***Kyro II bench results***

[sash1]

Okay, before the Xabre arrives, and before this card completely dies, I figured I would OC it one last time and do some results. Why? Because I see way too many people bragging about DX9 capabilites. Well here is a DX7 card that can still compete, albiet not well, but all this considered, it's still a decent card

Test Setup:
P4 3.06GHz
ASUS P4SDX (SiS 655)
512Gb DDR (Corsair XMS PC2700)
Creative Labs Audigy2
SeaGate 80Gb HDD

Kyro II 64Mb SDR (Hercules Prophet 4500) w/ 16.055 drivers set on Windows 2000
Original Clock Speed: 175/175
Overclocked speed: 228/228

This is a parhelia system, but I decided to put mah Kyro II in it for the purposes of this test!

Tests:
3DMark2001 SE (Default settings)
UT 2003 (Flyby--Botmatch)
Serious Sam II
Quake III (high quality)
Villagemark (D3D)

3dMark:
Total Score: 4816

UT 2003: Flyby--botmatch
800x600: 77.9--54.8
1024x768: 52.7--36.4
1280x960: 35.9--25.2
1600x1200: 23.9--18.1

Serious Sam II:
800x600: 146.4
1024x768: 96.5
1280x960: 57.3
1600x1200: 39.7

Quake III:
800x600: 205.3
1024x768: 136.4
1280x960: 83.9
1600x1200: 58.2

VillageMark (D3D): per Lonyo's request--Using the system in my sig
1024x768: 132fps

Yeh, so my crappy Kyro II can still play games at a decent resolution and decent frame-rate. Too bad it's dying, and overclocking it probably didn't help much, but oh well, as soon as the Xabre comes, this thing can say hello to the trash can

Enjoy,

~Aunix

 

[BFG10K]

but oh well, as soon as the Xabre comes

Why on earth are you putting such abymsal video cards into such a powerful system?

Yeh, so my crappy Kyro II can still play games at a decent resolution and decent frame-rate.

Not really since UT2003 is unplayable even at 800 x 600 (the flyby doesn't really count).

 

[sash1]

"Why on earth are you putting such abymsal video cards into such a powerful system?"

I'm not, its going into the system in my rig. My parhelia is going back into that system

"Not really since UT2003 is unplayable even at 800 x 600 (the flyby doesn't really count)."

Well, it gets ~50fps on botmatch. I can stand to play this game. Mebbe not you , but I dun really game much. Older games are much more fun than newer ones, IMO.

~Aunix

 

[holdencommodore]

Did you volt mod the card to overclock it so much?

I still like my Kyro II, plays most stuff fine. New drivers are in development to fix some game compatibilty issues. No word on release date yet.

Cheers

 

[THUGSROOK]

thats overclocked?
id hate to see the stock scores :Q

 

[EdipisReks]

Originally posted by: AunixM3
"Why on earth are you putting such abymsal video cards into such a powerful system?"

I'm not, its going into the system in my rig. My parhelia is going back into that system

i don't know, thats a tough decision

 

[holdencommodore]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
thats overclocked?
id hate to see the stock scores :Q

The Kyro doesn't gain massive increases with overclocking... almost all Kyro II's fail to overclock above 200MHz.

Cheers

 

[nemesismk2]

I could only overclock my Videologic Kyro 2 to 195mhz but I was happy with that, the Kyro 2 was a great video card which served me well. The Kyro 2 SE however was just rubbish, shame on them for even trying to release it.

Hopefully they can get the Kyro 4 released some time this year!

 

[sash1]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2
I could only overclock my Videologic Kyro 2 to 195mhz but I was happy with that, the Kyro 2 was a great video card which served me well. The Kyro 2 SE however was just rubbish, shame on them for even trying to release it.

Hopefully they can get the Kyro 4 released some time this year!

Woah! They actually released the Kyro II SE? Where was I?

/me is definitely looking forward to Kyro IV. Mebbe I'll go talk to Teasy to see if he knows more.

Originally posted by: holdencommodore
I still like my Kyro II, plays most stuff fine. New drivers are in development to fix some game compatibilty issues. No word on release date yet.

Cheers

I thought they were gonna stop making drivers for teh Kyro II? Guess I was wrong... again

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
thats overclocked?
id hate to see the stock scores :Q

Haha! Yeah, it's about a 10-15% gain overclocked, so that'll give you the gist of how it'll perform at stock speeds.

Originally posted by: EdipisReks

Originally posted by: AunixM3
"Why on earth are you putting such abymsal video cards into such a powerful system?"

I'm not, its going into the system in my rig. My parhelia is going back into that system

i don't know, thats a tough decision

Nice linkability there Edipis

fixed link

~Aunix

 

[Elcs]

My Kyro II still shines.

That polish works well methinks.

I thought the Kyro III was due out before the IV. Ah well, shows how smart i am

 

[sash1]

Originally posted by: Elcs
I thought the Kyro III was due out before the IV. Ah well, shows how smart i am

The Kyro III was dropped because STMicro left

~Aunix

 

[Elcs]

Wow. When did that happen?

What rock was i under when that was announced?

 

[sash1]

Originally posted by: Elcs
Wow. When did that happen?

What rock was i under when that was announced?

It happened a while ago. Dunno exactly when, but early (?) last year sometime.

