Hercules announces new graphics card

 

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Posted on 13 Mar 2001 at 16:58

Hercules, a well-known brand name in graphics card circles, has joined forces with STMicroelectronics to bring you the Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 PC video board based on ST's new KYRO II PC graphics controller.

The KYRO II, interestingly, is based on Imagination Technologies' PowerVR architecture. Its unique Tile Based Rendering technology eliminates much of the redundant processing overheads and memory bottlenecks produced by less efficient graphics algorithms.

Described as the "graphics board within every gamer's reach", the 3D Prophet 4500 has this KYRO II chipset onboard along with a whopping 64Mb RAM. Aimed at the budget end of the graphics card market, the 4500 will quite possibly give MX II boards a run for their money.

Check out some of the features that the 4500 incorporates:

• 3D Prophet 4500 Internal True Color™ performs texture blending operations in a 32-bit internal tile buffer. This internal texture blending produces a high-quality homogeneous colour rendering, which avoids the graphics artefacts appearing in traditional 3D, where textures are overlaid.
• 3D Prophet 4500 supports up to 8 texture layers, which are blended together in order to obtain more realistic details on backgrounds and surfaces, generating lifelike 3D gaming environments.
• 3D Prophet 4500 supports full speed FSAA, even in high-resolution modes, and performs true environmental bump mapping operations, resulting in highly realistic 3D scenes.
• The 2D and video performance of 3D Prophet 4500 is also impressive, enhancing the display of business applications and Internet navigators, and accelerating DVD-Video playback thanks to motion compensation and sub-picture overlay blending.

The 3D Prophet 4500 will be released in the States in mid-April, priced at $149 (£100). Presumably, it will appear in the UK around the same time.

Author: Stuart Bishop