The issue with any of these cards is that they're all PCI cards. None of them will work terribly well for DOS, with very spotty compatibility.

You might be able to use the Ensoniq/Creative PCI DOS TSRs to get some level of compatibility with the CT4670 or CT4830 - see Phil's video on the Ensoniq AudioPCI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJrrUYg2hsE

I'm not aware of any of the SB Live cards working better in DOS than any of the other SB Live cards – so just pick one. While some use SBINIT.COM and some use SBEINIT.COM, I've never been entirely sure what the difference is.

GiSWiG wrote:

I've read that I might have better success with the VIA chipset.

There were actually some VIA chipsets that had some big problems with the SB Live, but I suppose those are all much older than what you are using.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/04/12/datac … s_via_chipsets/

Some earlier VIA chipsets have PCI compatibility issues. Conversely, VIA (along with SIS) supported DMA and IRQ sideband techniques for DOS PCI sound card compatibility longer than Intel and NVidia.

The ASUS K8V Deluxe is a VIA K8T800 chipset. This is well pass the Apollo series. And yes, they are PCI and although not ideal for DOS, they are not horrible and the only option for such a system. I'll have a 440BX w/ ISA sound for real DOS games.

Sorry for bumping such an old topic up but my question is exactly the same so I felt it's a waste to open another one for it.

The SB0200 is an oem garbage that doesn't even play well in Win9X, throw that to the trash right away.

I have got an SB0100 as it was recommended in other threads as it supposed to be a genuine creative card which works in a large variety of OS-es. That is true so so however in DOS for example I having issues with some of the games like Lost Vikings => bad sounding music, Doom => sound just cease to exist at one point till I restart the game.

The issue is not even DOS but when you try to get this SB0160 work in BSDs for example I just noticed NetBSD reboots the whole machine as soon as you try to access the sound device, OpenBSD does not seems to like it either regardless the /dev/em0 is created.

Anyway I also looking to replace this with some super compatible sound card which works from DOS in anything.

In another thread I have found this:

Audigy2 has a same DSP like Audigy except P16V registers which are necessary to play DVD Audio honest 96 kHz. And 6.1/7.1 support. All these options are empty for Windows 98, you never use them. Therefore best choice for 98 is SB0160 model with gameport and without firewire.

Would anyone recommend the SB0160?

According to Creative's page:

https://support.creative.com/Products/Product … e=Sound+Blaster

I don't see a DOS driver. Is the SB0160 works in DOS?

I don't want to have 2 sound cards and the machine is PCI only so I can't have an ISA card hanging in there for DOS.

There is no SB Live! that is good for DOS.

Gopher666 wrote on 2021-07-05, 07:50:

Would anyone recommend the SB0160?

It appears to be similar to the original Audigy except for missing the FireWire port. In terms of DOS compatibility, the Audigy will be largely the same as the SBLive. It does come with slightly newer drivers, so that may help a bit, but don't expect too much improvement.

DOS drivers should be available on the installation CD. Not sure which disc is the best for your particular model, but you can find several versions here.

Since the PCI cards all need EMS some games won't run at all (e.g. Ultima VII) and supposedly the sound is way inferior. So a Live! card is never a good choice for a system that should also be able to play DOS games.

For a pure DOS machine just use any old crappy ISA Sound Blaster, they are still common and cheap. Every second beige machine in the e-waste has one in it. Use your PCI card in a later OS

ESS Solo 1 doesn't require EMS for DOS emulation. If you're limited to PCI then get either that or SB Live.

What are the rest of your system specs?
Motherboard chipset plays a big roll in what
PCI sound cards will work properly in DOS.

Let's keep this discussion Sound Blaster related only. I have just checked Phil's YT video about the ESS Solo and not bad actually game wise but I remember having these cards in the past and they counted as low profile alternatives in the age of Sound Blasters.

As I have said the machine does NOT have ISA, pci only. Now I start to understand why do I see 2 sound cards in those retro builds, they keep an ISA for specifically for DOS games 😒

System specs: Aopen i855GMEm-LFS with 2.2Ghz CPU and 1GB ram.

Gopher666 wrote on 2021-07-05, 17:57:

Let's keep this discussion Sound Blaster related only. I have just checked Phil's YT video about the ESS Solo and not bad actually game wise but I remember having these cards in the past and they counted as low profile alternatives in the age of Sound Blasters.

This is a misconception, there have been few audio cards that were a lower profile than a Sound Blaster 16 onwards.