3D Prophet 9600 256 MB review

Graphics cards 1047 Page 2 of 14 Published by

teaser

Page 2 - Bundled Stuff and Card layout

Before we go a bit more in-to detail let me specify what you'll find in the retail package.  Of course, the 3D Prophet Radeon 9600, Svideo to composite cable, PowerDVD XP 4.0 full version (2-channel), Driver CD, and the manual. As you can see, do not be expecting miracles software wise. These are the basics and nothing more than that. It's handled that way to keep the price down.

 

DSC03355T.jpgThe gadgets inside the box.

System Requirements:

  • A 300 Watt power supply or greater is recommended to ensure normal system operation when a number of other internal devices are installed.
  • Pentium® 4/III/II/Celeron, AMD® Athlon® /K6 or compatible with AGP 8X/4X/2X slot
  • 128MB of system memory (ironic huh?)
  • 10MB hard disk space (more to install games)
  • CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
  • DVD playback requires DVD drive
  • Win 2000, Win ME, Win XP

When we take a closer look at the board, we can notice that Hercules certainly did not forget why their products are so popular. The design of the PCB is again nicely chilled blue, based upon ATI's reference design Radeon 9600 though. Notice that the 0.13µ graphics core is cooled with a copper active fan, and the memory of course with ramsinks. These ramsinks are glued so tightly to the memory that I didn't dare to remove them, so to not damage them. So I can't get you info on what type off memory was used. Furthermore we can make note of the fact that will not have to hook this graphics card up towards your power supply, it will feed nicely off of your AGP port.

DSC03362T.jpg

As you can see from the photo's the Hercules build a PCB very close the the reference design. As explained the Radeon 9600 has a 128-bit memory bus, contrary to the normal Radeon 9600.

As stated on the previous page the graphics core of the product runs at 325 MHz and it's memory (which is the limiting factor) only runs at 2x200 (2x) MHz with suspected 5ns memory. The Pro model for example runs at 2.8ns 2x300 with it's graphics core at 400 MHz.

The design is clean, good. On the frontside we'll find CRT/SVideo out and DVi-I connectors.

Share this content
Twitter Facebook Reddit WhatsApp Email Print