There was once a time when 3dfx ruled the 3D accelerator market, but the slow release of new technology led to its recent demise at the hands of NVIDIA. However, despite 3dfx's fall from grace, the other main underdog, VideoLogic, was even further behind in the 3D accelerator market, and even the recent KYRO-based card (see next page) was well behind the times. However, unlike 3dfx, it has battled on to release another chipset, based on STMicroelectronics' innovative Tile Based Rendering technology. The low cost and solid performance of the KYRO II chipset has enticed Hercules to adopt it as an alternative to its NVIDIA portfolio. But unlike expensive cards, like the Leadtek WinFast GeForce3 TD, the budget placing of the 3D Prophet 4500 means that it's pitched more directly against NVIDIA's GeForce2 MX and ATi's Radeon cards.

The KYRO II is a Tile Based Renderer, like the original KYRO. The offshoot of this is that the 3D Prophet 4500 can handle complex scenes, without suffering from bandwidth limitations stemming from the use of SDR memory. This rendering method also means higher processing efficiency, and the new processing algorithms in KYRO II have enhanced this further.

This technological sleight-of-hand is one of the elements that allows KYRO II to perform FSAA or full scene anti-aliasing with much less of a performance drop compared to cards that render every pixel in a scene.

In 3DMark2001 the bar has clearly been raised to accommodate the advanced features of DirectX 8-compatible cards, which immediately puts the DirectX 7-based 3D Prophet 4500 at a disadvantage. This is highlighted by the relatively low score of 1,826 at 1,024 x 768 in 32-bit colour - way behind DirectX 8 cards, such as the Leadtek WinFast GeForce3 TD, which scored an impressive 4,498.
DirectX 7 performance in 3DMark2000 at the same resolution and colour depth was much better, with a score of 4,632. As the KYRO II chip doesn't have an integrated T&L (Transformation and Lighting) engine, this performance is all the more impressive. This puts the 3D Prophet 4500 in the same league as ATi's Radeon VIVO (see Labs, issue 79), which scored 4,802 and GeForce2 GTS cards such as the Absolute Multimedia Outrageous GeForce2 GTS (see Labs, issue 79), which scored 4,692.

Quake III provides a real-world measure of 3D performance using OpenGL. The 3D Prophet 4500 impressed again, scoring 80.4fps (frames per second) at 1,024 x 768 in 32-bit colour, pushing it ahead of the Radeon VIVO which scored 74.1fps. Performance at higher resolutions was also good, scoring 50.4fps at 1,280 x 1,024 vs the Radeon VIVO's 44.7fps. Finally, at 1,600 x 1,200 the ATi card closed the gap, with both cards tied at 34fps. This is all the more impressive considering the high memory bandwidth requirements at 1,600 x 1,200 in 32-bit colour - proving that the KYRO II's efficient rendering techniques really work.
Optimum high-resolution performance seemed to occur at 1,280 x 1,024 in 16-bit colour, where the card reached 53.4fps. Image quality at this setting is also good, thanks in part to the KYRO II's Internal True Colour, which renders everything internally in 32-bit colour before dithering to 16-bit.

The Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 is an excellent budget card. However, it isn't a card for those looking to future-proof their systems. It doesn't sport T&L, like the Radeon and the GeForce2 family, and is strictly a DirectX 7 card, lacking hardware support for DirectX 8 software.

The Hercules 3D Prophet 4500's main competition in terms of price comes
from GeForce2 MX-based cards and ATi's SDR Radeon. However, the 3D Prophet
4500 is well above these in terms of performance, being more closely matched by GeForce2 GTS-based cards, which currently cost around $300 more. If you're looking for a good, low-cost DirectX 7 card then the 3D Prophet 4500 is unmatched at the price. It may not provide the raw power and advanced features of the Leadtek GeForce3, but considering it costs around half the price, it's performance is superb.

Kenneth Henry