Hercules 3D Prophet 4000 XT Score: 90% Developer: Hercules/Guillemot

Function: The function of the 3D Prophet 4000 XT is to follow in the footsteps of the top notch Hercules video cards before it. Based on the formidable Kyro chipset, it definitely has the horsepower to get you where you need to go. The 3DP4XT can come in either PCI or AGP slot, and no matter what slot your motherboard has, be prepared for swirling colors and dancing visuals! You get all this for the price of two oatmeal packs and a few movie rentals. Is it a great value, you know 'bang for the buck?' You bet it is. Read on and see why!

Performance: The card (AGP slot) was put through an arduous testing process, to which it performed quite admirably. First, it must pass the grueling industry test of 3Dmark2001 which is available for download at Mad Onion's website. This benchmarking software puts the card through some rigorous graphics tests. Acceptable scores for today's games range from 500 (lower GeForce2 cards) upwards to 3000 ( GeForce4 Ti4600). The 3DP4XT got a super commendable score of 1498. Translation: This card is a serious big league player for today's game, as it can handle any game's graphics well enough, and its price is as admirable as the Navy's highest rank. It's definitely the best card you can get for 59.99 or less. I ran some graphically demanding games like Medal of Honor: Allied Assault , and Return to Castle Wolfenstein . For the most part, the 3D Prophet 4000 XT hummed like a pair of bee's wings. When I upped the settings in the game, be it resolution or texturing, that little card held its share of the load. There were times when a lot of things are going on at once, and the card kind of lagged, as if it had finally strained too much. In its defense though, the 3DP4XT only faltered when the graphics settings were all the way up. Utilizing the 3Deep technology, it was able to produce some rich and vibrant 3D textures on the benchmarking and the games. It is also able to produce a nifty little function called True Internet Color , that makes web pages come alive with realism. It made a slight difference on my Internet surfing, but none so much as how well it held up to everyday applications like gaming, testing and other things that we computer personnel do.

Features: KYRO chipset 32MB Onboard SDRAM HSR - Hidden Surface Removal 8 Layer Multi Texturing Internal True Color Full Screen Anti-Aliasing Environmental Bump Mapping 115 MHz Memory and Core Clock Speed Supports DirectX and OpenGL

Drawbacks & Problems:: The only drawback I would say is that fact that the card jumped on some games. Granted, it 'jumped' when settings were extremely high, but it had trouble scooting along sometimes nonetheless. It was also pretty difficult to install on Windows XP . Only because of user error though, and I soon figured out that you have to uninstall the original video card drivers, go to Add Hardware wizard and tell it that you plan on installing new hardware, but that it's not there yet. Then turn your machine off. You insert the card, and voila, XP picks it up. Driver installation for the 3D Prophet 4000 XT is not very difficult and deserves mention as Hercules products are close to immaculate when it comes to drivers, installation and the interface between the two. The manual was a little short, and I would have loved for the features of the card to be listed, but it seems as if the manual was written strictly to show you how to install the 3DP4XT . Look at it this way, at least the manual is in French too. Riot Rundown: If you are in need of a super quality video card, this is a definite head turner. The quality and performance could definitely finish 1 and 2 in their high school graduating class. The price range is so low, you could do no better to find a cheaper card. Sure, it's not as good as a GeForce 4 , but being that it's one-fifth of the price, it's a killer deal. Plus, the card is a nifty blue and the on-board processor's fan is so fashionable that I've made two or three friends from the fan alone. So, if you've got a cash limitation, or are just looking for a card that can straight up handle, then you've got a friend in the Hercules 3D Prophet 4000 XT .

-Sydney Riot, GameVortex Communications AKA Will Grigoratos

Minimum System Requirements: Pentium II or AMK K6 or higher, Available AGP or PCI slot, 32MB RAM, 10MB hard drive space, CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, Windows ME, 98, 95 OSR2, 2000 or NT4   Test System: AMD Duron, AGP slot, 320MB RAM, 10MB hard drive space, 46x CD-ROM, Windows XP Pro