appear with good performance, it plays all current games titles just fine with IQ enhancing features enabled to boot. The All-In-Wonder hardware and software bundle just top it off. The price is excellent too.
The only reason for this card not to be top of your mid-range shopping list is if you don't fancy attempting the softmod and would like to rely on the greater pixel pushing power of 9600XT as a guaranteed means of extra performance. Otherwise, 9600XT being late to retail just helps make up my mind, this little board is better.
I can't enthuse enough about the AIW features. EASYLOOK is excellent. The bottom line? Buy one of these before Hercules sell out, then thank me later.
Score
Pro's
Mid-range performanceExcellent All-In-Wonder features
Possible modification to 9800 Pro
Cheap price compared to 9600XT's
Available now (time of writing, early November 2003)
Con's
Not quite as good as 9600XT in raw pixel pushing scenariosThanks
Komplett for the digital camera used to take the shots.Caroline @ Hercules for the sample.
Notes and extra pictures
Get the softmod files from OCFAQ.com, here.The radio receiver
4-pin floppy power connector
The score which we gave this product is indicative of the time the article was published, we understand that Hercules have now changed the memory clocks from 340Mhz to 300Mhz. The product is still a good buy, however clearly the older models are the real golden eggs.
