The Hercules name is synonymous with quality and reliability, as well as blue-coloured graphics cards. Based around NVIDIA's new budget graphics chipset, the GeForce2 Titanium, the Hercules 3D Prophet II Titanium is Guillemot's latest offering, and it too is blue in colour.

The Hercules Prophet II did not perform quite as well as the other similarly classed cards, with an overall composite result of 1.50. That said, the benchmark results posted across all the tests were what's expected from a GeForce2 Ti-based card. With a score of 4,168 3DMarks in the standard 1,024 3DMark2001 test, and 57.5fps in the High Quality 1,024 Q3A test, this card will perform admirably in any current gaming environment.

Despite tailing behind only slightly in speed, with the Hercules you are guaranteed a sturdy card with rock-solid build quality and a dependable name behind it. In terms of extra features, the Prophet II does not come with a lot; there's a TV-out and composite port for extra connectivity, some software utilities and a software DVD player. Basically, Hercules is now riding on the good name that its history has created, which does not translate into the best performance in this month's Labs, but can be considered valuable where dependability is concerned.