Could have been a good sound card.
Written: Sep 03 '03 (Updated Dec 15 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Low price. Competetive features.
Cons: Unstable drivers, non-existant support. Unusable in Windows XP.
The Bottom Line: I would not recommend this sound card. Users running Windows XP will find that it crashes Windows so often that it will be unusable.
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| moulding's Full Review: Guillemot Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1 Sound Ca... |
This is an inexpensive sound card when compared to others in its class. It has some impressive features, when they work. It is based on the Crystal CS4624 audio chip, which is certainly not the top-of-the-line hardware, but it does have an impressive number of features when compared to other chips in its class.
For most people, the quality of sound and the number of features from the Fortissimo III would be at least equally as pleasing as much more expensive sound cards like Creative's SoundBlaster Audigy 2. Why pay $150 or more when you can get the same features for a measly thirty-five bucks? I'll tell you why.
Hercules has been very slow to provide updated drivers for the Fortissimo III. I'm starting to wonder if they will ever even have any more driver releases. The latest drivers (which are already seven months old) are very unstable. They crash Windows XP in almost any game that utilizes 3D audio or hardware audio acceleration. To make matters even worse, according to their technical support personnel, Hercules officially refuses to get their drivers WHQL certified anymore (for those who don't know, WHQL is a Microsoft quality assurance certification program, designed to keep hardware makers from releasing poor-quality drivers that cause problems in Microsoft Windows). Hercules' support personnel claim it is because the WHQL certification process is flawed. Personally I believe it is because they simply can't get their new drivers to pass the quality-assurance testing and they're not willing to spend the money to fix them. A while back, Hercules released an older driver that was WHQL certified. While this was a stable driver that never crashed Windows XP, it had severe sound-playback problems in many games (most notably in Battlefield 1942), which Hercules finally fixed in later drivers. But again, the latest drivers will consistently crash Windows XP in most games.
To make matters worse, Hercules seems to have completely turned its back on its sound card customers. Previously, there was a technical support forum on their website. This was a place where customers could go to resolve technical problems they were having with Hercules products, including the Fortissimo III. Hercules has removed the support forum from their website, apparently with no intention of ever bringing it back. I suppose they decided to get rid of the support forum after too many users started becoming very vocal about the poor-quality of the drivers and the practically non-existent response from their technical support personnel. Though I can't entirely blame Hercules for this move (Why would they want to publish customer complaints bashing their own company?), there was an alternate option: fix the drivers!
On the upside, the card does have some impressive features for the incredibly low price. But for most people I suspect this is little reconciliation if the card can't be used because it destabilizes their computer.
In the hands of a more quality-oriented company the Fortissimo III probably would have been an excellent product. Unfortunately, the makers of the Fortissimo III 7.1 have allowed this product to fail by refusing to pay due dilligence to quality assurance. This is a terrible shame, and truly one of those cases where you really do get what you pay for.
UPDATE: It has now been more than a year since I first published this review, and to my dismay, Hercules has still not released any updated drivers for the Fortissimo III, and the technical support forum on their website is still closed. I think this really goes to show that Hercules simply doesn't care about their customers.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 70
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Epinions.com ID:
moulding
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 1 member
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