Hercules Thriller 3D
The Hercules Thriller 3D was a VGA graphics accelerator card announced in August 1997, and launched in late 1997. It was based on the highly respected Rendition Verite V2200.
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Released | Late 1997 |
| Bus | PCI or AGP | |
| Chipset | Rendition Verite V2200 | |
| Standards | VGA | |
| Memory | 4 MB or 8 MB SGRAM | |
| RAMDAC | 230 MHz | |
| Ports | 15-pin DSUB (analogue RGB video out) | |
| Part # | TH2218SG (8 MB), TH2318SGA (8 MB) | |
| FCC IDs | ||
| Price | At launch: $179 (4 MB), $249 (8 MB) March 1998: $219 (8 MB) |
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| See Also | Terminator |
The Hercules Thriller 3D used the Rendition Verite 2200, an update to their earlier Verite V2100 with a faster RAMDAC compared to the 170 MHz Verite 2100. The Thriller 3D card came with a choice of either 4 MB or 8 MB of SGRAM.
The card came with both video-in and video-out ports.
In March 1998, Hercules reduced the list price of the 8 MB Thriller 3D cards to $219 alongside price reductions on their Dynamite 3D/GL cards.
Here's some info from the original press release for the Thriller 3D:
Based on the Rendition V2200 - About 3 Times Faster in 3D Than Any Existing Matrox Product
 3D accelerator defining `98 performance levels for Open GL and D3D. Excellent 2D graphics acceleration for business applications. Complete multimedia support for video-in, video-out, and stereo 3D glasses. For PCI or AGP, 4MB/8MB 125 MHz SGRAM, 230 MHz high performance DAC. |
FREMONT, Calif.--Aug. 11, 1997--Hercules Computer Technology, Inc., today announced the Hercules Thriller 3D, a revolutionary 2D/3D graphics and multimedia accelerator offering a level of 3D and multimedia performance never seen before on the PC platform.
The Hercules Thriller 3D is targeted at the ``OpenGL and Windows NT computer power user'' and the ``Windows 95 Direct3D high performance 3D gamer.'' The Hercules Thriller 3D delivers
- excellent OpenGL performance under Windows 95 and Windows NT
- and greater than two hundred 3D Winmarks(1) (Direct 3D) on Pentium II/266 MHz machines.
The Hercules Thriller 3D for PCI and AGP is Hercules' first board to combine outstanding 3D acceleration, excellent 2D graphics, and superior video quality on a single board. The Hercules Thriller 3D integrates
- the leading edge Rendition V2200 True Media Accelerator based on Rendition's high performance RISC technology, which provides blazing fast 2D, 3D, and video performance,
- a 230 MHz DAC for ``high resolution,'' ``high color depth'' and ``high refresh'' display up to 1600x1200 with 90Hz,
- 4MB or 8MB of super-fast 125 MHz/8ns SGRAM for almost unlimited bandwidth,
- a video-in connector for video conferencing (video camera), full motion video recording from any video source, and image grabbing from any video source,
- superior, flicker free video-out circuitry (S-Video and composite video) for recording to a VCR and for large screen gaming display on a TV set with a better image quality than provided by console game computers,
- a 150Hz 3D stereo glasses connector,
- MPEG acceleration (motion compensation) for smooth, high quality filtered MPEG playback.
In order to offer the most powerful, versatile, and complete solution, the Hercules Thriller 3D supports all major operating systems and 3D APIs including Windows 3.11, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, OS/2 Warp, AutoCAD, OpenGL, and DirectX 5, Speedy3D, and RRedline.
Powerful drivers for ``Memphis'' and Windows NT 5.0 are under development.
The retail package comes with an MPEG software player, hot 3D games and powerful 3D applications. The 3D applications include a full version of a 3D modeler, a 3D VRML browser, and VESA 3.0 software.
Hercules will begin to ship the Hercules Thriller 3D in September 1997 at recommended retail prices of $ 179 (DM 349,--) with 4 MB (PCI or AGP) and $249 (DM 499,--) with 8 MB (PCI or AGP). (German RRP pricing includes VAT).
Superior Hardware and Software Design
The Hercules Thriller 3D is based on Hercules' high-performance/wide-bandwidth hardware design and Hercules' Windows driver technology. By efficiently reducing noise with the most stable proprietary hardware circuitry and the highest quality components, the combination of the powerful Rendition V2200 True Media Accelerator and super-fast 125 MHz 8ns SGRAM runs at the highest speed possible in volume production.
In order to maintain a balanced load between the CPU and the graphics card, the Hercules Thriller 3D supports a comprehensive feature set in hardware, including 3D rendering, 2D graphics acceleration, and digital video.
Additionally, the Hercules Thriller 3D will ship with proprietary Power Drive Windows 95 drivers, continuing Hercules' practice of extracting the highest performance out of a powerful configuration of controller chip and fast, high quality memory.
Industry Leading Features-Set in Hardware
The architecture of the Hercules Thriller 3D promotes an unprecedented level or pipelining and parallelism while performing multiple or different 2D, 3D, and video graphics tasks. Rendition's technology uniquely combines a highly flexible, programmable RISC processor with a five-stage pipeline, a powerful triangle setup engine, and a sophisticated pixel pipeline. While executing key rendering tasks ``in parallel'' and pixel calculation ``single cycle,'' the Hercules Thriller 3D delivers unmatching performance and rendering speed.
