DOS Days

Hercules Stingray 64 and Stingray 64/Video

The Hercules Stingray 64 was a VGA graphics accelerator card launched in late 1995 as a natural successor to the original Stingray Pro launched earlier the same year. It came with the better ARK Logic 2000MT chipset in PCI interface form only.

 Released December 1995
Bus PCI
Chipset ARK Logic 2000PV or ARK Logic 2000MT (only on VE models)
Standards VGA
Memory 1 MB or 2 MB VRAM (70 MHz)
RAMDAC ICS GENDAC ICS5342-3 ZoomDAC
Ports 15-pin DSUB (analogue RGB video out)
Part # S1201 (1 MB S64), S1202 (2 MB S64)
S1201V (1 MB S64/Video), S1202V (2 MB S64/Video)
S1201VE (1 MB S64/Video), S1202VE (2 MB S64/Video)
FCC IDs LBG-2000PV2M
Price At launch: $259 (1 MB)
See Also Stingray Pro

The Hercules Stingray 64 is based upon the ARK Logic 2000 chipset which used a 16-bit DAC that ran at up to 120 MHz. The Stingray 64/Video came with a 24-bit DAC (I.C. Works ZoomDAC) that ran at up to 135 MHz. The 1 MB version of the 64/Video came with two sockets for memory upgrade to the full 2 MB. With 1 MB onboard, the memory bandwidth was 32-bit. Increasing memory to 2 MB resulted in 64-bit bandwidth.

Later Stingray 64/Video cards came with the 2000MT - a superset of the earlier cards that had the ARK 2000PV and added video support (I believe it had an embedded 24-bit I.C. Works ZoomDAC instead of the standard 16-bit DAC that the 2000PV had).

Like the Stingray Pro, the Stingray 64 is known to be one of the fastest cards for DOS gaming. Unlike the Stingray Pro's DRAM, Stingray 64 used the faster VRAM which ran at 60ns.

The Stingray 64 came with Hercules' new Power Playback video acceleration technology.

Here's the Hercules sales information for the Stingray 64/Video and Stingray Pro/Video:

The Hercules Stingray/Video family featuring Power Playback ™ for Video is an amazing upgrade value for your multimedia PC. The Stingray/Video family delivers a combination of features found on no other line of DRAM accelerator cards:

     Our exclusive Power Playback technology.
     DCI compatible Windows drivers with MPEG support.
     The world’s best DOS performance for no-compromise game speed.
     SuperStable™ refresh rates.
     Fast DRAM and memory clock speeds of up to 70MHz for superior Windows and OS/2 performance.
     The Hercules Touch™, our integrated Windows utility suite, now with new multimedia tools.
This is the graphics solution that gives you the speed, flexibility and features that your multimedia PC demands. And, you’ll be ready for Windows 95.

Power Playback™ for Video & MPEG support


    The Stingray 64/Video and the Stingray Pro/Video feature Hercules’ exclusive Power Playback for true color, full screen playback with no degradation in performance, freeing you from "postage stamp" video.

    Power Playback uses Microsoft’s new DCI software standard to allow DCI-compliant CODECs, like Intel’s Indeo or SuperMac’s Cinepak, access to the bilinear scaling and smoothing technology found on the Stingray 64/Video and the Stingray Pro/Video.

Your videos will look better than ever, without the blockiness and jaggies associated with expanding video playback on normal PCs.

Plus, we add Power Player and Power Preview, our new multimedia tools, and, coming soon, a software MPEG toolkit that allows you to take advantage of our Power Playback technology when using interactive MPEG-based applications. It even lets you view feature films on VideoCD using the CD-ROM drive that’s already in your PC!

Stingray 64/Video

The top of the line entry in the Stingray/Video family, the Stingray 64/Video uses the ARK2000PV 64-bit, high-performance processor. It is available with 1MB or 2MB of high-speed DRAM. The 2MB model, coupled with a 64-bit memory bus and a 135MHz RAMDAC, unleashes the board’s maximum performance. The Stingray 64/Video supports SuperStable refresh rates of up to 90Hz and can support up to 75Hz at 1280x1024 with 256 colors and 800x600 with 16.7 million colors.

