I think this is actually quite interesting. Thanks for testing these out Phil, nicely done! 😀

Perhaps test a few ISA sound cards, a couple more common ones like SB16, any SB32's and perhaps 1 or 2 of another make.

I do have a Sound Blaster 16, but no 32. But yea this is it. Already re-imaged the drive and back to testing graphics cards 😊

I'm trying to decided on what cards to use for my Super Socket 7 machine. I currently have my Yamaha opl3/4 isa card installed and was going to pair it with a PCI card for Windows. I have a Turtle Beach A3D 2.0 card i could fit and also have numerous SB live cards. Going off your findings i think i might go with the A3D card. A3D and OPL3/4 should be very flexible 😀

Yes that's a great plan, the best of both worlds for DOS and Windows.

Yeah i think with having PCI and ISA slots puts the builder in a great position. Most SS7 setups will be used for both DOS/WIN so the ability to run one of each bus is a big advantage. Being able to have the PCI card running Windows sound allows to pick the best performer.

excellent write-up Phil, finally the waveforce getting some recognition 😁

keropi wrote:

excellent write-up Phil, finally the waveforce getting some recognition 😁

I want to test it a lot more, first impressions are really good. Nice and compact, lots of driver options, what's not to like?

Nicely done. 😀 I know you're done testing, but I'll throw out my wish in case you ever re-visit the topic: I'd like to see the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI thrown in the mix. IMO much better General MIDI emulation than the SBLive! I have no idea how its performance compares when looking at framerates though.

It's great to see the ISA cards performing so well!

Was there not VXD drivers for the Audigy LS?

Fantastic write-up, Phil.

I read somewhere the SQ2500 which uses the Aureal Vortex2 A3D chip is slightly faster then other cards that use the Vortex chip.

Nice graphs! The WDM vs VXD comparison is particularly useful for reference. 😀

soviet conscript wrote:

I read somewhere the SQ2500 which uses the Aureal Vortex2 A3D chip is slightly faster then other cards that use the Vortex chip.

Maybe ones with the later revision B0 you mean? That's what I read from one of ZanQuance's threads here as well.

AWE yeah (sorry), nice test! This helps me keep the Audigy 2 out of my SS7, and probably replace my Live! with my first A3d. Heard your headphone sound demo and can't believe what I've missed. Thanks Phil.

For me, I'll keep my Yamaha Audician 32 Plus in my SS7 build, as that build is just for DOS gaming and very light Win98 gaming. If I need to run anything that's more intense, I have my Pentium 3 @ 866MHz for that. It uses an AudioPCI since that seems to work the best on it for what I have.

ouch the audigy... better leave that card for XP and faster CPUs
other than that all the others look fine.

RetroBoogie wrote:

This helps me keep the Audigy 2 out of my SS7, and probably replace my Live! with my first A3d.

SPBHM wrote:

ouch the audigy... better leave that card for XP and faster CPUs

... As Phil has touched upon, that LS is NOT really a "true Audigy" with hardware acceleration chip (EMU10K1/EMU10K2) for 3D sound though, so please keep that in mind!

That said, Audigy/2/ZS would fit better on faster 9x/XP rigs anyway, being post-2000 stuff.

I spot a little something there.... The yamaha is a 724 card, not 714 right?

Anyway...
You might want to test AWE64-Gold too, just to see if it makes any differences.
The standard/value/something edition's are just plain cheaper, and some people are arguing that the gold plated plugs makes no difference in audio quality.

Cards to consider:
- Ensoniq AudioPCI card's.
- SB16. Both regulair and Vibra ones.
- True AWE32 and SB32.
- SB-Pro.
- Aztech cards.

EDIT:
I have read about build's/rigs, were PCI cards mentioned as faster than ISA and vise versa.
And as SS7 incorporates more than just MVP3, then you might want to throw this test at ALI-V chipsets too.

You might even consider giving thought's on if the SS7 platform and 724 cards can have an advantage.
When no ISA card is at hand. I am thinking in terms of the SB-Link or PC/Pci header can make a "selling-point".
I have even had a MVP3 board with SB-Link/PC-Pci header once, though I never had luck getting it going.
The thing was, that I had no 724 card at that time, only an A-Open card, featuring some Crystal CS4614
chip, and it did not go well with getting PC/Pci working.
The motherboard was an Epox MVP3-C board. Good motherboard with everything SS7 one would need.
Both AT and ATX Psu connectors, SB-Link, MVP-3 chipset, AGP, Coincell battery and Ps/2 mouse header.
I sold that board, so I can not lend you it for testing.

Audigy 2 ZS

Yes to clarify, that card is the real deal. It should be on the same level as the Live!, not sure if there are VXD drivers though.

The Audigy LS is totally different. It does everything in software and coupled with the WDM drivers it really costs precious CPU cycles on the SS7 platform.

@ Brostenen, did I say 714 in the video?

Yes there is always more you can do in the video, I try to strike a balance though. Now I can't back this up, but I'm so sure that all the Creative cards, 16, 32 and 64 would perform exactly the same.

Audio PCI would have been nice. I just never see people use it in their builds.

But like Nvidia does it, it's not scrapped, just might take a while to make it into another video 😁

I only read the graph, or picture displaying the graph.
Is there a video on YouTube too?

brostenen wrote:

I only read the graph, or picture displaying the graph.
Is there a video on YouTube too?

Not yet!