I have that SB, and can recommend an ESS over it anyday. It should be even cheaper to get.

https://www.philscomputerlab.com/ess-es1938s-solo-1.html

I use it on a P4 in both DOS and WinXP.

PCI cards that support DOS SB-mode tend to be all OK as far as PCM audio goes, but their OPL3 emulation varies a ton. Some are quite shitty like that Ensoniq/Creative.
You can mend that with using a wavetable daughterboard and switch to MIDI where supported. But some early 90s games like Apogee stuff doesn't do MIDI music, only FM.

ESFM in Solo is very good for FM music.

Does your motherboard have a PC-PCI or SB-Link 6-pin header?

If so, you can get full ISA compatibility with a PCI card that also has that connection.

Either way, a Yamaha 724, 744, or 754 based sound card should work fine for almost everything and you will get real OPL3.

Beware of the fake Chinese cards that are remarked. This goes for other sound chips as well, not just the Yamaha ones.

What is the brand and model of the motherboard?

cyclone3d wrote on 2025-02-25, 17:04:

Either way, a Yamaha 724, 744, or 754 based sound card should work fine for almost everything and you will get real OPL3.

My recommendation too 👍

cyclone3d wrote on 2025-02-25, 17:04:

Does your motherboard have a PC-PCI or SB-Link 6-pin header? […]
Show full quote

Does your motherboard have a PC-PCI or SB-Link 6-pin header?

If so, you can get full ISA compatibility with a PCI card that also has that connection.

Either way, a Yamaha 724, 744, or 754 based sound card should work fine for almost everything and you will get real OPL3.

Beware of the fake Chinese cards that are remarked. This goes for other sound chips as well, not just the Yamaha ones.

What is the brand and model of the motherboard?

I looked on the motherboard for about 5 minutes and couldn't find a 6-pin header labeled "PC-PCI or SB-LINK".
The motherboard is an Intel Desktop Board "D815EEA2 / D815EPEA2"

zb10948 wrote on 2025-02-25, 16:48:

I have that SB, and can recommend an ESS over it anyday. It should be even cheaper to get. […]
Show full quote

I have that SB, and can recommend an ESS over it anyday. It should be even cheaper to get.

https://www.philscomputerlab.com/ess-es1938s-solo-1.html

I use it on a P4 in both DOS and WinXP.

PCI cards that support DOS SB-mode tend to be all OK as far as PCM audio goes, but their OPL3 emulation varies a ton. Some are quite shitty like that Ensoniq/Creative.
You can mend that with using a wavetable daughterboard and switch to MIDI where supported. But some early 90s games like Apogee stuff doesn't do MIDI music, only FM.

ESFM in Solo is very good for FM music.

(Sorry for the double reply, I didn't notice this one before posting and I don't see an edit button.)

I could only find one ESS card for sale in my country and within my budget. It is an ESS1989S, which according to this post doesn't support OPL3, or I'm misunderstanding what it says.

Check out this Yamaha, it's a bit beaten but says it works - https://www.ebay.de/itm/235889143548

Upwader wrote on 2025-02-25, 18:36:

cyclone3d wrote on 2025-02-25, 17:04:

Does your motherboard have a PC-PCI or SB-Link 6-pin header? […]
Show full quote

Does your motherboard have a PC-PCI or SB-Link 6-pin header?

If so, you can get full ISA compatibility with a PCI card that also has that connection.

Either way, a Yamaha 724, 744, or 754 based sound card should work fine for almost everything and you will get real OPL3.

Beware of the fake Chinese cards that are remarked. This goes for other sound chips as well, not just the Yamaha ones.

What is the brand and model of the motherboard?

I looked on the motherboard for about 5 minutes and couldn't find a 6-pin header labeled "PC-PCI or SB-LINK".
The motherboard is an Intel Desktop Board "D815EEA2 / D815EPEA2"

Yep, that board doesn't have PC-PCI / SB-LINK. Should still work fine with that board though you may / probably need one of the modified SETUPDS config utilities if you use one of the Yamaha based cards.

Are you just using this PC for dos or will you be playing Windows games as well?

If just dos all Creative PCI cards will sound the same and any of the other recommended cards will be better.
However if you also want to play Windows games those same cards are pretty basic, this is where the SoundBlaster Live or Audigy cards make more sense.

If it's mainly a Windows PC with the occasional dos game, I find the Creative cards are good enough.
But if your spending a lot of time in dos then it's worth getting 2 sound cards, one for dos and one for Windows

For PCI sound cards you can also look for an ALS4000. Got one of those and also the earlier mentioned SOLO-1. Both PCI cards work great under DOS.

I ran into this exact problem last year.

In the end, what I've done is built a completely new system with an ISA slot because PCI sound cards suck in pure DOS.

IMO - SoundBlaster Live! Is basically the standard for post-ISA dos and it’s basically identical to Ensoniq AudiPCI because Creative bought them out for that purpose.

That said there is some huge quality differences between SoundBlaster Live! versions because Creative let OEM manufacturers make their own. Personally I try to avoid any of the Dell made models- I think they lack quality and also can be a pain to find drivers for.

Sleaka_J wrote on 2025-02-26, 10:40:

In the end, what I've done is built a completely new system with an ISA slot because PCI sound cards suck in pure DOS.

That would be the easiest way indeed but not all PCI sound cards suck. The above mentioned SOLO-1, ALS4000 and Yamaha sound cards work perfectly fine for 99% of the DOS games. That is if your chipset supports DDMA, TDMA or your motherboard has an SB-LINK connector. Most Pentium 3 and 4 motherboards have at least one of those options.

Yoghoo wrote on 2025-02-26, 12:04:

Sleaka_J wrote on 2025-02-26, 10:40:

In the end, what I've done is built a completely new system with an ISA slot because PCI sound cards suck in pure DOS.

