I might be wrong, but the only Creative cards to support both 98 and XP are regular PCI (like the sound blaster live and audigy cards)

Win98 supports upto Audigy 2 ZS / Audigy 4 so EAX 4 is as far as you can go.

Very few games even in XP era support EAX4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_EAX_support

You can get non creative cards like the list below, but without double checking pretty sure none support Win98 and would bet none of the PCI-E ones do as even Win98 was long dead when PCI-E hit mainstream.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mu_20K#Third_party

I know for a fact that the Audigy RX works in windows XP - it uses an emu10k chip

you might be able to get it to work in windows 98 with an INF mod.

PCI-PCI-E adapter + Audigy/Audigy 2/Audigy 2 ZS

Thanks everyone for your replies!

The Serpent Rider wrote:

PCI-PCI-E adapter + Audigy/Audigy 2/Audigy 2 ZS

Out of curiosity, have you tried it yourself or heard it worked for someone? I ask because I heard those adapters can be very finicky and their feasibility can vary between models (which are also usually some off-brand manufacture).

As Duffman said the Audigy Rx is an EMU10K. Based on the Linux kernel patch for it, it uses the Audigy 4 driver (basically just an Audigy 4 behind an PCIe/PCI bridge). So in theory the Audigy 4 driver could work with it on 98 although I'm not sure if anyone has ever tried.

a pci-e card with win98 drivers... i have one, it's in the saddle bag of my unicorn. 😀

Audigy Rx (called Audigy 5 in some regions) is actually an Audigy 4 behind a PLX PCI-PCIe bridge.

It uses the same chip (CA10300) as Audigy 4 and bears the same specs as it (such as SNR).

Not sure if you can mod its drivers to work with Win9x, but it should work under XP just like Audigy 4.

Out of curiosity, have you tried it yourself or heard it worked for someone?

I know X-Fi works with some adapters. Probably will require to find an adapter with the same chip installed on Rx.

Cobra42898 wrote on 2019-08-22, 23:25:

a pci-e card with win98 drivers... i have one, it's in the saddle bag of my unicorn. 😀

CMI 8738 in pcie x1 format. It has win98 drivers. Works fine with WDM drivers (can't say I bothered testing the vxd ones). Low profile versions do exist on aliexpress as well, normal one is far more common. Sorry for necro but needed to be mentioned if anyone googles this thread (like me...).

Mitchellin wrote on 2023-11-25, 21:49:

Cobra42898 wrote on 2019-08-22, 23:25:

a pci-e card with win98 drivers... i have one, it's in the saddle bag of my unicorn. 😀

CMI 8738 in pcie x1 format. It has win98 drivers. Works fine with WDM drivers (can't say I bothered testing the vxd ones). Low profile versions do exist on aliexpress as well, normal one is far more common. Sorry for necro but needed to be mentioned if anyone googles this thread (like me...).

Guess what I was just googling! Lol 😂

Looks like you might have found me a pcie sound card for my windows 98 time machine.

I'm also running a pcie ATi X800 GTO 256MB on the system too, but I only have one old PCI slot on the motherboard and I was planning on putting a Voodoo 2 in it.

Thanks!

Edit:

Have you tried them? Do they work well and sound OK?

Looking through the listing I see some of them come with solid state capacitors. Would these be the better one to buy?

Do you think any of them will run in windows 98? Or do I need one that specifically states windows 98 in the description?

Is there any DOS 7 compatibility at all do you know?

Cheers.

The quality of the sound coming out may vary, I'd deffo try and get the solid caps one just in case. CMI8738 is well known for having poor implementations. They do work in win98se, but no DOS support as far as I can tell. If you're stuck with pcie x1 then you got two options, a USB DAC (something like a soundblaster play 3! ) or this cmi8738 in pcie-x1 format. I'd say the CMI option is definitely the superior choice but nowhere near the classic Vortex2/SBLive duo in terms of sound quality and features.