Review: Hercules 3D Prophet II PRO (7/7)

Conclusion

All in all, the PRO can't distance itself enough from the GTS 64 to justify the extra cost. Partly, this is caused by the already high memory clockspeed of the GTS 64. Sounds like competition from within the ranks... This begs the question: Why introduce a PRO version in the first place? Hercules claims that the GTS 64 will be sold out by Christmas, so that they won't have to compete against each other for market share. If they say so...

If you already own a GTS or a GeForce DDR, an upgrade to the GeForce 2 PRO isn't going to be worth you money. While the performance advantages of the GTS 64 and the PRO look impressive on paper (or in HTML, as the case may be), the real-world performance isn't that much better than what you've already got. If you've made up your mind that it simply has to be a 64 MB card, then you're probably better off with the PRO - 400MHz is better than 366MHz or 333MHz. If you're planning to overclock, it's a different story. In that case you might have more luck with the GTS 64, due to the PRO's strange overclocking behavior.

If you're looking for a noticeable performance boost over a 32MB GeForce GTS, your only option is shelling out lots of money for the frightfully expensive GeForce2 Ultra. Or you could wait one or two months until the specifications for NVIDIA's new chip, the NV20, become officially available. It looks like this chip is going to offer the performance jump you're waiting for.

For current games you don't really need 64MB of graphics memory. Aside from the higher clockspeed, you don't gain anything from the additional memory, unless you want to run FSAA at very high settings. It remains to be seen whether newer games will take advantage of 64MB of memory, but for now, a 32MB GeForce 2 GTS card is more than sufficient. And you will get an additional improvement when Herclues is releasing Detonator 3 based drivers.

Rating

92%
Power: 92% Accessories: 90% Features: 92% Recomended sales price: DM 1049,-
Good 3D Performance TV-Out Good cooling TV-Out comfort (No DualView and Overscan) bad driver functionality No games bundle Expensive very limited overclockability*

* has to be checked out

Overall results graphics cards:

Explanation of the rating system

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Author of this article: Lars "Borsti"Weinand, 03.11.2000

Translation by Benjamin Kraft!

Copyright: 03.11.2000 -   RIVA Station 2000 - Lars Weinand
No Copy without Permission!

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