First Impressions
![Hercules Audio Roundup [ The Hercules Digifire 7.1 card @ 800 x 600 ] > View Full-Size in another window.](images/01-s.jpg)
The Hercules Digifire 7.1 card
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![Hercules Audio Roundup [ Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1 @ 800 x 600 ] > View Full-Size in another window.](images/02-s.jpg)
Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1
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As you can see, the DigiFire and Fortissimo III are nearly identical in terms of board layout. The key difference, as we mentioned in the introduction, is the addition of a PCI bridge and IEEE-1394 controller.
![Hercules Audio Roundup [ Gamesurround Muse 5.1 DVD card @ 800 x 600 ] > View Full-Size in another window.](images/03-s.jpg)
Gamesurround Muse 5.1 DVD card
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In comparison, the Hercules Muse 5.1 DVD appears to be a standard CMI 5.1-channel reference board.
Drivers
The drivers were fairly straightforward to install. We had some trouble upgrading the DigiFire/Fortissimo drivers to the latest revision since Hercules’s installer had a bug. Things used to be much easier when they just zipped the drivers in one place. One disappointing feature to the DigiFire and Fortissimo III is that you will need to restart your system in order to switch between digital 2-ch PCM output and Dolby Digital/DTS pass through from PowerDVD.
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