First post, by johnsirett
Hi, everyone!
I have a Windows 98 retro Gaming PC, which I bought off eBay a couple of months back.
When I originally bought the PC it was advertised as coming with a Aureal Vortex card, which turned out to be a AU8820 (Vortex 1) based Aztech ASC338A card. I later installed a surround capable SB Live! card (model SB0060), both for digital output support and better DOS compatibility. I understand that both these cards support A3D 1.0: the Vortex 1 card supports it natively, and the SB Live! supports A3D via an emulation driver (commonly called 'a3dx5'). I'm soon planning on getting an Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500 which I understand will support the whole of A3D 2.0's feature set.
So basically I have two questions:
1) Is Creative's SB Live! A3D 1.0 emulation any good, or am I better off keeping my Vortex 1 installed until I get the Vortex 2 card?
2) In the eventual future, will I be able to simultaneously install the SB Live! and Vortex 2 cards, using the analog output of the SB Live! card, and the digital S/PDIF output of the Vortex 2.I've had no unworkable issues so far running both the SB Live! and Vortex 1 cards together, other than needing to disable the Vortex 1 DOS compatibility hardware.