"Hercules' new high-end boards meet hardcore gamers' most demanding expectations for games of today and the future. Featuring super-charged 3D engines, they are created with game developers' future standards in mind. 3D Prophet 8500 128MB and 3D Prophet 8500 LE 128MB radically transform personal PCs into high-speed professional gaming machines", says Christine Foucault, Hercules Hardcore 3D Graphics Product Manager. "3D game lovers can now experience the highest graphics quality combined with the highest frame rates thanks to a host of new technological enhancements. And between games users also have access to the amazing multimedia features when watching the latest DVD movies on their TV".

3D Prophet 8500 128MB and 3D Prophet 8500 LE 128MB offer 128MB DDR RAM connected to outrageously fast chipsets, ensuring ultra-high frame rates - even above 1600x1200 - in next-generation games that push extensive use of polygons, massive textures and detailed settings. They take advantage of enhanced HYPERZ™II, an intelligent memory bandwidth saving process (implementation of Fast Z clear, Z compression, Hierarchical Z), and they feature SMARTSHADER™ & PIXEL TAPESTRY™ II technology (new programmable Vertex & Pixel Shaders engines). Consequently, they support DirectX 8.1 Pixel Shader 1.4, which provides the possibility to apply 6 textures to a pixel in a single pass. This signifies a new opportunity for hardcore gamers to push back the boundaries of real-time, cinematic style 3D graphics. To boost pleasure in the latest 3D games, RADEON 8500 and RADEON 8500 LE engines include support for new technology, previously only accessible with professional graphics solutions, such as more complex rendering (fur rendering, procedural deformation, multiple reflections in bump maps, EMBM with up to 4 lights), realistic lighting on any surface thanks to multiple light sources (True Per Pixel Phong Shading) and Horizon mapping. In addition, the boards feature CHARISMA ENGINE™ II, a hardware accelerated Full Transformation, Clipping & Lighting engine, processing up to 68 million triangles/second in the case of the 3D Prophet 8500 LE 128MB and 75 million triangles/second for the 3D Prophet 8500 128MB which also offers incredibly fast core and memory clocks. In addition, for even more realistic characters in 3D games, the TRUFORM™ feature makes 3D shapes smoother, through a revolutionary technique of transforming triangles into curved surfaces. Finally, SMOOTHVISION™ combined with Anisotropic Filtering enables the most advanced Anti-Aliasing available.

Through the RAGE THEATER™ encoder, 3D Prophet 8500 128MB and 3D Prophet 8500 LE 128MB also offer flexible advanced multimedia features: a high-quality TV encoder supporting resolutions of up to 1024x768 on Pal & NTSC TV sets and a great DVI encoder for displaying on digital flat panels in 16 million colors. VIDEO IMMERSION™ II technology enables highly optimized DVD playback with minimal CPU resources, thanks to new technological enhancements: iDCT, Motion Compensation and Enhanced Adaptive Per Pixel De-Interlacing & Temporal De-interlacing. DUAL DISPLAY is available through ATI's HYDRAVISION™ software (VGA + TV or VGA + DVI or DVI + TV).

3D Prophet 8500 128MB will be available mid-May 2002 for $269.99 (USD).
3D Prophet 8500 LE 128MB will be available mid-May 2002 for $199.99 (USD).

3D Prophet 8500 128MB

KEY SELLING POINTS:

• RADEON™ 8500 technology: Full DirectX™ 8.1 hardware accelerator
• A new standard for 3D gameplay
• DX 8.1 for new effects & high 3D speed
• 128MB on-board RAM for unlimited 3D texturing
• 275MHz RAM & 275MHz core clock for high speed
• TRUFORM™ to improve details in first person shooters

3D PERFORMANCE REDEFINING THE STANDARD FOR PROFESSIONAL GAMEPLAY

• Revolutionary 3D architecture powered by ATI's latest generation GPU: RADEON™ 8500
• 128MB DDR RAM connected to an outrageously fast chipset to maintain extremely high frame rates in next-generation games, polygons thick with massive textures and detailed settings.
• HYPERZ™II: intelligent memory saving technology (Fast Z clear, Z compression, Hierarchical Z)
• AGP universal bus (for AGP4X/2X systems)

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF CINEMATIC STYLE REAL-TIME 3D GRAPHICS

