First post, by draetheus
Due to scrapping several thrift store PCs, I ended up with enough spare parts to build another Athlon 64 rig. Naturally I ordered another YMF744, but while I wait, I decided to test out the onboard Realtek AC97 sound. Predictably I ran into issues installing the WDM drivers, but I discovered Realtek publishes VXD drivers under "Windows 95 only". Not only did these install fine, but I also got functional SB 16 emulation under Windows 98! Its not great, but certainly no worse than Creative's own SB 16 emulation to my ears 😜 Obviously no support for real MS-DOS mode, 3D audio, EAX, etc, so if you have a spare PCI slot, use it. I see this as a great option for thin clients with no PCI slots or thin clients/ITX boards with a single PCI slot when graphics performance is a bigger priority.