~Aunix

 

[Lonyo]

Anyone got links to Kyro IV info, I wouldn't mind finding something out about it.

 

[BFG10K]

My parhelia is going back into that system

That's like going out of the fire and back into the frying pan.

 

[nemesismk2]

Woah! They actually released the Kyro II SE? Where was I?

They only released the Kyro 2 SE to a small number of people, mostly owners of PowerVR related websites. However they quickly found out that the Kyro 2 SE software t&l was rubbish and gave little or no performance gain.

There was a few reviews of the Hercules 4800 ie Kyro 2 SE but all have been removed at the request from Hercules. Soon after Hercules got into bed with ATI and it was all downhill from there.

This was one of the Hercules 4800 reviews!

 

[nemesismk2]

Originally posted by: BFG10K

My parhelia is going back into that system

That's like going out of the fire and back into the frying pan.

The Parhelia isn't that bad, the only problem with it is the price. For the price of a Parhelia you can get a Radeon 9700 Pro (uk prices not sure about the us prices for the Parhelia).

 

[Lonyo]

AunixM3 do you think you could run VillageMark on that system (from the PowerVR website). I wouldn't mind comparing my 1900+, GF 4 to a P4 3GHz and Kyro 2 at deferred rendering.

I get 121 D3D and 114 in OGL.
TIA if you can.

 

[sash1]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
AunixM3 do you think you could run VillageMark on that system (from the PowerVR website). I wouldn't mind comparing my 1900+, GF 4 to a P4 3GHz and Kyro 2 at deferred rendering.

I get 121 D3D and 114 in OGL.
TIA if you can.

I just ran it. Had to use the system in my rig (you can check it out--it's a Duron 1.3, 384Mb DDR, k7s5a, etc.) If you want I can run it on my p4 system, but you can just add a few fps to that score to get the feeling

~Aunix

 

[Lonyo]

Hold crap, that's higher than mine by quite a bit. I did 1024 as well. Either my system really underperforms ( I think it kinda does generally) or someone really needs to start work on HSR and optimising the nVidia/ATi cards!

Oh, and thanks a lot

 

[nRollo]

"Well here is a DX7 card that can still compete"
Aunix, you fool. Don't you know a card has to be DX9 compatible now, because there are so many games using the DX9 features now????

(you know I'm kidding I assume)

"My parhelia is going back into that system
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's like going out of the fire and back into the frying pan. "

BFG10K: Maybe he actually uses his computer for something other than gaming? Like work? I don't think anyone disputes the Parhelia has the best 2d image quality available, and maybe he looks at his display enough not to want a 9700 or GF FX?

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Yeah but at like $350-550 the Parhelia is very very very niche if all you care about is 2D IQ of which ATI is right up there and the point is null if you throw DVI into the mix. I don't think anyone can say that they are not at least the tiniest bit dissapointed with the results of the Parhelia. At the time it seemed like it was going to offer some stiff competition for the GeForce 4 Ti which if it did live up to that expectation it would certainly be a far more popular product.

BTW, I would also like to see some Kyro 4 specs, even very rumored ones. Last I heard the Kyro 3 was to be similar to a GeForce 3 but with TBR... certainly an interesting thought.

 

[K63]

I have the Parhelia and I'd suffice to call it a pretty pricy very much all-arounder card.

The best mutlimonitor and 2d and an excellent balance between pro apps and gaming. For my purposes as an engineering student and VERY occasional gamer, nothing even comes close.

If I ever do upgrade, the only thing that could motivate me to would be Parhelia2.

 

[holdencommodore]

Originally posted by: nemesismk2

Woah! They actually released the Kyro II SE? Where was I?

They only released the Kyro 2 SE to a small number of people, mostly owners of PowerVR related websites. However they quickly found out that the Kyro 2 SE software t&l was rubbish and gave little or no performance gain.

There was a few reviews of the Hercules 4800 ie Kyro 2 SE but all have been removed at the request from Hercules. Soon after Hercules got into bed with ATI and it was all downhill from there.

This was one of the Hercules 4800 reviews!

I though it was because ST/Micro announced at the same time that they were exiting the GPU market?

Anyone got links to Kyro IV info, I wouldn't mind finding something out about it.

No links or firm news on the next gen PowerVR tech. It's almost certain that it won't be called "Kyro" though, as that is a STMicro trademark. There have been rumours that PowerVR will produce the chip themselves.


Cheers

 

[nemesismk2]

I though it was because ST/Micro announced at the same time that they were exiting the GPU market?

There is a number of reasons why the Kyro2 SE didn't make it to market according to a Hercules PR employee I talked to at the time:-

1.Not enough of the Kyro2 SE chips ran stable at 200mhz and just going from 175mhz to 200mhz didn't provide much of a speed increase anyway.

2.The so called "enhanced t&l" was worthless, it offered hardly any performance increase and usually resulted in a performance decrease.

3.Most of the new features of the Kyro2 SE were just renamed features already available with the original Kyro 2.

4.The Kyro 2 SE was in all honesty just c*ap, why would anyone want a slightly faster Kyro 2 when most Kyro 2 fans were waiting for the Kyro 3?

5.Hercules did a very sensible thing and started selling products based on ATI chipsets, if they had stuck with the Kyro 2 SE then IMO Hercules would of gone bankrupt ages ago.