• Fully DirectX® 8.1 & OpenGL®1.3 compliant
• SMARTSHADER™ & PIXEL TAPESTRY™ II technology: support for new programmable Vertex & Pixel Shader engines and next generation 3D features
• 4 rendering pipelines, each capable of processing 3 texels
• DirectX 8.1 Pixel Shader 1.4: up to 6 textures applied to a pixel in a single pass
• Advanced rendering: fur effects, procedural deformation, multiple bump maps (EMBM with up to 4 lights…), Horizon mapping
• Realistic lighting on any surface with multiple light sources (True Per Pixel Phong Shading)
• CHARISMA ENGINE™ II: Full Transformation, Clipping & Lighting engine: up to 75 million triangles/second
• TRUFORM™: revolutionary process to make 3D shapes smoother by transforming triangles into curved surfaces
• SMOOTHVISION™ combined with Anisotropic Filtering for the most advanced Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) available

FLEXIBLE ADVANCED MULTIMEDIA FEATURES

• High-quality TV encoder (RAGE THEATER™) offering resolutions of up to 1024x768 in NTSC & PAL
• Integrated DVI transmitter for displaying on digital flat panels in 16 million colors
• VIDEO IMMERSION™ II: highly optimized DVD playback with iDCT & Motion Compensation
• Display enhancement with Enhanced Adaptive Per Pixel De-Interlacing & Temporal De-interlacing
• DUAL DISPLAY with HYDRAVISION™: flexible display and extended desktop mode (different display on 2 screens): VGA + TV or VGA + DVI or DVI + TV

3D Prophet 8500 LE 128MB

KEY SELLING POINTS:

• RADEON™ 8500 technology: Full DirectX™ 8.1 hardware accelerator
• A new standard for 3D gameplay
• DX 8.1 hardware for new effects & high 3D speed
• 128MB on-board RAM for unlimited 3D texturing
• 250 MHz core clock
• TRUFORM™ to improve details in first person shooters

UNPRECEDENTED 3D ARCHITECTURE AND MORE MEMORY FOR ULTRA-HIGH FRAME RATES IN GAMES

• Superior 3D architecture powered by ATI's new generation RADEON™ 8500LE GPU
• Extremely fast chipset and RAM: 128MB DDR RAM to run the most extensive polygons and texture-rich applications at the highest resolutions.
• HYPERZ™II: intelligent memory saving technology (Fast Z clear, Z compression, Hierarchical Z)
• AGP universal bus (for AGP4X/2X systems)

RICH MULTI-TEXTURING, ADVANCED SKINNING FOR TOTAL IMMERSION IN LIFE-LIKE WORLDS

• Fully DirectX® 8.1 & OpenGL®1.3 compliant
• SMARTSHADER™ & PIXEL TAPESTRY™ II technology: support for new programmable Vertex & Pixel Shader engines and next generation DirectX 8.1 features
• 4 rendering pipelines, each capable of processing 3 texels
• DirectX 8.1 Pixel Shader 1.4: up to 6 textures applied to a pixel in a single pass
• Advanced rendering: fur effects, procedural deformation, multiple bump maps (EMBM with up to 4 lights…), horizon mapping
• Realistic lighting whatever the surface thanks to multiple light sources (True Per Pixel Phong Shading)
• CHARISMA ENGINE™ II: Full Transformation, Clipping & Lighting engine: up to 75 million triangles/second
• TRUFORM™: revolutionary process to make 3D shapes smoother by transforming triangles into curved surfaces
• SMOOTHVISION™ combined with Anisotropic Filtering for the most advanced Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) available

THE BEST OF 3D COMBINED WITH ADVANCED MULTIMEDIA FEATURES

• High-quality TV encoder (RAGE THEATER™) supporting resolutions of up to 1024x768 in NTSC & PAL
• Integrated DVI transmitter for displaying on digital flat panels in 16 million colors
• VIDEO IMMERSION™ II: highly optimized DVD playback with iDCT & Motion Compensation
• Display enhancement with Enhanced Adaptive Per Pixel De-Interlacing & Temporal De-interlacing
• DUAL DISPLAY with HYDRAVISION™: flexible display and extended desktop mode (different display on 2 screens): VGA + TV or VGA + DVI or DVI + TV