Top: http://www.ebay.ca/itm/BTC-Model-1831-ESS-Bas … d-/250862244884

Bottom: The Yamaha OPL YMF718-S chipset.

The one on the right seems powered by a real Yamaha YMF719 chip, so it should be very good, whatever it is exactly.
The one on the left is powered by an ESS chip, so it is some variation of the ESS AudioDrive series, I would gather.
Sadly you can't tell which model of ESS chip it is exactly, because of the OK sticker over the chip. But generally cards with ESS chips are decent SB Pro 2.0/Windows Sound System clones. But the Yamaha one is probably the better card here.

Agree with Scali. Plus, both have wavetable headers, so you have the General MIDI option.

I removed the OK sticker and it says:

ESS
Audiodrive
ES1688F D295
VB35052

Scali wrote:

The one on the right seems powered by a real Yamaha YMF719 chip, so it should be very good, whatever it is exactly.
The one on the left is powered by an ESS chip, so it is some variation of the ESS AudioDrive series, I would gather.
Sadly you can't tell which model of ESS chip it is exactly, because of the OK sticker over the chip. But generally cards with ESS chips are decent SB Pro 2.0/Windows Sound System clones. But the Yamaha one is probably the better card here.

Okay, the ES1688 is a reasonably popular chip. I have a Gravis UltraSound Extreme card, which uses it for SB Pro 2.0 compatibility, and it has worked quite well for me.

The YMF-719 chipset has excellent SB Pro compatibility with the proviso that it doesn't support all ADSP formats, therefore certain sounds are missing on a small number of older games. The OPL3 core is identical in sound to that featured on the SB Pro 2.

The ES1688 chipset is an excellent card for DOS. Extremely SB Pro compatible (does the ADSP formats that the Yamaha chips can't, hello Duke Nukem 2!). The OPL core is not OEM or licensed from Yamaha, but it does come close to the original.

Would you choose one of these 2 cards or SB16 for a 386 or 486?

Baoran wrote:

Would you choose one of these 2 cards or SB16 for a 386 or 486?

I'd definitely pick either of these cards over an SB16.
The SB16 is not SB Pro 2.0-compatible at all, and also has some annoying bugs in its DSP which results in clicking and popping with games targeting older SB cards.
Neither of these cards should have problems with that.

Thanks. You have been very helpful. I just found a case today for my next build and only thing that is missing is an IO card and I can start building.

gdjacobs wrote:

(...)therefore certain sounds are missing on a small number of older games.

Does anyone know ANY other game that has the same issue as Duke Nukem 2? Because if its just DN2 great, i can't be bothered about such a shitty game.

carlostex wrote:

Does anyone know ANY other game that has the same issue as Duke Nukem 2? Because if its just DN2 great, i can't be bothered about such a shitty game.

Heresy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3vXZJCfb_8

I think it's more about being confident the card is free of any such compatibility problems with the SB Pro 2.