That would be the easiest way indeed but not all PCI sound cards suck. The above mentioned SOLO-1, ALS4000 and Yamaha sound cards work perfectly fine for 99% of the DOS games. That is if your chipset supports DDMA, TDMA or your motherboard has an SB-LINK connector. Most Pentium 3 and 4 motherboards have at least one of those options.

i81x chipsets are worst-case here, no SB-LINK, no DDMA. Not sure about TDMA either, that would be last option.

chinny22 wrote on 2025-02-26, 05:31:

Are you just using this PC for dos or will you be playing Windows games as well? […]
Show full quote

Are you just using this PC for dos or will you be playing Windows games as well?

If just dos all Creative PCI cards will sound the same and any of the other recommended cards will be better.
However if you also want to play Windows games those same cards are pretty basic, this is where the SoundBlaster Live or Audigy cards make more sense.

If it's mainly a Windows PC with the occasional dos game, I find the Creative cards are good enough.
But if your spending a lot of time in dos then it's worth getting 2 sound cards, one for dos and one for Windows

I'm using it for DOS and semi-modern Windows games (early 2000s).

But currently, mostly DOS games. As far as I understand from other replies to this post, the best pick would be a Live or Audigy card or

Sleaka_J wrote on 2025-02-26, 10:40:

I ran into this exact problem last year.

In the end, what I've done is built a completely new system with an ISA slot because PCI sound cards suck in pure DOS.

I can't afford to buy another DOS computer.

cyclone3d wrote on 2025-02-26, 04:47:

Yep, that board doesn't have PC-PCI / SB-LINK. Should still work fine with that board though you may / probably need one of the modified SETUPDS config utilities if you use one of the Yamaha based cards.

It should still work fine? How? Just put the ISA card into a PCI slot?

Yoghoo wrote on 2025-02-26, 09:14:

For PCI sound cards you can also look for an ALS4000. Got one of those and also the earlier mentioned SOLO-1. Both PCI cards work great under DOS.

Hm, this may be an option if it sounds good for what I need. A lot of them for sale for pretty cheap, although I can't really differentiate from chinese clones and real cards.
Attached are pictures of the cheapest card for sale in my country on second hand websites.

Upwader wrote on 2025-02-26, 14:07:

I'm using it for DOS and semi-modern Windows games (early 2000s).

But currently, mostly DOS games. As far as I understand from other replies to this post, the best pick would be a Live or Audigy card

If it was me I'd get a Live or Audigy and see how it goes in dos. For me I don't find it that bad but it's also not my primary dos machine

Upwader wrote on 2025-02-26, 14:07:

cyclone3d wrote on 2025-02-26, 04:47:

Yep, that board doesn't have PC-PCI / SB-LINK. Should still work fine with that board though you may / probably need one of the modified SETUPDS config utilities if you use one of the Yamaha based cards.

It should still work fine? How? Just put the ISA card into a PCI slot?

No you can't plug ISA cards into PCI slots, but PCI Yamaha cards also exist.

Yoghoo wrote on 2025-02-26, 09:14:

For PCI sound cards you can also look for an ALS4000. Got one of those and also the earlier mentioned SOLO-1. Both PCI cards work great under DOS.

Upwader wrote on 2025-02-26, 14:07:

Hm, this may be an option if it sounds good for what I need. A lot of them for sale for pretty cheap, although I can't really differentiate from chinese clones and real cards.
Attached are pictures of the cheapest card for sale in my country on second hand websites.

I think any card should be fine, The ALS 4000 was always a budget card, a budget card with very good dos support though!
I've also purchased one but haven't had a need to use it yet, either using an ISA slot or defaulting onto the Audigy for dos

dionb wrote on 2025-02-26, 12:21:

Yoghoo wrote on 2025-02-26, 12:04:

Sleaka_J wrote on 2025-02-26, 10:40:

In the end, what I've done is built a completely new system with an ISA slot because PCI sound cards suck in pure DOS.

That would be the easiest way indeed but not all PCI sound cards suck. The above mentioned SOLO-1, ALS4000 and Yamaha sound cards work perfectly fine for 99% of the DOS games. That is if your chipset supports DDMA, TDMA or your motherboard has an SB-LINK connector. Most Pentium 3 and 4 motherboards have at least one of those options.

i81x chipsets are worst-case here, no SB-LINK, no DDMA. Not sure about TDMA either, that would be last option.

That's what I had. And it's what the OP has. Intel did not make the i81x chipset with DOS in mind. It's not going to go well in DOS for the OP.

as others have said you cant go wrong with a sound blaster live providing you get the correct one, as some were made by dell which were cut down versions of creatives cards, i cant really reccomend when it comes to the 5.1 versions as i dont have one, i have a CT4620 which is the first live card and a CT4760 which is the first 4.1 card not really much difference in how they work so i'd recommend one of these models, both will work with the liveware 3.0 cd so driver install will be no bullshit straight forward,

for compatiblity in dos games you probably wont find a better card as everything just works, you'll also have working general midi in pure dos which isnt the case for all other sound cards as a lot use a softsynth so will only work in dos games from within windows. an audigy card should be just as compatible when it comes to dos games and sound wise wont be any different than a live card.

as for ISA card in pci slots there is an adapter but only for 8bit ISA, i dont know how well these work for sound cards or if they work at all.

I've bought an ALS4000 card. I hope it works well for my needs. I'll talk about it when it gets here. Thanks

Turns out the seller lived close to me, so I was able to go pick it up just now. I think it sounds pretty good.
Here's a video of me playing Wolf3D on it:
https://youtu.be/27Gm7Zlg-oo