Stingray Pro/Video

The Stingray Pro/Video uses the ARK1000PV and a high-speed DAC to deliver SuperStable refresh rates of up to 90Hz. It comes with 1MB of DRAM and supports up to 75Hz at 1024x768 with 256 colors and up to 72Hz at 640x480 with 16.7 million colors.

Power Drive™ Windows Drivers

Designed for today's hottest graphics accelerator chips, Hercules' exclusive Power Drive Windows drivers utilize 32-bit linear addressing to maximize the throughput of your 486 or Pentium-based system. All Stingray/Video models include the Power Drive Windows drivers.

The Hercules Touch

All Stingray 64/Video and Stingray Pro/Video models include The Hercules Touch, an integrated suite of display utilities for Windows 3.1. With tools for quickly switching resolutions and pixel depths, adjusting your screen size and position, and zooming in on areas of your screen for precision work, The Hercules Touch makes controlling and using your desktop a snap. The Hercules Touch represents our commitment to exceed our customer’s expectations for quality, performanceand ease-of-use.

SuperStable Refresh Rates

Hercules’ industry leading SuperStable technology delivers unsurpassed refresh rates. Higher refresh rates deliver brighter whites, more vivid colors, a stable display -- even under fluorescent lights -- and help reduce eyestrain and operator fatigue.

World Class Service and Support

Since 1982, our total commitment to quality, service and support has convinced millions of users worldwide that buying a Hercules graphics card is the best investment in graphics hardware they can make. Our award-winning customer service is available worldwide by phone, fax, BBS, CompuServe and the Internet.

Specifications

     100% register level compatibility with VGA standard.
     Compliant with PCI 2.0 and VL-Bus 1.0 specification.
     VESA BIOS Extensions (VBE) in ROM.
     Supports VESA Display Power Management Signaling (DPMS) for EPA Energy Star compliance.
     FCC Class B certified for home use.

Software Drivers

     Windows 95 drivers
     Hercules' exclusive Power Drive drivers for Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, and Windows for Workgroups
     Windows 3.1 DCI drivers support accelerated scaling and filtering of AVI files encoded with DCI-compliant CODECs
     IBM OS/2 2.1, 2.11 and Warp Version 3.0
     Microsoft Windows NT 3.1 and NT3.5

The Hercules Touch

Picture Window ™ -- change resolutions, pixel depths and other Windows desktop settings with a simple, intuitive interface.
Adjust ™ -- perfect for monitors without digital controls! Adjust the size and position of your screen using your mouse and save the settings for everytime you boot.
Zoom In ™ -- magnify and edit select areas of your desktop up to 8x. Get an up-close view when precision really counts!
Power Down ™ -- control the VESA Display Power Management features of your Stingray to help reduce power consumption on DPMS monitors.
Speedy ™ -- one of the toughest graphics benchmarks around.
Refresh Rate Meter ™ -- calculate and display your current refresh rate. A big help when tuning your monitor for optimum performance.
Wallpaper Express ™ -- makes selecting and changing your Windows wallpaper a breeze.
Power Player ™ -- an easy-to-use media player with a VCR-style interface.
Power Preview ™ -- view and launch AVI files with this powerful control center for your video clip library.

The Hercules Advantage

     Easy installation gets you up and running in minutes. No switches or jumpers to set!
    Free technical support available by phone, fax, CompuServe (GO HERCULES), the Internet (support@hercules.com), and BBS
     Two year limited warranty

 

Board Revisions

I have no information on board revisions for the Stingray 64.

 

Competition

 

In the Media

"Hercules has built some comfort into its Stingray 64/Video ($259) and Graphite Terminator Professional ($389) accelerators, but neither product is built for speed. Both boards come with an improved set of utilities for Microsoft Windows 3.x, and the Terminator Professional's 220-MHz IBM Palette DAC provides a rock-steady display, but these boards came up short on some of our performance tests.

Both boards "feature" a combined DOS and Windows 3.x setup routine that is needlessly complex. Each installation begins under DOS. That lets you decompress the DOS-based refresh rate utilities and Windows 3.x drivers and run the monitor-selection program. After choosing a monitor from an admiringly long list of supported models, the program modifies your AUTOEXEC.BAT file to set the refresh rates. The you close Windows, start it up again, and run Windows' own setup program from the Control Panel. After selecting the proper display driver, you need to reboot to set the refresh rate and start Windows 3.x again to begin using the new drivers and utilities.

