New Audigy drivers from CL but - WTF

[NicColt]

EAX ADVANCED HD Performance Beta Release Creative Labs

This package is an official Creative Labs Beta Release but is NOT provided for download by Creative. The link below will take you to Tomshardware website where you will be able to download the beta package. This release is primarily for Sound Blaster Audigy users and significantly improves gaming performance for all cards in the Sound Blaster Audigy range. It does however also provide benefits for the Audigy 2 family of cards (as shown below). This release is ideal for high-end gamers who want even better performance than they currently enjoy. This release has been tested by Creative Labs for gaming use ONLY. No other functionality has been tested. It should be noted that the Sound Blaster applications provided with your card may not function after installation of this driver. For mixer and speaker configuration the standard Windows apps can be used.

This release will be followed up with a final official driver update that will integrate the performance features with the core driver and application set. The beta release is designed to stop functioning on the 1st of August 2003 by which time the final release previously mentioned will be available.

This update is exclusively for Sound Blaster Audigy and Audigy 2 users running on Windows 2000 or XP ONLY.

Fixes & Features

Sound Blaster Audigy Specific Sound Blaster Audigy performance increased by 10%-15% for EAX ADVANCED HD Number of simultaneous voices has been doubled from 32 to 64

Sound Blaster Audigy and Audigy 2 Benefits Reverb presets setting by game audio engine is now on average 10X faster EAX Morphing performance enhanced, typically yeilding a 2X improvement in framerates for morphed sections.
===

First of all this has got to be the first time in history that I ever see a beta driver ----- that's a *** DRIVER *** folks with an expriry date. Second you can only download it from Tom's Hardware ----- WTF is this all about.

Has creative labs totally lost it, a date boom driver for gawds sakes. This has got to be the most retarded thing I have ever seen.

 

[Confused]

It's probably got an expiry date because by then the official driver, which has been fully tested will be out. A good idea IMO, will make people move to the official release and not run the Beta forever


If it bothers you that much, don't download it! Plus, it's hardly new, I saw this listed on the CL site at least a couple of months ago, and the date on it is 030417, which is 17th April!

Confused

 

[Mem]

Why bother with beta when you can get the new Audigy 2k/XP drivers?

Audigy Web Update 2 - Core Driver package 25/06/2003 22:00:00


This update has been divided into 5 smaller files so that you can choose to download only the portions you require, or to spread out your downloads over several sessions.

Core Driver Update - Aud_webupdate2_Drv.exe (4.16MB)
Audio HQ Update - Aud_webupdate2_AHQ.exe (3MB)
PlayCenter 3 Update - Aud_webupdate2_PC.exe (10.2MB)
Recorder Update - Aud_webupdate2_Rec.exe (3.86MB)
Taskbar Update - Aud_webupdate2_Task.exe (2MB)
As a minimum, the core driver update (Aud_webupdate2_Drv.exe) can be downloaded and installed alone. If you use of any of the applications listed above, you will also need to download and install the respective application update(s) to ensure correct functionality of the application(s).

Added Features:

There are no additional features included in this update.
Fixes:

Updates audio driver to improve stability
Optimizes EAX performance
Improves overall performance on systems with HyperThreading
Requirements:


For Windows 2000 and Windows XP users ONLY
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy audio card installed

Link

I always stay clear of any beta drivers from any company.

 

[Davegod]

oh good. bit hesitant to install since mine are currently very stable, but could really do with better performance (esp a noticable drop when eax is enabled).

anyone had/seen any issues with these? there ususally seems to be some problem or other :s
edit: also u think i should uninstall old ones first, or go over them?

 

[Mem]

Davegod,I`ve no sound problems in games or music with the latest official Audigy drivers.

Btw the link takes you to the driver section,if you want the new Audio HQ Update - Aud_webupdate2_AHQ.exe (3MB)
PlayCenter 3 Update - Aud_webupdate2_PC.exe (10.2MB)
Recorder Update - Aud_webupdate2_Rec.exe (3.86MB)
Taskbar Update etc,you have to go back to main download page and find them under "application" for download.

When you install them(I installed everything) it will remove the old ones ,btw you install them one at a time,I did drivers first then AudioHQ,Playcentre,recorder,taskbar.

Remember you only really need to update the ones you`ve installed so ignore the ones you don`t have already installed.

 

[Davegod]

yeah cheers

i just use the drivers plus audiohq, got them and all seems fine, only minor oddity in that Surround Mixer has dissapeared from AudioHQ.

 

[Mem]

only minor oddity in that Surround Mixer has dissapeared from AudioHQ.

Yep that`s correct however you can find the "Surround Mixer" in the Creative programs menu from the start button /all programs section.

 

[BFG10K]

Why are you people stuffing around with beta drivers when you can get the official version of the drivers from Creative's website?

And yes, the new drivers work great.

 

[BoomAM]

You can still download the Betas from the creative website, and theres a thread on the new ones as well.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=30&threadid=1080220

 

[Tannah]

ok getting the Surround mixer back into the AudioHQ isnt that hard to do..
I managed to correct the problem by doing this,
copy the CtSSpkU.ahq file to the:
Program Files\Creative\AudioHQ\Ahq Directory (or appreopreate DIR) and the mixer and
speaker setup also known as the Surround Mixer should reappear in AudioHQ..


the newest Core Driver Pack is very buggy, to be honest even tho the .383 drivers are Not marked as Beta, you should Consider them Beta Drivers. there are serious problems that CL has yet to acknowledge. I would be personally embarrassed to put out such flawed drivers.

There are a few enhancements such as upgrade from 32 channels to 64, and likely more than a few other enhancements that were in the previous Official BETA driver.

I am still running the .383 drivers I have not seen or hear any noticeable improvement in preformace or in sound quality (I'm probably going to go back to the .253 drivers soon). they have allot of fixes in them that makes them allot better than the Beta drivers, but they are really not that good especially if you use you sound card for more than just gaming, this latest driver really sticks it to the Audiophile, Music enthusiast, and musicans.. These drivers seem to really mess up the MIDI aspect of the card.
But again it really depends on how fully you use your sound card, some people will be completely oblivious to these flaws. It seems to go on a case by case basis.

Id say unless your starved for a update stay with the .253 dirvers, they are alot more stable and consistant than the .383 drivers

 

[Regs]

I think im going to stay away from this one untill it's offical release. They make it sound like "download it at your own risk" . Does toms hardware have a review of the driver?

 

[Davegod]

er, are we talking about NicColt's posted beta drivers, or mem's official ones which are official release and not beta?

fwiw, i think i can notice a minor quality degradation in my music, it just sounds a little cooky - probably could be sorted if i bothered setting equaliser or something, and possibly might be just imagining it. Also, noticing quite a bit of interference, which i eliminated by muting the cdrom in surround mixer - tbh i MIGHT have done this ages ago with previous drivers and forgot though.

 

[AndyHui]

These drivers broke stereo copy to rear for my MPEG2 audio. Had to change from SP-DIF to 4 speakers just to get an MPEG2 file to play.

Not happy.