Bus speed is not affected by cpu speed. Some sound cards have their own crystal, others rely on the bus.

The problem is speed sensitive games, and yes they are a problem. Not just for sound, but running generally. And yes 486 is too fast for many of them. Best bet is to upgrade to a Pentium MMX and use setmul to get slow 386 speeds which is ok for most late 80s early 90s games.

CT1350B is indeed a speed sensitive card. Maybe it's the controller ICs it has maybe the way it is designed but it does crap out on fast systems.
I am not sure if 486/100 will have issues but a pentium1 certainly has.
Maybe it is better to use the CT1600 instead ?

Some old software, when run on a fast CPU, may have problems detecting/operating the sound card, especially if the sound card is old and based on slow components - eg. OPL2 is known to need relatively long delays between accesses to its registers.
However, a 486 is easily slowed down, by switching it to de-turbo and/or disabling caches, which should solve such issues.

A game running on the same pentium system on full speed will fail with CT1350B but will be OK with CT1600
could just be the opl2 in the card - it certainly does not help with fast systems
this is beyond a software issue of a game's sound driver crapping out due to system speed with the 1350B you have both hardware and software speed sensitivity issues sadly

Regardless of speed issues, the CT1350B is mono and noisy so I wouldn't use one in a system that will have DOOM installed - I think it's a universal law that all 486s have to have DOOM installed? A SB Pro 2 or SB16 is the ticket

badmojo wrote on 2020-01-19, 01:48:

Regardless of speed issues, the CT1350B is mono and noisy so I wouldn't use one in a system that will have DOOM installed - I think it's a universal law that all 486s have to have DOOM installed? A SB Pro 2 or SB16 is the ticket

Or one of the better SB Pro workalikes.

keropi wrote on 2020-01-18, 09:18:

CT1350B is indeed a speed sensitive card. Maybe it's the controller ICs it has maybe the way it is designed but it does crap out on fast systems.
I am not sure if 486/100 will have issues but a pentium1 certainly has.
Maybe it is better to use the CT1600 instead ?

I’m considering install two sound cards, CT3900 AWE32 for windows 95 and CT1350B SB 2.0 or CT2600 SB Pro 2 for DOS. Therefore I want to gather more pros and cons about SB 2.0 and SB Pro 2 in the 486 system.

kolderman wrote on 2020-01-18, 09:05:

Bus speed is not affected by cpu speed. Some sound cards have their own crystal, others rely on the bus.

The problem is speed sensitive games, and yes they are a problem. Not just for sound, but running generally. And yes 486 is too fast for many of them. Best bet is to upgrade to a Pentium MMX and use setmul to get slow 386 speeds which is ok for most late 80s early 90s games.

Yes. It must be bus speed. Normal ISA clock speed is 8MHz I remember. How about 486 system? If the bus speed of 486 system is the same as 8MHz, the bus speed will not be a problem for SB 2.0 in the 486 system, isn’t it?

badmojo wrote on 2020-01-19, 01:48:

Regardless of speed issues, the CT1350B is mono and noisy so I wouldn't use one in a system that will have DOOM installed - I think it's a universal law that all 486s have to have DOOM installed? A SB Pro 2 or SB16 is the ticket

I’m considering install two sound cards, CT3900 AWE32 and SB 2.0 or SB Pro 2. If there is already one option of using AWE 32 and want to install another one, which one will be better?

I run a CT1600 in my Pentium 90 and it has no speed issues other than the software that doesn't like fast CPUs. I run a CT1320C in my 286 8Mhz which works well there.

ychh0 wrote on 2020-01-19, 04:48:

badmojo wrote on 2020-01-19, 01:48:

Regardless of speed issues, the CT1350B is mono and noisy so I wouldn't use one in a system that will have DOOM installed - I think it's a universal law that all 486s have to have DOOM installed? A SB Pro 2 or SB16 is the ticket

I’m considering install two sound cards, CT3900 AWE32 and SB 2.0 or SB Pro 2. If there is already one option of using AWE 32 and want to install another one, which one will be better?

What do those other cards do that the AWE32 don't?

kolderman wrote on 2020-01-19, 05:28:

What do those other cards do that the AWE32 don't?

CMS
SB Pro in stereo

Now, is it possible to install all three cards in one PC?

Grzyb wrote on 2020-01-19, 08:31:

Now, is it possible to install all three cards in one PC?

