Thoughts
It's difficult to lose with any card based on the R360 design. The technology has been improved over time since the inception of the Radeon 9700 Pro. We know it works and it works well. 412MHz GPU and 730MHz DDR speeds help, obviously, to push its performance above the incumbent 9800 Pro. But we're left very slightly deflated. The 9800XT design isn't really all that different from the 9700 Pro that's been around for well over a year now.. Yes, it's faster, but most of the performance increase has come through raising frequencies and not from smarter architecture. It's also no wonder that a huge slab of copper is required to cool the 0.15-micron beast of a GPU.
Hercules sought to use the reference Radeon 9800XT design to the letter. We have almost identical component placement and an identical cooler. That's not a bad thing per se, it's just unexciting for a company that's known to push the design envelope at times. The 3D Prophet 9800XT Classic, by inference, has to be a decent card. Build quality is first class in ever regard. It's kind of subjective but it feels like a far more expensive card than a regular 9800 Pro. Performance was as expected, that is, it was a few notches above the 9800 Pro and NVIDIA FX 5900 Ultra. On a hardware note, it was nice to see 256MB of 2.5ns memory. No VIVO capability did detract from its overall attractiveness, though.
After seeing what ASUS has done with its 9800XT card and package, Hercules' bundle seems meagre in comparison. There's only a coupon for Half-Life 2, redeemable some time next year. There's not much else from a gaming perspective. We expect a bundle jam-packed with goodies if we're shelling out £375, really. The problem with the 3D Prophet 9800XT Classic, and every other 9800XT card for that matter, is price. One can purchase a standard 128MB-equipped 9800 Pro that performs to within a few percent of an 9800XT for £240. Users are asked to fork out a 50%+ premium for little real gain. That's what makes it hard to recommend. It cannot really be justified if the owner currently has a 9700 / 9800 Pro card. The 9800XT doesn't offer enough over and above what they do. Potential buyers looking for a first-time high-end card also face a similar problem. Why not go for the substantially cheaper 9800 Pro and spend the £140 saving on other system parts ?.
It's these kind of factors that will plague any 9800XT model. Hercules' is a sound one. It does exactly what it says in the box and is quiet in doing so. If you've got a spare £370 or so and absolutely must have the best consumer-level graphics card, the Hercules 3D Prophet 9800XT Classic isn't a bad choice. However, it doesn't do anything special to make it a must-have product. It'll sell, but there's plenty of manufacturers who now want a piece of the high-end pie. A good, solid card that's a little boring.
