Hercules 8500 128MB

[Novdid]

Does the 3DProphet 8500 128mb board feature two RAMDAC's???

Short and simple question.

[Admiral]

The Radeon 8500 has two integrated RAMDACs, so yes.

[Fat Tone]

Just to blur things a little:

The Hercules FDX8500LE 64MB has analogue & DVI outputs, but they are not independant. I found out after purchase due to misleading advertising. It's not a problem for this customer, but that could have bitten me in the ass.

T.

[prophet]

AFAIK Hercules 8500 cards have 1 RAMDAC (built in 8500 chip) only.. second is missing, there you can't have different out on DVI..
9000 series have both RAMDACs built in..

[Indiana]

Yes, you're right. You have to be carefull which R8500 card to get if you want to make sure that it's equipped with two RamDACs.
The Hercules 64MB boards are one of those that only have one DAC, which makes them rather pointless for dual monitor operation. AFAIK the 128MB Hercules do have 2 DACs, however.

BTW, if you read the Hercules advertisements / specifications for their 64MB card thoroughly (especially take a look at the listed possible display combinations), you will note that there's only one RamDAC on them.

[K6-III]

According to this image there is no secondary ramdac

[Novdid]

Yes. Further digging from my side led me to the conclusion that none of the Hercules 8500 boards have more than one RAMDAC.

The fact that it's almost impossible to get hold of BBA's in Europe really makes it hard to pick a Radeon that fits my needs best, that means good quality, 2 RAMDACs and decent price. The Hercules 8500 fit my needs on the quality part but Point of View does not, but it does have 2 RAMDACs. And a 9700 is just to expensive, economy sadly also rules out the Parhelia. Where do I have to turn then you may ask, maybe a Gainward GF4Ti 4200 Golden Sample.

[K6-III]

How about the Gigabyte Radeon 8500???

[prophet]

You can consider getting Sapphire board, Sapphire makes BBA cards for ATI.. I have one (8500 with 64 MB), they have 2 RAMDACs, after lifting memory voltage (changing resistor on board) I get stable both core and memory at 300 MHz (3.3 ns Hynix RAM).. and 2D quality is great, on par with G450..