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Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Thursday, June 28, 2001
Benchmarks/Sound Quality
System as it was under testing
Freeway FWD_P3C4XD VIA133A chipset
2x P3800@800
2x 128mb KTI TinyBGA DIMM
Hercules Prophet III
Linksys LNE100TX v4.1
Maxtor 15gig 7200rpm ATA100
Altec Lansing ACS56 PowerPlayTM Plus Digital Speaker System
Sound Blaster Live! Value
Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II
2x P3800@800
2x 128mb KTI TinyBGA DIMM
Hercules Prophet III
Linksys LNE100TX v4.1
Maxtor 15gig 7200rpm ATA100
Altec Lansing ACS56 PowerPlayTM Plus Digital Speaker System
Sound Blaster Live! Value
Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo II
Sound Quality
After installing the card and drivers I quickly jumped into my favorite games wanting to know if
the infamous *crackle* could be heard. To my amazement the games actually sounded really good. There was no "White Noise"
(that really low hiss you hear when to much input is given to your speaker system) and the depth of sound increased.
I don't deny that the Live! card could have done these things but as some of us know the Sound Blaster Live! and
VIA don't get along very well.
First on the list was Counter Strike. The problem I had with this game was sound pops, and echoes. After a few
minutes of game play my own footsteps would sound like someone else's footsteps behind me, voice commands would start
on the left side and then progress to the right. This was very annoying and before to long the fun in the game becomes
more of a fear of where the next enemy is.(maybe thats the point, not really sure)
The next game was Quake 3. The problem I had with sound in this game was slow sound response, crackling, the occasionally loss of sound.
The next game was Quake 3. The problem I had with sound in this game was slow sound response, crackling, the occasionally loss of sound.
The Gamesurround Fortissimo II worked flawless in both of these games and generally I was very happy if you
ask any gamer, being able to hear where the fighting occurs on the map is key to your frag count.
