does creative labs SB drivers still suck?

[Schadenfroh]

i rember creative labs getting horrible rap about their drivers a while back, the reason so many went for the game theater series, have their drivers improved? or they like the SB live that i once owned where i swore upon my forefathers that i would never buy another creative labs product for as long as i lived because of the horrible drivers and the bloat software that was installed with it that i did not need that served only to slow my system down.

1. please give your opinion on creatives drivers

2. are the audigy 2's drivers stable and have no bloatware in the drivers?

3. is there any reason i should choose the zs over the audigy 2 if i just use headphones?

 

[NokiaDude]

Me and my Audigy 2 ZS have had no problems with the newest drivers. It's just that the card is EXTREMELY picky with which PCI slot you use, also software/hardware can bother it. But other than that it's an awesome sound card, the best on the market now.

 

[NokiaDude]

Oh yeah, I use headphones with my Audigy 2 ZS and they sound great. The difference between the ZS and the Audigy 2 is better SnR and some cooler features!

 

[htmlmasterdave]

Originally posted by: NokiaDude
Oh yeah, I use headphones with my Audigy 2 ZS and they sound great. The difference between the ZS and the Audigy 2 is better SnR and some cooler features!

lol... yeah the SnR on the Audigy 2 is pretty brutal

 

[ViRGE]

I've had no problems with their Audigy 1 drivers in a couple of years.

 

[charloscarlies]

Originally posted by: NokiaDude
Me and my Audigy 2 ZS have had no problems with the newest drivers. It's just that the card is EXTREMELY picky with which PCI slot you use, also software/hardware can bother it. But other than that it's an awesome sound card, the best on the market now.

Really? Hmm...maybe I just got lucky then. I've moved my Audigy around a lot and never had any problems.

But yea the drivers seem fine to me. Don't notice any problems at all. Great card.

 

[Schadenfroh]

nforce drivers gonna interfere? a7n8x deluxe owner here, what do i do to avoid conficts with sound drivers after i disable realtek in the bios?

 

[Alptraum]

I have never had any trouble with any of the creative cards I have had over the years. Currently running an Audigy 2 ZS with no problems.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: NokiaDude
Me and my Audigy 2 ZS have had no problems with the newest drivers. It's just that the card is EXTREMELY picky with which PCI slot you use, also software/hardware can bother it. But other than that it's an awesome sound card, the best on the market now.

I installed old soundblaster live on an old Via chipset motherboard yesterday and had to swap PCI slot 3 times to find one that would work correctly. I used digital out on the card and connected it a receiver via digital coax cable and sound quality is excellent.

 

[yourdeardaniel]

Originally posted by: NokiaDude
Me and my Audigy 2 ZS have had no problems with the newest drivers. It's just that the card is EXTREMELY picky with which PCI slot you use, also software/hardware can bother it. But other than that it's an awesome sound card, the best on the market now.

which PCI slot do YOU use for ur SB Audigy 2 ZS?

 

[whoiswes]

anybody have any experience with the open source/alternative drivers being developed for the SBLive/Audigy/Audigy2???

http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/index.php?skip=1

http://discuss.futuremark.com/forum/showflat.pl?Board=techotherhardware&Number=2315604

i installed the modded drivers (listed on the second link) and they seemed to work great - i reformatted due to a completely unrelated problem and just installed the stock drivers, but might go back to the modded ones at some point...

w

 

[biostud]

Their Auto update actually works, so no more BSOD while trying to install the latest drivers.......The only REALLY annoying is that you still need the orginal CD to install software including the AudigyHQ. So I dropped this and only have the drivers installed, works flawless.

 

[Mem]

No problems with drivers from SB16 to Audigy over the years,yes I`m showing my age .I`m using onboard nForce sound now.

The Audigy can be fussy on which PCI slot but it does depend on the other PCI hardware and IRQs etc .