Hercules Thriller

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Review: Hercules Thriller

Since the nVIDIA RIVA 128 chipset proved that companies other than 3Dfx could deliver Voodoo-class performance in Direct3D, we've been eagerly awaiting cards based on Rendition's new V2200 chipset. Rendition's last chipset debut, the V2100, proved to be a winner in our review of Diamond's V2100-based Stealth II (February 1998). The V2200 chipset's even more powerful-the Hercules Thriller, the first V2200 card, doesn't disappoint.

The Thriller is a top performer both in the benchmarks and in the real world of Direct3D games. We loaded Tomb Raider 2 and were able to turn on all the hardware acceleration tricks supported by the game. Big deal, you ask? Well, we ran the game at 1024-by-768 resolution without noticeably dropping frames. Most accelerator boards we've looked at couldn't handle this test because they peaked out at 6MB of RAM. The Thriller is fully loaded, with 8MB of on-board SDRAM. The card's documentation makes no reference to how much of that memory is divided between texture and frame-buffer duties, which means memory is likely allocated dynamically according the current graphics-display mode.

The Thriller's biggest advantage is that it's a standalone graphics solution, offering breakout 2D and 3D performance not only in full-screen game modes, but also on your desktop, in a Window, wherever. In 3D chores, the Thriller performed admirably. At press time, we were still waiting on a V2200-specific native patch for Quake II, but running the V1000 VQuake driver with Quake delivered 35 fps in 640-by-480 resolution, and 25 fps in 1024-by-768 resolution on a P233. If there was a driver optimized for the faster V2200, higher frames-per-second rates would've been achieved. Switching to Direct3D, the Thriller averaged between 55 and 60 fps in Jedi Knight using 640-by-480 resolution, and 25 fps in 1024-by-768 resolution.

For those yearning to play on a big screen, TV-out lets you connect the unit to a TV. There's even a connection for 3D shutter glasses for those trying to achieve VR on the cheap. The card also features basic video-capture capability suitable for frame-capture and hobbyist applications. As we said, this board doesn't pull punches.

Downsides include a perception among many hardcore gamers that Hercules boards and drivers are often buggy. Indeed, the first board sent to us-late beta-failed to work at all. Once a functioning board arrived, the Thriller installed and functioned flawlessly. The display-properties applets that come with the board lack some of the polish of those from companies like Diamond and STB, but performance-wise, Hercules seems to have banished the bugs.-- Danny Lam / GamePro