Posted: September 9th, 2001
Written by: Tuan "GT2k" Huynh

FPS Hit

To test how much of the CPU the Fortissimo II uses when rendering sound, I ran the Reverend “Thunder time demo for each setting. Since UT is a CPU intensive game, major use of the CPU cycles will be noticeable with frame rate drop.

The results recorded were pleasing, but somewhat strange. It somewhat bothers me that enabling Hardware 3D Sound UT actually scores higher FPS then with no sound on at all. Even if Hardware 3D Sound on, the frame rate was 0.08 of a frame higher then turning sound off all together. Surprisingly, UT didn’t lose much FPS when having sound turned on. Since the FPS hit from enabling 3D Sound is not great and actually increases performance, you should keep Hardware 3D Sound enabled even if you are using headphones or a 2.1 speaker setup.

Conclusion

Performance

[10/10] Utilizing the Cirrus Logic CS4624 DSP, performance was top notch. Not only was the sound quality excellent for listening to music, the Fortissimo II also provided a great gaming experience. In Windows 2000, AC-3 pass-through worked flawlessly without any patches to apply.

Innovation [7/10]

Is the Fortissimo II innovative? Of course it is, Hercules took the extra step to make the PCB blue to match their 3D Prophet line of video cards as well as many Gigabyte motherboards. The Fortissimo II is the first card based on the CS4624 that I’ve seen to feature Digital Optical In and Outputs, Terratec makes another card based on the same DSP but only features a Digital out. Just when you thought having digital optical in and outputs were enough, Hercules included a separate headphone out jack so you don’t have to mess around and unplug wires. The Fortissimo II is definitely one of a kind with many features found only on higher end cards.

Installation and Setup [9/10]

Installation was very easy and proved to be trouble free and only took either zero to one restart to get working. Connecting everything to the card was simple since all the connectors are labeled and color coded on the Din cable.

Bundle [9/10]

The software bundle is pretty much the same bundle that comes with the Game Theater XP. If you want to encode MP3’s the Fortissimo II comes with quite a few applications that will assist you in encoding MP3’s as well as editing sound files. The Fortissimo II comes with Power DVD 3.0 which retails for about $50 USD, which is almost the same price as the sound card itself. If you are going to buy Power DVD, you might as well pay the extra $10 and get a sound card too.

Price [8/10]

The Fortissimo II costs $59, which is $20 cheaper then the Santa Cruz. But for $60 you get a great software bundle, and many features the Santa Cruz doesn’t have such as optical in/outputs. The bundled version of Power DVD is an added bonus considering the retail version for Power DVD is almost as much as the sound card.

Analysis and Conclusion

Hercules has brought us another great contender to fill in the gap between the Muse XL and the Game Theater XP aimed toward the midrange gamer. Not only is the Fortissimo II a spectacular performer, it doesn’t sacrifice sound quality to achieve the performance. Performance isn’t the only thing Hercules concentrated on, they listened to what users wanted and provided a separate headphone jack so users don’t have to crawl around messing with wires to connect a set of headphones. On top of the separate headphone jack, Hercules also made the Fortissimo II with a blue PCB to match their line of graphic cards, it is not a necessity, but it is nice to see something that is not on a dull green or yellow PCB.

If you are a hardcore gamer but don’t have enough money to afford the Game Theater XP, why not settle for the next best thing? The Fortissimo II is essentially a “mini Game Theater XP” without the external rack, and offers similar performance. Even if you are just looking for a replacement sound card for occasional games but don’t need all the in/outputs the Game Theater XP has the Fortissimo II might be the right card for you. Owners of pre SB Live 5.1 rejoice, the AC-3 pass-through for the Fortissimo II does work in Windows 2000 without any user made patches required. If you’re ready to replace your old SB Live with another card priced similarly to the SB Live Value, you should definitely check out the Fortissimo II.

Overall Score [8.6/10]

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