Our review at that time contrasted to the "glowing" reviews you saw on the Hercules Beast from other online publications, but by now you know that SharkyExtreme has the same high standards that ordinary gamers have, and we're not going to give everything a "9 out of 10 stars" simply because we want to remain in the good graces of the hardware vendor. (JK, you know who you are buddy LOL)
In any case, the original Beast wasn't ready for prime time. But the Beast SuperCharged is a whole new monster, for three main reasons:
- Selective screening of Savage3D chips
- Revised Hercules Touch Drivers
- Significantly faster core MHz speed
These three features are what differentiate the Beast SuperCharged from the standard Beast product, and they eliminate most of the gripes we had with the original Beast.
First, Hercules is screening the Savage3D chips they're using for the Beast Supercharged, in an effort to be able to provide a better foundation for overclocking the part's MHz speed. The standard Hercules Beast ran at a fixed core speed of 100MHz. We're not allowed to give the exact number that the Beast SuperCharged's Savage3D chips are screened at, but an educated guess along with our testing would indicate that 120MHz is the right number.
Second, the revised Hercules Touch drivers are greatly improved and streamlined over the version we tested three months ago. The best improvement this edition includes is the "HercuMeter" slider, which allows a user to set their Beast SuperCharged's core MHz speed anywhere from 100MHz to 130MHz. Thanks to the Savage3D screening mentioned previously, SharkyExtreme was able to run, play, test, and torture the Beast SuperCharged at the HercuMeter's maximum setting of 130MHz. As the Mossad says folks: "Not too shabby."
