I
think we were all expecting that by now the Radeon
9700 Pro would be starting to look less desirable
having been replaced by new generations of faster
and prettier video technology. The reality as
you are all no doubt aware is that the 9700 Pro
and it's replacement the 9800 Pro remain very
much at the head of the pack, even if only when
running current games and applications.
Unlike
days gone by when you had no choice but to buy
from ATi directly, the new business model that
allows partners to sell own brand cards has left
the market swamped with a plethora of cards, some
being nothing more than rebranded reference cards
while others offer small variations on it, usually
changing only the cooling arrangements or colour
rather than offering any major improvements over
the already effective reference boards.
Hercules
took on a major supply roll for ATi in Europe
who clearly have a lot of faith in their ability
and their logistics, but that aside can they put
together a good video card? That's what we hope
to find out as we get to look at their 3DProphet
9700 Pro.
Let's do the specs!
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATIONS
Graphics
processor
ATI
Radeon 9700 Pro
Process
technology
0.15µ
Memory
128MB
on-board DDR RAM memory
Memory
/ Core interface
256-bit
DDR
Memory
Clock Speed
310MHz
DDR RAM (equivalent to: 620MHz Memory Clock)
Core
Clock Speed
325MHz
Bus
AGP
2X/4X/8X
Rendering
pipelines
8
DirectX
3D Hardware
DirectX®
9
OpenGL
version
OpenGL®1.3
Output
options
-
DVI-I Output
- TV Output
- VGA Output
RAMDAC
-
Dual integrated 400MHz RAMDACs
- Maximum resolution of 2048x1536 @ 85Hz
RADEON™
9700 PRO,
the benchmark technology for First Person
Shooters
High
speed: incredible 325MHz core
/ 310MHz RAM clocks
Large
chipset: 8 pixel-pipelines
architecture for increased rendering
power
Large
bandwidth: 256-bit DDR RAM interface,
giving 18.5GB/s RAM bandwidth
128MB
DDR memory to fill the latest games
with masses of textures
A
large RAM buffer improves DirectX®
8 & 9 Pixel & Vertex Shaders
128MB
on-board helps 3D Prophet 9700 Pro
to accelerate 3D games on 2 screens
This
wide buffer gives access to FSAA and
anisotropic filtering even in high
resolutions
2D/3D
graphics board built on RADEON™ 9700
PRO engine with 128MB onboard DDR-RAM
S-Video
to composite cable
DVI/VGA
adapter
Step-by-step
printed installation manual
Installation
CD-ROM
- Includes installation drivers for
maximum performance and compatibility
- Online documentation
- 3Deep™
PowerDVD™
Full
version of The Elder Scrolls III:
Morrowind™ game
SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS
-
Pentium® 4/III/II/Celeron™, AMD® Athlon®
/K6 or compatible with AGP 8X/4X/2X
slot
- PC: 300 Watt Power Supply,
- 128MB RAM
- 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,