By also handling the complete triangle setup in hardware, a very compute-intensive part of the 3D pipeline, which most popular 3D accelerators including Matrox leave to software, the Hercules Thriller 3D eliminates a decisive bottleneck from the CPU.
Leading Edge 3D
Calculating a 14-attribute Direct3D pixel in a ``single cycle,'' the Hercules Thriller 3D accomplishes excellent OpenGL performance and a new level of 3D gaming experience for the PC platform. It also delivers the high speed fill rate necessary for smooth, real time 3D animation. While running at 60 MHz engine clock, the Hercules Thriller 3D outputs up to 60 Million Gouraud-shaded, perspective-corrected, texture-mapped, bilinear-filtered, alpha- blended, fogged, diffuse/specular highlighted, and z-buffered pixels per second.
In addition to offering high resolution, high quality 3D texture maps, the Hercules Thriller 3D also supports an extended set of ``advanced 3D features'' and ``3D special effects'' in hardware including sub-pixel/sub-texel accuracy, MIP mapping, trilinear filtering, and texture modulation for smoothly lit gaming scenes. Special 3D effects, such as the water effect in Tomb Raider, can also be programmed in micro code and executed on the Hercules Thriller 3D's RISC engine.
The architecture of the Hercules Thriller 3D promotes a more balanced load where the CPU can primarily concentrate on the first step of the 3D pipeline, the geometry setup (vertex calculation). Meanwhile, the Hercules Thriller 3D is taking care of step 2 and step 3 of the 3D pipeline, the complete triangle setup (edge walking and floating point to integer conversion) and the rasterization, resulting in much higher frame rates in even more complex 3D sceneries on the PC platform.
As an example, the combination of an Intel Pentium 133 MHz PC and a Hercules Thriller 3D graphics accelerator delivers a higher 3D Winmark score than any Pentium II in combination with any existing Matrox board. Better still, the Hercules Thriller 3D in a Pentium II achieves a 3D Winmark three to four times faster than any existing Matrox product(1).
Video-in, Video-out, and Accelerated Video Playback including MPEG
The Hercules Thriller 3D also features a complete video and multimedia implementation including a video-in connector, two video-out connectors (S-Video and composite video), full motion/full-screen video playback, MPEG acceleration, and multimedia playback software.
- High quality video-in (NTSC and PAL) supports video conferencing applications (connect a video camera to the video input jack), full-motion video recording (connect a TV, a VCR, or any video source to the video input jack) e.g. for video editing applications, and image grabbing (image processing, desktop publishing).
- Superior, flicker filtered video-out (NTSC and PAL) with full overscan compensation is suitable for displaying 3D games on larger TV screens (S-Video and component video output) and for recording edited, animated, or titled videos to a VCR.
- Accelerated video playback is implemented as an advanced set of features in hardware, including color space conversion, scaling, and bilinear filtering with full line buffer to provide exceptionally crisp, smoothly filtered, 30 f/s full-screen/full-motion video playback.
- Accelerated MPEG video playback is supported with motion compensation calculated by the Hercules Thriller 3D's RISC processor, eliminating the need for separate decoder hardware.
150 Hz Support for 3D Stereo Glasses
The Hercules Thriller 3D is also equipped with a 150 Hz output to connect 3D stereo glasses (75 Hz per eye) for the ultimate 3D computer gamer.
Complete Driver Support, Comprehensive Utilities plus 3D Games
The Hercules Thriller 3D will ship with an attractive set of popular new 3D games.
- The Hercules CD supplied with the Hercules Thriller 3D contains all drivers and utilities for all major operating systems including the latest version of Microsoft DirectX 5.
- Hercules' integrated suite of utilities called ``Touch'' provides useful capabilities for desktop management ``on-the-fly.''
- The ``Hercules Entertainment Center'' is a revolutionary, totally integrated audio/visual multimedia console for sound and video playback control.
- The Windows 95 Autorun installation automatically installs the Power Drive Windows 95 driver, Touch desktop management utilities, Hercules Entertainment Center multimedia utilities, and Microsoft DirectX 5.
> Resolution up to 1600x1200, Refresh Rates up to 200 Hz
With its 230 MHz DAC, the Hercules Thriller 3D achieves desktop resolutions ranging from 640x480 to 1600x1200 with refresh rates up to 200 Hz.
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Resolution Colors Refresh Rates Horizontal Frequency
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1600 x 1200 65,536 60 - 85 78 - 100
1600 x 1200 256 60 - 85 78 - 100
1280 x 1024 16.7M 60 - 90 64 - 100
1280 x 1024 65,536 60 - 90 64 - 100
1280 x 1024 256 60 - 100 64 - 110
1152 x 864 16.7M 60 - 100 57 - 100
1152 x 864 65,536 60 - 120 57 - 110
1152 x 864 256 60 - 120 57 - 110
1024 x 768 16.7M 60 - 120 35.5 - 100
1024 x 768 65,536 60 - 120 48 - 100
1024 x 768 256 60 - 120 48 - 100
800 x 600 16.7M 56 - 160 35.5 - 100
800 x 600 65,536 56 - 160 35.5 - 100
800 x 600 256 56 - 160 35.5 - 100
640 x 480 16.7M 60 - 200 31.5 - 110
640 x 480 65,536 60 - 200 31.5 - 110
640 x 480 256 60 - 200 31.5 - 110
Board Revisions
Competition
In the Media
Setting it Up
Downloads
Operation Manual Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Windows 95 Drivers
Thriller 3D Windows 95 Drivers and Tools including Power Drive driver, Touch 95 and Hercules Entertainment Center utilities |
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