Well, there's another way (among many others) of archiving that..
- Goldfinch Card for EMU8K support
- WSS card for OPL3 and SP Pro Stereo and 16-Bit PCM
- A Creative Music System (Gameblaster) clone

😉

Edit:
A combination that I once did was this:
- PAS16
- SB16 CT1740
- Goldfinch Card

That way, I got two 16-Bit DACs (SB16/PAS16) and two 8-Bit DACs (SB16/Thunderboard)..
Although configuration was a bit of a mess (OPL3s conflicted a bit until solved).

However, that way, I got a real MPU-401 and and EMU8000 synth as an extra.
Anyway, a Sound Blaster 32 (SB32) and a PAS16 or WSS/SB Pro likely would have been sufficient. 😀

I don't think the WSS has SB Pro compatibility. Prove me wrong, please. I just got one and have yet to configure the DOS drivers, so for now all I have is OPL3 in DOS. I would love to play Wolf3D in stereo.

ychh0 wrote on 2020-01-19, 04:38:

Yes. It must be bus speed. Normal ISA clock speed is 8MHz I remember. How about 486 system? If the bus speed of 486 system is the same as 8MHz, the bus speed will not be a problem for SB 2.0 in the 486 system, isn’t it?

ISA is 8MHz, period. (Plus/minus a fraction depending on the systems front-side bus and the divider. E.g., 33MHz / 4 is not 8.000, but it'll do.)

The speed issue with early cards is not the bus, it's how fast the sound card's onboard controller responds to commands issued by the CPU. The CPU and the sound card can only speak at 8MHz to each other, but faster CPUs with faster caches will chew through instructions faster than a 286 will. So, it might say "Hey Sound Blaster, you there bro?" and then walk away before the slow SB 2.0 has a chance to say "uhhhh, yup. Iiiii'mmmm heeeerrree alllllright." Or it might give the SB DAC or the OPL2 a list of things to do faster than the DAC or OPL2 can write them down, which overruns them and leads to glitches.

IMO, there is no reason to put more than one Sound Blaster card into a computer. If you want stereo, don't add an SB Pro / SB16 to a Sound Blaster 2.0. Just use the Pro/16. Same for the AWE. An AWE is an SB16 + onboard wavetable MIDI. People talk about the problem of not having true stereo SB Pro compatibility with an SB16/AWE, but if you make a list of all the games that support SB Pro but not native SB16, it will be a short list.

486 + SB16 = <3 Add a Goldfinch or replace with an AWE if you'd like. Stick the SB Pro in your 386 / 486SX. The SB 2.0 goes in a 286 or 386SX.

Haha! love the scenario

SirNickity wrote on 2020-01-21, 20:51:

ISA is 8MHz, period. (Plus/minus a fraction depending on the systems front-side bus and the divider. E.g., 33MHz / 4 is not 8. […]
Show full quote

ychh0 wrote on 2020-01-19, 04:38:

Yes. It must be bus speed. Normal ISA clock speed is 8MHz I remember. How about 486 system? If the bus speed of 486 system is the same as 8MHz, the bus speed will not be a problem for SB 2.0 in the 486 system, isn’t it?

ISA is 8MHz, period. (Plus/minus a fraction depending on the systems front-side bus and the divider. E.g., 33MHz / 4 is not 8.000, but it'll do.)

The speed issue with early cards is not the bus, it's how fast the sound card's onboard controller responds to commands issued by the CPU. The CPU and the sound card can only speak at 8MHz to each other, but faster CPUs with faster caches will chew through instructions faster than a 286 will. So, it might say "Hey Sound Blaster, you there bro?" and then walk away before the slow SB 2.0 has a chance to say "uhhhh, yup. Iiiii'mmmm heeeerrree alllllright." Or it might give the SB DAC or the OPL2 a list of things to do faster than the DAC or OPL2 can write them down, which overruns them and leads to glitches.

IMO, there is no reason to put more than one Sound Blaster card into a computer. If you want stereo, don't add an SB Pro / SB16 to a Sound Blaster 2.0. Just use the Pro/16. Same for the AWE. An AWE is an SB16 + onboard wavetable MIDI. People talk about the problem of not having true stereo SB Pro compatibility with an SB16/AWE, but if you make a list of all the games that support SB Pro but not native SB16, it will be a short list.

486 + SB16 = <3 Add a Goldfinch or replace with an AWE if you'd like. Stick the SB Pro in your 386 / 486SX. The SB 2.0 goes in a 286 or 386SX.