Creative Audigy or Hercules Fortissimo 3?

I saw the benchmark tests between the Creative Audigy2 soundcard and the Hercules Fortissimo 3... And they were the same, except in SplinterCell.

However, I only intend to get 5.1 surround sound, as opposed to 7.1. The Hercs 7.1 only costs $10 more than the Creative Audigy 5.1, so I was wondering if I should get the Hercs instead.

Would the Hercs sacrifice less FPS than the Audigy 5.1, or would the results be similar to that of the 7.1 Creative? If the Hercules is better, then can it output 5.1 sound (as I can't afford even mediocre 7.1 speakers)?

Note: I'm not getting an AMD CPU so I can't get the nVidia built in sound, which is a bit of a pity.