strictly gaming sound card

[pen^2]

i think it all comes down to what games you play... for UT and quake3 engine based games, HRTS means death penalty to frame rates... in HL it is grossly exaggerated IMO (both A3d and EAX, the latter suffering more severely). after being suckered into this 3d sound hoopla i was only to find out there wasnt much to be had

 

[nam ng]

Reverend's UT thunder at 1024x768 --- 53 AVG, 32 MIN with A3D on, all candies including trilinear in 16bit mode ofcourse (no reasons wasting 32bit for palletized textures) using latest D3D driver and Cel@800Mhz/GTS_64MB/7.52_driver for W98_SE.

Have not check under W2K yet being short on time, but I don't expect much difference.

 

[criminalist]

i started this topic in another section but perhaps you can help i cannot get my mx300 to install the joystick drivers, it gives me an error that the card is in secondary pci bus or somthing, any ideas?

 

[nam ng]

criminalist, if you've a digital joy stick on an analog port, unless your joystick munufacture provide a solution, you will find none will work under win9x for any sound card decently because MS joystick driver is based on a software timing loop, which won't function correctly ~cel@450Mhz and higher. Even MS had to provide their own joystick patch for my Sidewinder 3D pro.


In W2K this is a non-problem.

 

[xcoldricex]

was never a HL player... just Q3 and UT...

 

[pen^2]

i guess they must have done some admirable job on enhancing the performance in UT with A3d... what about with quality? if it is the phony the way it used to be in the earlier versions i would just say no

 

[Vrangel]

Q3 does not support A3D anymore. A3D code has been removed in 1.27 .

BTW I have Xitel Storm Platinum myself and I am very happy with it.
But I use it in win98. As far as I know A3D code in win2k drivers is incomplete.

Anyway here is Aureal SuperQuad Digital for $28 .
Dont sell your Live before you hear how this one works in win2k.

The best support forum is vortexofsound which is currently here.
You'll find all info about drivers there.

 

[RanDum72]

If you're concerned about fps, the SB live! has the lowest CPU utilization of all soundcards as of the moment. If its effects you want, there's a lot to choose from.

 

[divinemartyr]

<< For Win9x, Vortex2. For Win2K, SantaCruz or SB Live!. >>



Wow, LXi recommending something other than the Live! Could we see a change of heart?

I send another recommendation in for the Santa Cruz. This is the card to go with, expecially if you want 3D positioning, the Live!'s EAX sucks for that aspect of gaming.

dm

 

[Sunner]

Another vote for the Santa Cruz/Sonic Fury.
Upgraded from a Live! Value to a Sonic Fury recently, and the difference is huge.
Especially in terms of sound quality, the signal is so much cleaner on the Fury.

Cruz/Fury rocks

 

[xcoldricex]

looks like i'm ditching my platinum for a santa cruz. hopefully its the right decision. another deciding factor was the fact that i bought a antec 1030 so i won't be using the live drive.. having the door open (or off) at all times wasn't a very appealing option.. so since people are really supportive of the santa cruz and the versajack seems useful (and of course the sound quality is supposed to be better...) i'm going with my audiophile 2496 and a santa cruz. (no use for the live drive anymore since i'll be plugging into the audiophile).

 

[like2be]

Wait just a minute! I couldn't get my Santa Cruz to full operation because of conflicts in w2k. I spent several days at it with their techs and they were of NO HELP either. They said that several features of the SC would not work as promised under the current drivers( like 5.1, 4 speaker, extra headphone jack,etc.etc. Nice card but poor -planning on their part. I took mine back and now have once again fallen in love with the fully operational SB Live! 5.1 and my Pro medias. OH YEAH!!

 

[xcoldricex]

searched the rest of the posts... other people say santa cruz is working fine in win2k... i might end up dual booting with 98se anyway for games.

 

[Wingznut]

I've owned the SBLive!, MX300 (Aureal Vortex2), and now the Santa Cruz.

For gaming, the SC is every bit as good as the Aureal, and much much better than the Live!. The Live! is a horrible gaming card, imho.

For other things (DVD, MP3's), the SC is much better than the Aureal.

So, the SC definitely gets my vote.

 

[JJWalker]

Another one for the SC.

 

[xcoldricex]

i just bought the turtle beach today, a great improvement in sound quality over the Live! Platinum. Its running fine under win2k, with the drivers downloaded from the voyetra website... i get the nice icon in my tray also. I'm getting my Midiman 2496 in the mail tomorrow- so wish me luck in running both soundcards. I'll probably reformat and dual boot 98se and win2k, using the cruz for gaming in 98se and the midiman for everything else. thanks a lot everyone.