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Cmi8738 performance issues

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First post, by PlaneVuki

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Hello.

Benchmarks are usually done with sound off, but we play games with sound on.

I have two pci sound cards to use on socket370 motherboard with win98se.

On a mobo ms7127c and mendocino 433 and mx400 agp, quake3 640x480x16bit:

Without sound I am getting 50 fps
With cmi8738 sound I am getting 37 fps
With ess solo1 sound I am getting 46 fps

For both sound cards I am using drivers from philscomputerlab website.
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/c-media-cmi8738.html

The question is:

Why cmi8738 is so slow compared to solo1 ? (I have two cards with this chip, same result)
And how to make it work fast (or more efficient), like solo1?

Perhaps someone knows a better driver?

Have you ever checked fps drop with cmi8738, compared to no sound?

I don't want any fancy stuff from a sound card, 3d sound, EAX, gameport, microphone, etc..

Just want normal stereo sound that doesn't cause a lot of fps drop.

Thanks in advance.

Reply 2 of 4, by PlaneVuki

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Thanks theelf.

With this driver I get 42 fps. Still worse than solo1, but at least better than phils driver.

If someone knows even better driver I would be glad.

But this will do for now.

Reply 3 of 4, by theelf

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PlaneVuki wrote on 2024-06-03, 20:59:
Thanks theelf. […]
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Thanks theelf.

With this driver I get 42 fps. Still worse than solo1, but at least better than phils driver.

If someone knows even better driver I would be glad.

But this will do for now.

Never had much luck with cmi8738 in win9x, random problems, etc, but they work much better in NT, there is even some open source drivers, but 2000+ https://code.google.com/archive/p/cmediadrivers/

Reply 4 of 4, by kingcake

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As pointed out above, WDM drivers will almost always give worse performance. There are lots of variables. The CMI might be using a virtual software based MIDI device while the ESS has hardware FM synth, etc, etc.

Or just plain old poorly optimized drivers. Not uncommon with budget parts.

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