Should I be using a SB Live (CT4620) or a SB128 (CT4810) in windows 98? Thinking best dos compatibility as I am sure the live dos drivers are a bit bad. I do have a third option which is a Hercules Digifire 7.1 but I am thinking thats a bit too modern, even if it does have an Aureal 3D sound.
No Tears Please. It's A Waste Of Good Suffering.
If *best* DOS compat is important, the Ensoniq AudioPCI probably had the best, and in fact is what the Live's emulation is based on. If you are OK with reasonable DOS compat, and want the best all-round Win98 card, I would go with a Live 5.1 (not the 4620).
Their dos compatibility is roughly the same from my experience (both will have the same crashes in Apogee sound system games etc), only except Live has a sluggish FM emulation TSR with later drivers and can use soundfonts through general midi under windows iirc. Otherwise you're stuck with ECW sets in pure dos with either card.
Probably better off looking for a SB16 or AWE64 then I guess, then again you seen the prices for those cards 😀
No Tears Please. It's A Waste Of Good Suffering.
*cough*either aren't too bad for late w9x gaming though*cough*eax*cough*
wrote:Probably better off looking for a SB16 or AWE64 then I guess, then again you seen the prices for those cards 😀
I have a bunch of CT4520 that I ended up with without even trying. Most of them came with other stuff.
The AWE64 Gold! cards are crazy expensive, but the value cards are not that much at all, even if purchased separately.
The being said, you really want an ISA card for DOS (not necessarily AWE64) and Windows (SB Live, Audigy, or Audigy 2) if you have the available slots.
wrote:I have a bunch of CT4520 that I ended up with without even trying. Most of them came with other stuff. […]
wrote:Probably better off looking for a SB16 or AWE64 then I guess, then again you seen the prices for those cards 😀
I have a bunch of CT4520 that I ended up with without even trying. Most of them came with other stuff.
The AWE64 Gold! cards are crazy expensive, but the value cards are not that much at all, even if purchased separately.
The being said, you really want an ISA card for DOS (not necessarily AWE64) and Windows (SB Live, Audigy, or Audigy 2) if you have the available slots.
Yep, the gold standard imo is an ISA Audiodrive+Live! 5.1 in one PC, and a Vortex2 in the other. All bases covered.
If Real DOS is not a question, then there is no reason to use the SB128 whatsoever. Live! has equally as good SB Pro legacy compatibility, a better OPL3 emulation (albeit it's still shit), better software synth and much much cleaner sound, as well as surround capability and EAX.
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SB PCI 128 actually has 4.0 speaker output with DirectSound3D and has a limited form of A3D 1.x emulation. And it may have better output quality than Live, because Live's front output isn't exactly amazing. But it has very little in the way of hardware acceleration. It's essentially an AC97 codec with fancy software. It's based on the Ensoniq AudioPCI if you guys aren't aware of that.
Live uses a newer version of the same DOS driver so yeah they are quite similar. It's essentially an ISA sound card emulator program. The FM synth emulation changed from a weird wavetable based thing to a terrible OPL3 emulation, and they added support for Sound Blaster 16 instead of Ensoniq Soundscape.
Wouldn't recommend an SB 128 for anything, having lived with one for years around the turn of the millennium. Cheap, crappy alternative to the Live.
