Sound Card ????

[Jim Baxter]

Hello All,

I would like an opinion for a sound card upgrade. My Gateway PC came with a SB Audigy Audio and it lacks a 15 pin serial connector for my controller and while the sound for music is really nice, it is lacking for my driving sims.
I get a lot of crackling sounds.
I don't listen to music on the pc except when I make a music CD, I check it for volume level consistency and overall sound quality.
I primarily use this pc for gaming and to be specific, N2003 (Nascar) F1-2002, and GPL, Formula 1 games.

Thanks for any ideas.

Jim

[fatboyjim]

I personally like my SBLive 5.1 Player card, but that was out before the Audigy

Perhaps you would prefer the Extigy? Or the other cards people rave about round here, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

Thanks,

Jim

[Surge1243]

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, Hercules Gamesurround III 7.1, Hercules DigiFire 7.1, and SB Audigy 2 are all great cards, with the Audigy probably being the best of the bunch.

[Jim Baxter]

Originally posted by Surge1243
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, Hercules Gamesurround III 7.1, Hercules DigiFire 7.1, and SB Audigy 2 are all great cards, with the Audigy probably being the best of the bunch.

How different is the Audigy 2 from the Audigy Audio that I now have?

[Surge1243]

I'm not sure of the exact differences but I know the Audigy 2 has 24-bit audio and the Audigy only has 16-bit.

[Avidgamer]

Is that so eh? Your sound wouldn't happen to drop out altogether every now and then would it? If it does, I'd like to hear from you. I've had this problem for ages with my Audigy; Vice City, Mafia and various other games all have terrible sound thanks to popping, crackling and strange high pitched screeches every time I run them. And often, the sound just drops out completely. I've tried searching for driver updates, but there aren't any.

[Jim Baxter]

Originally posted by Avidgamer
Is that so eh? Your sound wouldn't happen to drop out altogether every now and then would it? If it does, I'd like to hear from you. I've had this problem for ages with my Audigy; Vice City, Mafia and various other games all have terrible sound thanks to popping, crackling and strange high pitched screeches every time I run them. And often, the sound just drops out completely. I've tried searching for driver updates, but there aren't any.

The only game I have a problem with is Grand Prix legends.
All the other games, and music sound great.
I have come to believe the problem is the older sound files in the game itself.

[Avidgamer]

hmmm...I never had these problems with my SB Live. Could it be the drivers? Currently, I have the VXD drivers (according to the system info). A few of the driver extensions said VXD so I gather that's what I have, though DXDiag says type "WDM".

[fatboyjim]

SB Live drivers for XP are very strange, you install the default 98 ones and the card works fine, install the XP upgrade and it stops working properly

And there's also a windows driver update on Windows Update for the SB Live, this makes the sound card completely mess up

I'm fine with the default drivers which came on the CD with the card a couple of years ago

Thanks,

Jim

[Jim Baxter]

Originally posted by fatboyjim
SB Live drivers for XP are very strange, you install the default 98 ones and the card works fine, install the XP upgrade and it stops working properly

And there's also a windows driver update on Windows Update for the SB Live, this makes the sound card completely mess up

I'm fine with the default drivers which came on the CD with the card a couple of years ago

Thanks,

Jim

I don't have the SB Live

[Avidgamer]

Me neither.

My system:

AMD AthalonXP 2400+
Gigabyte K7 Triton (or something like that)
512 mb RAM
Geforce FX5200
40 GB Western Digital HD
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy
16X Pioneer DVD ROM

Could it be how the soundcard is connected to the CD drive? Also, could it be to do with the latency settings for the card?