After three months of waiting and researching I finally bought one. I own the retail version of Hercules's Prophet 4500. Despite the moans and whines of some users, I found if you read the manual and thoroughly deleted your old card's driver files, the Kyro is a painless installation.
Anyway, I've re-installed and tweaked several games and checked their performance. I suppose I am satisfied. (My Kyro 2 replaced a 3dfx Voodoo 2000 AGP).
*Counter-Strike* CS runs like a dream in OpenGL. 72 FPS steady. Type 'fps_max 100' in the console, and the number soars to 99 FPs, steady. All this at 1024x768. With 4x FSAA on, the graphics are amazingly crisp. FPS numbers are superfically good, 50 or so, but press the fire button and that numner drops to 15. Oh well. Playing at 800 x 600 with 4x FSAA looks better than and still runs almost as fast than 1024x768 without FSAA.
*Unreal Tournament* I'm not sure if I'm happy yet with this game. With my Voodoo, I averaged 38-42 FPS @ 1024x768 in Glide, with 11 bots on the map DM-zeto. It looked good and was playable. Now in D3D @ 1024x768 (32 bit colour), I average 45-53 FPS in the same circumstances as before. Granted it looks better in 32bit colour, but I must admit I was hoping for more. I suppose my CPU (Duron 700) might be a problem. I tried FSAA with this game and almost cringed: even with 2x FSAA, the text becomes blurred, but the 'jaggies' are noticably improved. FPS dips to 33-38 range with 2x FSAA.
*Deus Ex* Deus Ex is UT-engine game, but it looks even better than UT. Beautiful colours and textures, right down to the blue in DC Denton's eyes. (Which, ironically, I couldn't see at all with my voodoo)
. I don't know how to operate this game's console, if there is one, so you'll have to trust me when I say it runs smooth.
*Windows* 2d looks as crisp as my voodoo. My monitor is a .24dp running @ 85hz 1024x768.
*In Hindsight* I was also an early purchaser of the voodoo3, years ago. That card was definately a 10/10 in terms of the 'wow factor' back then. The Kyro 2 was a necessary upgrade for me, but it really didn't me eye-popping performance I was hoping. Don't get me wrong, it is an excellent card, but unless you a Voodoo 3 2000 or less, it will not generate a huge jump FPS for you.
Overall:
Performance 8/10. This card was worth it just for the Counter-Strike performance! The 20% boost I got in all my other games was good enough.
Features, Drivers 9/10. The driver lets you creates profiles for your games. Like to play CS with FSAA etc.? Set it and save it as 'CS' in the Display Properties menu, and you recall all those settings changes with one click at any time.
Cost 8/10. This baby cost me $280 CDN after shipping, taxes and 149 US. I'm shaking my head, reading that, but I guess it's better than than the $650 CDN it would cost me to get a Geforce 2 Ultra or 3.
Overall 8.5/10. No bugs, no glitches, solid performance, and a great feature set. Don't be shy, get one.
P.S. check my signature below my system specs. I'm running my card with Hercules's latest driver, posted today.
Sgt. Tequilla
Anyway, I've re-installed and tweaked several games and checked their performance. I suppose I am satisfied. (My Kyro 2 replaced a 3dfx Voodoo 2000 AGP).
*Counter-Strike* CS runs like a dream in OpenGL. 72 FPS steady. Type 'fps_max 100' in the console, and the number soars to 99 FPs, steady. All this at 1024x768. With 4x FSAA on, the graphics are amazingly crisp. FPS numbers are superfically good, 50 or so, but press the fire button and that numner drops to 15. Oh well. Playing at 800 x 600 with 4x FSAA looks better than and still runs almost as fast than 1024x768 without FSAA.
*Unreal Tournament* I'm not sure if I'm happy yet with this game. With my Voodoo, I averaged 38-42 FPS @ 1024x768 in Glide, with 11 bots on the map DM-zeto. It looked good and was playable. Now in D3D @ 1024x768 (32 bit colour), I average 45-53 FPS in the same circumstances as before. Granted it looks better in 32bit colour, but I must admit I was hoping for more. I suppose my CPU (Duron 700) might be a problem. I tried FSAA with this game and almost cringed: even with 2x FSAA, the text becomes blurred, but the 'jaggies' are noticably improved. FPS dips to 33-38 range with 2x FSAA.
*Deus Ex* Deus Ex is UT-engine game, but it looks even better than UT. Beautiful colours and textures, right down to the blue in DC Denton's eyes. (Which, ironically, I couldn't see at all with my voodoo)
. I don't know how to operate this game's console, if there is one, so you'll have to trust me when I say it runs smooth.*Windows* 2d looks as crisp as my voodoo. My monitor is a .24dp running @ 85hz 1024x768.
*In Hindsight* I was also an early purchaser of the voodoo3, years ago. That card was definately a 10/10 in terms of the 'wow factor' back then. The Kyro 2 was a necessary upgrade for me, but it really didn't me eye-popping performance I was hoping. Don't get me wrong, it is an excellent card, but unless you a Voodoo 3 2000 or less, it will not generate a huge jump FPS for you.
Overall:
Performance 8/10. This card was worth it just for the Counter-Strike performance! The 20% boost I got in all my other games was good enough.
Features, Drivers 9/10. The driver lets you creates profiles for your games. Like to play CS with FSAA etc.? Set it and save it as 'CS' in the Display Properties menu, and you recall all those settings changes with one click at any time.
Cost 8/10. This baby cost me $280 CDN after shipping, taxes and 149 US. I'm shaking my head, reading that, but I guess it's better than than the $650 CDN it would cost me to get a Geforce 2 Ultra or 3.
Overall 8.5/10. No bugs, no glitches, solid performance, and a great feature set. Don't be shy, get one.
P.S. check my signature below my system specs. I'm running my card with Hercules's latest driver, posted today.
Sgt. Tequilla
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