Bundle and presentation
Pretty much all one needs to know is spelt out on the right-hand side. 325MHz core is 75MHz less than a standard 9600 Pro's and 200MHz RAM (which equates to DDR-400 speeds, the same as modern system memory) is a full 100MHz (200MHz DDR) below that of a regular Pro's. Hercules highlight the fact that this is a full DirectX 9 part. 8x AGP transfers and 256MB DDR may prove to be a little meaningless on this midrange card, though.
A multi-language manual gives informative and easy-to-read information for the novice user. There's no DVI-to-VGA converter bundled and that seems to be intentional. Hercules seem to have skimped on the software side of things. PowerDVD is included, but it's the standard 2-channel version. The accompanying CD contains what's show below. Games are conspicuous by their absence, too.
The
661MB CD is packed with a number of demos that highlight the supposed
power of the card. The DX9 technology is highlighted in graphic (bad
pun) fashion. The ironic thing is that most of the DX9 demos are
designed for the more powerful 9700 / 9800 cards, so running them on a
standard 9600 was reflected in sub-20FPS scores at 1024x768 (no AA or
AF). Still, it made the card look impressive. A few recent games would have sweetened the bundle,
although it's not
too shabby as it is.
