Systems setup
Hardware
- Hercules 3D Prophet 9800XT Classic - 256MB- 412/730
- Crucial Radeon 9800 Pro - 128MB - 380/680
- ASUS V9950 GeForce FX 5900 Ultra - 256MB - 450/850
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+, 2000MHz
- Biostar K8NHA Pro NVIDIA nForce3 150 motherboard
- Corsair XMS3500C2, 2 x 256MB, 2-2-2-6
- Samcheer 420w PSU
- Zalman 7000Cu S754/478 cooler
- IBM 120GXP 40GB Hard Drive
- Dell P991 19" flat-faced CRT monitor
Software
- Windows XP Professional w/SP1
- ATI CATALYST 3.9
- Detonator FX 52.16
- NVIDIA 3.13 driver set
- DirectX 9.0a Runtime
- 3DMark 2001SE v330
- 3DMark03 v340
- AquaMark3
- Serious Sam 2 (SDC demo, quality)
- Unreal Tournament 2003 Retail (patched up to 2225) (HEXUS custom demo)
- X2: The Threat Rolling Demo
- Tiger Woods 2004 (HEXUS custom best shot)
Notes
We're being kind by comparing Hercules' 9800XT effort against two cards that it should be faster than. The 9800 Pro is the card it replaced as ATI's head honcho. The ASUS V9950 GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB card is a decent example of NVIDIA's NV35 architecture. It has been recently superceded by the FX 5950, but it remains a high-end card.
2D quality
Decent quality from the 3D Prophet in both DVI and standard analogue. No problems to report on this account.
Noise
The reference fan was pretty quiet to my ears. The 3D Prophet 9800XT doesn't enjoy the benefits of ASUS' excellent SmartDoctor 2 fan-monitoring and manipulation software, but we feel as if it doesn't need it. The fan produces a whoosh more than a screech. It would only be noticed in the quietest of systems. Perhaps Hercules was wise to copy ATI's design to the letter.
3D image quality
Drivers
The Catalyst 3.9 drivers, used here for testing, reputedly introduce usable OVERDRIVE technology (dynamic overclocking) into the mix.
Enabling OVERDRIVE technology would, according the Hercules' 3D Tweaker, push up the core speed to a lofty 445MHz whilst keeping memory speed at the default 365MHz. Disabling it would cause the card to fall back to default speeds. It's designed to vary with the GPU's temperature, but we couldn't get it to produce anything other than a 445MHz GPU core speed. Interesting.
Overclocking
The sample card was tested against AquaMark3 set to 1600x1200x32 with 4x AA and 8x AF. A final, stable overclock of 450MHz core and 770MHz memory was reached. It's not quite clear as to why the card's memory doesn't quite hit 800MHz. We guess Hercules is playing around with memory voltages.
Comparative specs.
| >Hercules 3D Prophet 9800XT 256MB | Crucial Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB | ASUS V9950 GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB | |
| GPU | R360 | R350 | NV35 |
| Transistor count | ~107m | ~107m | ~130m ? |
| Manufacturing process (micron) | 0.15 | 0.15 | 0.13 |
| Pixel pipelines | 8 | 8 | 4/8 |
| Memory bus width | 256-bit DDR | 256-bit DDR | 256-bit DDR |
| Texturing units per pipe | 1 | 1 | 1/2 |
| Core clock | 412MHz | 380MHz | 450MHz |
| Memory clock | 730MHz | 680MHz | 850MHz |
| Pixel fillrate | ~2000 Mpixels /sec. | 1600 Mpixels / sec. | 1800/3600 Mpixels / sec. |
| Texture fillrate | 3296 Mpixels /sec. | 3040 Mpixels / sec. | 1800/3600 Mpixels / sec. |
| Memory bandwidth | 23.36GB/s | 21.76GB/s | 27.20GB/s |
| RAMDACs | 2 x 400MHz | 2 x 400MHz | 2 x 400MHz |
| Estimated cost | £375 | £250 | £325 |
