DriverHeaven Hercules 9800 Pro REVIEW

Overclocking:
As mentioned earlier Hercules have provided an overclocking utility on the disc that accompanies the card. The utility is small, has all the functionality anyone would need and features a simple user interface.

Overclocking is a case of clicking the right hand arrow on the sliders or clicking and dragging the lighter part of the slider until you reach the desired speed. After you have chosen that speed clicking “Test” ensures there are no errors and the card is stable. Finally clicking “Apply” saves the overclock. The overclocking software also has a handy failsafe. Should you overclock the card too much and the system hangs or reboots, the next time you enter windows the tweaker opens a prompt explaining that the overclock was too high and it asks if you would you like to return to default speeds.

Using the Hercules 3D Tweaker I was able to reach a stable overclock of 425hmz core (11% increase) and 365mhz ram (7% increase). This is how the overclock changed the performance of the card:

UNREAL TOURNAMENT

1600X1200 6xAA 16xAF

1600X1200 6xAA 16xAF (OC)

In UT 2003 at maximum settings the flyby moved from 91fps to 96fps a change of 5fps (6 %), considering the settings used this is a hefty boost in performance. Botmatch performance increased by 4% again a respectable increase.

3dmark 03 (1024x768 0xAA 0xAF)

Speed	Score
380/340	5419
425/365	5948

The overclock caused a much more noticeable performance improvement in 3dmark at default settings. The increase of 529 points was 9%.

Conclusion:
The Hercules 3D Prophet 9800 Pro has completely impressed me, I have thought long and hard to try and fault the card and if I’m being really hard the fact that it’s more expensive than a built by ATI card is a fault. However, if you look at the aesthetics of the card and the truly excellent bundle this is one of the rare cases in hardware sales that the extra money is worth investing. If you’re a power user who modifies their PC case with cathodes and a case window’s there is no other card on the market that would fit in better. When using the card for every day tasks such as watching DVD’s the excellent display quality we have come to associate with ATI’s chipsets was present here. For games provided you have a reasonable CPU you can set all graphic settings to their maximum and not have to be concerned with slowdowns or stuttering. It was a truly great experience to just max out Unreal Tournament 2003 and Command and Conquer: Generals, then play with amazing clarity and detail whilst maintaining extremely fast and stable framerates.

If your considering a graphics card upgrade in the near future, or even if your not, I urge you to purchase the 3D Prophet 9800 Pro. It will completely revolutionise and improve your gaming and general PC experience, no matter what card you currently use.