Good soundcard for PCI will be Sound Blaster Live!, that card have even good OPL emulation, so you can have good sound in Commander Keen and Wolfenstein3D, but avoid Sound Blaster 128 because that card have very bad OPL emulation.

There have already been many threads on this subject in recent weeks. I suggest you spend a few minutes searching the forums.

If you are trying to use DOS on a Pentium 4 or anything else newer than that, then a PCI sound card will never work.

Jorpho wrote:

There have already been many threads on this subject in recent weeks. I suggest you spend a few minutes searching the forums.

If you are trying to use DOS on a Pentium 4 or anything else newer than that, then a PCI sound card will never work.

I have rig with Pentium IV 1.7 and I use Sound Blaster Live! there and Win98SE and I have good sound in every game I tried, even in CK4-6 or Wolfenstein3D, and DOOM1-2.

It'll work fine on a P4 if the SB supports sb-link and the motherboard has the header.

Here's some info to read.
Recommend a PCI Sound Card for DOS
Please recommend a pci sound card for an intel i810 board
Yamaha YMF7x4 Guide
List of motherboards with SB-link (PC/PCI) header

Tiger433 wrote:

Jorpho wrote:

If you are trying to use DOS on a Pentium 4 or anything else newer than that, then a PCI sound card will never work.

I use Sound Blaster Live! there and Win98SE

Yes, Win98SE is not DOS. 😒

Tiger433 wrote:

Good soundcard for PCI will be Sound Blaster Live!, that card have even good OPL emulation

That is incorrect.

Tiger433 wrote:

Good soundcard for PCI will be Sound Blaster Live!, that card have even good OPL emulation, so you can have good sound in Commander Keen and Wolfenstein3D

what SB/CT Model is it? as there are alot of Sound Blaster Live! PCIs

thanks in advance

gdjacobs wrote:

Tiger433 wrote:

Good soundcard for PCI will be Sound Blaster Live!, that card have even good OPL emulation

That is incorrect.

why that? what would you recommend?

thanks

Jorpho wrote:

There have already been many threads on this subject in recent weeks. I suggest you spend a few minutes searching the forums.

If you are trying to use DOS on a Pentium 4 or anything else newer than that, then a PCI sound card will never work.

I know there are too many threads to make sense of it

well i want it for more win 98 SE but i do have dos games that can run though win 98 but running though pure dos environment would be a bonus

pcwizard7 wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

Tiger433 wrote:

Good soundcard for PCI will be Sound Blaster Live!, that card have even good OPL emulation

That is incorrect.

why that? what would you recommend?

thanks

The OPL3 emulation is, in fact, pretty terrible, the DOS support can be problematic due to the requirement of DDMA and NMI trapping hacks in the driver, and the re-sampling method for 44.1k to 48k creates horrible artifacts. On the plus side, it does give you EAX support.

Your choice will depend on what your priority is. DOS compatibility is probably best served with a Yamaha based PCI card using sb-link. Vortex 2 is the best choice for games that support A3D (and is pretty good at DOS, too). A Live or Audigy is the best option for EAX titles. High fidelity audio is best served with an M-Audio card, one of the higher end Terratecs, or similar (supporting multiple dac clocks).

pcwizard7 wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

Tiger433 wrote:

Good soundcard for PCI will be Sound Blaster Live!, that card have even good OPL emulation

That is incorrect.

why that? what would you recommend?

thanks

That`s CT4670 SoundBlaster Live! Value, I recommend that because I have good sound in every game with that card, OPL emulation is far better than on SoundBlaster 128 which sounds terrible, I have also that SB128 CT4810 and I tested both and CT4670 has correct sound with CK4-6 and Wolfenstein3D and CT4810 have terrible sound in these games. And I used with that SBLive!Value win98SE and ran good, and I don`t have any problems with any game there.

gdjacobs wrote:

Tiger433 wrote:

Good soundcard for PCI will be Sound Blaster Live!, that card have even good OPL emulation

That is incorrect.

That`s not incorrect because that card have much better sound in OPL emulation than SoundBlaster 128 (CT4810).

That comparison is irrelevant. How does SB Live emulation compare to real OPL3? What about the other limitations I highlighted?

*moved to marvin*

OPL/Adlib on SB-Live are crap, and you can only use some and not all Live's in Dos, and only when loading EMM386.
In pure Dos, Live cards are only good for SB16 (Soundefects) and Midi-Music.
If you ask me, YMF-724 cards are the best for pure Dos. Because they have SB-Link and has OPL-Core.
Though they can not use GM in pure dos, it can be used from within Win9X in a Dos window.
They have all the usual 3d-sound-stuff, just as Vortex2 cards have.

The second best in my book, are Vortex2 cards. I call them second best because I have no hands
on experience and only know what have been written here on Vogons.
If I can source one in the future, then I might change my mind on 724 vs. Vortex2 cards.

gdjacobs wrote:

if the SB supports sb-link and the motherboard has the header.

Only AWE64-D and AWE64-PCI has SB-Link. There are two CT models out there.
Hard to source. Really hard to source.

brostenen wrote:

Only AWE64-D and AWE64-PCI has SB-Link. There are two CT models out there.
Hard to source. Really hard to source.

Sorry, SB=South Bridge.

gdjacobs wrote:

brostenen wrote:

Only AWE64-D and AWE64-PCI has SB-Link. There are two CT models out there.
Hard to source. Really hard to source.

Sorry, SB=South Bridge.

Ahhh, and that explain's it..... 🤣 Sorry for not reading it correct.
Was there not some kind of hack that can be made, in order to add a SB-Link header, if the chipset supports it?
I remember reading about having to solder the connector straight onto the pins of some chip/chips or something.

brostenen wrote:

Ahhh, and that explain's it..... :lol: Sorry for not reading it correct. Was there not some kind of hack that can be made, in or […]
Show full quote

gdjacobs wrote:

brostenen wrote:

Only AWE64-D and AWE64-PCI has SB-Link. There are two CT models out there.
Hard to source. Really hard to source.

Sorry, SB=South Bridge.

Ahhh, and that explain's it..... 🤣 Sorry for not reading it correct.
Was there not some kind of hack that can be made, in order to add a SB-Link header, if the chipset supports it?
I remember reading about having to solder the connector straight onto the pins of some chip/chips or something.

In theory it's possible since the southbridge has the signals for the PC/PCI interface if it's supported. However most southbridge chips of that era were already in BGA packages, and as such there are no "pins" exposed to the underside of the PCB because they aren't through-hole components. Thus if the motherboard manufacturer hasn't connected traces to the balls on the underside of the chips and brought them out somewhere on the motherboard (and they wouldn't have a reason to do so unless they intended to implement a SB-link header themselves) you're out of luck.