Watch Out!!: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS & Win 7

[thatsright]

Upgrading in two weeks to Win7 64-Bit/6GB RAM/GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R/Audigy 2 ZS. Don't use a mic. I heard on the Creative Forums that the Win 7 x64 Drivers sounds like a bit of a joke. If you have a mic, forget about using it after you upgrade.

Anyone using Windows 7 and the Audigy 2 ZS with the creative July drivers for the card? All I care about is audio playback (mp3's/cd's) and the 'record what you hear' function in CMS5. Has anyone had any issues doing this, or degraded audio quality with the July drivers?

If so, what am I to do? Onboard audio on my Mobo? Another card from another company?

 

[thatsright]

Has anyone else had issues with this combo?

 

[irmak]

How about Daniel K's drivers? I've been using them on my Win7 x64 for some time with very minor issues.

http://www.dasmirnov.net/blog/updated-audigy-and-x-fi-drivers-for-wind-7

 

[BTA]

I gave up on Creative years ago and just stick with a MB that has decent onboard, for this very reason.

 

[Alienwho]

I gave up on Creative years ago and just stick with a MB that has decent onboard, for this very reason.

Same here. Creative is worthless now.

 

[JasonSix78]

Using Windows 7 x64, Creative drivers from July and an Audigy 2 ZS. Haven't had any problems with audio playback, sounds great considering I'm using an old set of Logi X-530s. I barely use my mic but it seemed to work fine when I did. Not sure about "record what you hear." I don't know if it applies or related but I've used Fraps to record gameplay videos and the audio works fine.

 

[mmntech]

I gave up on Creative years ago and just stick with a MB that has decent onboard, for this very reason.

Nothing wrong with Creative's cards. It's just their drivers that suck. They never update them to fix bugs. The Audigy 2 ZS is a pretty old card too by today's standards.

I'd switch to a C-Media C8770 based card instead. They're supposed to be leagues better.

 

[imported_NoGodForMe]

Probably true. Installed the L4D2 Demo on my FX53 (939) with a Sound Blaster Audigy 2Z and it stutters and locks up the game. I upgraded the drivers, still no luck. To play the game, I had to turn sound off completely. The game played fine even on my older computer, but it was a bummer the sound didn't work.

I'd also lean towards using the onboard sound from the MB, even if it is a little slower.

 

[BTA]

Nothing wrong with Creative's cards. It's just their drivers that suck. They never update them to fix bugs. The Audigy 2 ZS is a pretty old card too by today's standards.

I'd switch to a C-Media C8770 based card instead. They're supposed to be leagues better.

Agreed. Unfortunately driver quality goes hand in hand with hardware quality.

I have the C-Media Bluegears card in the wife's PC and it works great. Never had a single issue with it.

 

[VorpalBunny]

I agree. Very disappointed with Creative Labs drivers for the last 6 years or so. I can't use most of the features under Windows XP like the 5.1 surround without problems. I can't imagine the performance under Win7. Thanks for the recommendation to C-Media. What about on-board (motherboard) audio?