Reply 20 of 51, by HunterZ
- Rank
- l33t++
wrote:wrote:Creative PCI cards all use rebranded Ensoniq drivers for DOS support as far as I know. Avoid IMO.
How come? I had excellent results with later DOS Games (Doom and later)...
- Having to load a DOS driver wastes conventional/upper memory, limiting your options
- The DOS drivers had poor OPL emulation
- The MIDI support provided by the DOS drivers used mediocre Ensoniq 2/4/8MB .ECW "wavesets" instead of soundfonts (not sure if external synth via gameport is possible in DOS, as I don't remember trying it), and I think it may have required EMS
- Many of Creative's early PCI cards (PCI64/128, Live! and possibly Audigy) violated PCI standards which caused compatibility issues (popping/crackling/BSOD/etc.) in some people's systems
Never used an Aureal-based card but I heard they were arguably better than their Creative contemporaries in many important ways, which is probably why Creative litigated Aureal into the ground.