Installation and Setup

Taking a quick look at the card, I first noticed the actual Savage3D chip, covered with a small black heatsink. One of the first 2D/3D chips to use the .25 micron die-size, the Savage3D goes to show that higher speeds and advanced fab processes still require adequate cooling. This is also evidenced on ATI's newest .25 um part, the Rage128, which at 90/100Mhz heats up considerably. I next noticed the composite and S-VHS video out connectors. It seems that DVD support and TV-Out are close to becoming a standard video card feature - such abilities are easy to implement, and add little to the cost the actual board, while sounding impressive on a spec sheet. Whether or not you'll find it useful or desirable depends on your situation.

Installing the card was a breeze. I just opened up my case, pulled out the PCI video card, and inserted the Beast-SC into the AGP slot of my trusty BH6. Windows 95 recognized it as a SVGA display adapter, and I went straight to Hercules' website to download the latest drivers (release 0.99.61301).

The driver installation completed without any problems, and after a quick reboot I was playing OpenGL Quake2.

Hercules also includes a set of graphics tools and utilities called "Hercules Touch." Some of the more notable utilities include screen display adjustment, a refresh rate meter, gamma controls, and the Hercumeter, a slider that allows you to set the clock rate for the Savage3D between 110 and 130 MHz - an overclocking procedure that is "run at your own risk." Hercules Touch also includes optimization schemes for different types of games or programs, but the only included schemes were for various benchmark utilities.