Windows 95 support was meager at the time of this roundup, but we were able to set the Stingray's Windows 95 refresh rate with the card's DOS utility, and the Terminator Professional's driver negotiated a decent refresh rate via Windows 95's monitor.INF files.

Hercules bundles Xing's MPEG player and a nicely designed set of Windows 3.x utilities with both cards. In addition to Picture Window, which lets you see the resolution and color depth, the company provides a Refresh Rate Meter that displays the current refresh rate, a wallpaper selection utility, and two little video-oriented gems: PowerPreview and PowerPlayer. If you've ever tried to search through a long list of video files to find the one you want to play, you'll appreciate PowerPreview. The program lets you quickly browse through directory trees, displaying thumbnail-size single-frame depictions of each .AVI file, and you can play the entire file via the Power Player utility directly from within Power Preview.

When we paired the Terminator Professional with a Nanao F2-17 monitor and tested the card's refresh rate, we were in for quite a shock. Hercules' Refresh Rate Meter read 150 Hz at a resolution of 640-by-480 pixels in 24-bit color; we verified that result with a hand-held Extron meter. The board was able to sustain admirably high refresh rates to a resolution of 1,280-by-1,024 pixels, where the board tops out at 85 Hz. On the top-flight Nanao monitor, the display was crisp and clean, with vivid colors and no dicernible flicker.

Unfortunately, the Terminator Professional performed poorly on our WinBench 96 and Winstone 96 tests. The card managed average WinBench performance at 1024-by-768 pixels in 256-color mode, but ranked last or next to last among its S3 Vision968-based peers at every other resolution and color depth, and its Winstone results were nearly as poor. Video performance was on a par with other Vision968-based boards, generally the lowest-scoring group in the roundup.

The Stingray has a nearly identical graphics performance profile, but the Stingray's 256-color performance is quite good, and its ZoomDAC can take advantage of this by displaying true-color video within a 256-color graphics stream. The ZoomDAC also provides the Stingray with first-rate video playback performance: Its scaling engine delivered high frame rates and low CPU utilization numbers on nearly every test. Whenever we forced the board to clip the video display by partly obscuring the playback window with a graphics object, however, the playback rate dropped precipitously and the CPU utilization on our 133-MHz Pentium test-beds rose to nearly 100 percent.

These two products were somewhat of a disappointment. Hercules virtually invented the original PC graphics display, but that was over ten years ago. The best things about these cards are the Power Preview and Power Player utilities, which work with virtually any hardware. As a low-cost entry into video-enhanced computing, the Stingray 64/Video is not a terrible choice, but be prepared to tolerate some unusual effects. The Graphite Terminator Professional provides a much more stable platform, but the Vision968-based card offers little to recommend it over the other boards in its price range."
PC Magazine, December 1995

 

Setting it Up

I have no information on setting up the Stingray 64 or Stingray 64/Video cards.


Downloads

Operation Manual
(missing)

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Troubleshooting Guide
Version 1.10, 22 Feb 1995

For Stingray, Stingray Pro and Stingray 64 products.

DOS & Windows 3.1 Drivers
Release 4.11

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Files=sp411i.exe and sp411w.exe

Windows 95 Driver
24 Jan 1997

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File=sv95460.exe

Windows NT 4.0 Driver
Release 1.00, 9 Oct 1996

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File=arknt40.exe

OS/2 Warp Driver
29 Jun 1995

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File=spw0629.exe

Windows 3.x, 95, NT 3.1/3.5/4.0 and OS/2 Warp 3.0 & 4.0 Drivers
Version 1.59, 29 Aug 1997

Hercules Drivers & Utilities CD-ROM. Provides drivers for Terminator 32/64/Professional/3D and 3D/DX, Dynamite/Pro/Power/128, and Stingray 64/Pro and 128/3D.
Warning: This is a 327 MB ISO image.

Windows 3.x, 95, NT 3.1/3.5/4.0 and
OS/2 Warp 3.0 & 4.0 Drivers
Version 1.80, 22 Jun 1998

Hercules Drivers & Utilities CD-ROM. Provides drivers for Terminator 32/64/Professional/3D and 3D/DX, Dynamite/Pro/Power/128, and Stingray 64/Pro and 128/3D.
Warning: This is a 277 MB ZIP file.
 

 

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