VOGONS


First post, by C0deHunter

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Hello all,
I acquired a mint P3 system that comes with a pristine Sound Blaster Ensoniq AudioPCI (Model ES1371). I would like to know your thoughts on this card, as I have never heard about it.
This is a link posted on Wikipedia regarding the history of this card:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensoniq_AudioPC … 1371_and_ES1373

Your comments and insights as always are greatly appreciated!

Driver:
Voggon's Library:
https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fil … 490&menustate=0

Sound Blaster PCI cards Web Update for users running Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000 or Windows XP (Sound Blaster Ensoniq AudioPCI):

https://support.creative.com/products/product … audiopci&page=5

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 1 of 6, by Joseph_Joestar

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It has software EAX and terrible FM synth emulation. Meaning, it will slow your system down in EAX games and sound like crap in DOS games which use FM synth music.

On the plus side, its SB16 compatibility (for digitized audio) is fairly decent and its General MIDI sounds passable, though not great. As someone who has owned one back in the day, I would only use such a card as a last resort.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 2 of 6, by leileilol

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C0deHunter wrote on 2022-08-12, 05:36:

I have never heard about it.

HOW
This is probably one of the more ubiquitous PCI sound cards that's found in a lot of casual PC setups long after the release.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-08-12, 06:03:

Meaning, it will slow your system down in EAX games and sound like crap in DOS games which use FM synth music.

Ironically, it's found to be one of the faster PCI sound cards to use in Windows.

Note that the ES1371 is when AudioPCI started meeting AC'97 compliance, therefore 48KHz mixing constantly and 44khz games get resampled.

With regards to DOS compatibility though, it's a major step up from slightly later onboard audio based on SoundMAX.

Last edited by leileilol on 2022-08-12, 06:08. Edited 1 time in total.

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 3 of 6, by C0deHunter

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Thanks for responding!
OK, I have the following cards laying around, which one should I use for my P3 (800MHz) system (Abit BH6):

Sound Blaster PCI 128
Yamaha YMF724F-V
AWE64 OEM
SBLive!

I am not planning to play ANY DOS games at all, only Win9X/2K based games.

Thanks!

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 4 of 6, by Joseph_Joestar

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leileilol wrote on 2022-08-12, 06:04:

Ironically, it's found to be one of the faster PCI sound cards to use in Windows.

Yup, for non-EAX games it is fast, probably due to low driver overhead. But if you run something like UT99 or Drakan with EAX enabled, the performance hit is very noticeable.

C0deHunter wrote on 2022-08-12, 06:07:

I am not planning to play ANY DOS games at all, only Win9X/2K based games.

From the cards that you listed, SBLive is the best option for that use case.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 5 of 6, by DrLucienSanchez

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That was the first card I ever used, finished Doom on it. MIDI was tolerable, and the 2MB .ECW actually sounded nicer than the 8MB file. EAX enabled, as noted above, really gives a performance hit - Descent 3 comes to mind, and even Baldur's Gate suffered some lag in cave or outside areas with EAX enabled.

Classic rig - MS6156 Ver 1.0 Bx7 Slot1 Motherboard - Pentium II Deschutes 400Mhz, 320MB PC100 RAM, 20GB SATA Toshiba 2.5 via IDE/SATA converter, Intel i740 8Mb AGP, Sun Microsystems 16" CRT Monitor - PN17J0 CRT monitor

Reply 6 of 6, by C0deHunter

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Thank you!

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)