Which sound card works great with XP?

[Fuzz009]

Subject says it all. Which sound card do you know of that runs in xp without any probs. Especially while playing games like CS????

Thanks for all replies!

 

[DISTURBED]

Steer clear of any Hercules cards, they suck with XP.

 

[chaotictech]

Dont use any aureal cards, The drivers suck. Try any creative live card(even though i dont particularlylike them) they seem to have the best support for xp right now.

When I go into a computer store I lose all means of reason for some reason.

 

[Fuzz009]

Yea amen to the aureal. That is what i have right now. I got it to work right for some things doing the vortex2fix. HOwever, that made my other wierd stuff to start happening while playing games. I disabled it. Everything runs fine.

Thanks for your replies and keep them coming!!

 

[blah]

Yeah, if you are on AMD setup, say amen to Aurial, if you are sitting on Intel setup like my game box,.. well, I hold my own self to say that yet... hehe

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[FatBurger]

My review of the Hercules Game Theatre XP is <A HREF="http://www.impactsites2000.com/tekreview/audioxp.htm" target="_new">here</A>. I highly recommend it, although I haven't used it in XP. Hercules' sound card drivers are less than perfect.

I have had nothing but problems with Creative cards, mostly because of drivers. I don't recommend them to anyone.

That said, you can also try Turtle Beach, if you like. I had a Philips Seismic Edge and hated it. Drivers were poor, and the chip on it was really bad. All three Philips cards use the same chip.

Hercules supposedly has a new card coming out soon, but I have no info on that.

Hope my post helps, but I suspect it didn't

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>

 

[Fuzz009]

hmmm i have seen so many replies each way. GO with creative..stay away from creative..argghhh.

Nice review though on the hercules

please more help..who is running xp and what are you running?

Thanks a lot of the replies!!!

 

[blah]

>> please more help..who is running xp and what are you running?

As I have stated, I am running MX300 with XP, using Win2k's drivers, runs like MX300, nothing less. On the other PC running basic SB64-128 card, has no problems with XP's drivers.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[Guest]

I would try this Turtle Beach
http://www.voyetra-turtle-beach.com/site/products/santacru/

 

[Crashman]

Microsoft has their own version of the Vortex2 drivers. If you've ever used a Vortex 2 in Win98 you probably know of the superior sound quality (unless you set it up wrong or were using a VIA chipset). If you tried to carry those drivers over to XP that may be your problem-try Microsofts drivers. I had XP with MS drivers for the Vortex2 and had no problems with the soundcard (but I didn't like XP for other reasons).

Back to you Tom...

 

[Guest]

Just to confuse things more, I disagree with Fatburger on the Philips cards. I have the Acoustic Edge and it sounds great and has zero problems. In fact, I purchased it to get around problems I was experiencing with an SBlive 5.1 Platinum. When a friend (to whom I had just sold my SBlive 5.1 Platinum) heard my Acoustic Edge for the first time, he was blown away. Both of us agreed that the AE sounded better than the "top of the line" Creative product (this was before Audigy release).

The review on Tom's site also states that they really liked the sound of the Philips, though they often lost 1-2 fps in games over competing cards. It was the lowest in CPU utilization on MP3s, though. Philips released new drivers as of late August, so I'm not sure they were using the new ones during their review.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. - Mark Twain

 

[arsend]

Just pray you know how to use the SB card if you have a Via chipset (hint, make sure it stays in the #3 PCI Slot)

If it works for you then don't fix it.

 

[FatBurger]

so I'm not sure they were using the new ones during their review.

I talked to David Stellmack about that review (through email), and he made sure he was using the newest of everything (unless otherwise noted).

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>

 

[forgettythatty]

I'm just wondering what makes you say the drivers are less than perfect? Do you mean they suck with winxp or that they are good but not perfect with win 9x/2k?

 

[Guest]

I thought the SoundBlaster Probs. got fixed a couple releases ago of the 4-in-1 drivers. ?????

I haven't been havin' any problems with mine, except I did have to play slot-swap for a while to get it on an IRQ by itself.

 

[FatBurger]

Their drivers are a little unstable (although I haven't proved that it is the sound card drivers), and don't yet work in XP (I have W2k). Supposedly this week they will release drivers that work in XP, something that Kyle from HardOCP says is true. Supposedly he has them and they work well.

And no, I installed about 3 different versions of the 4-in-1's (along with several other fixes), and it didn't help any.

<font color=green>I post so you don't have to!
9/11 - RIP</font color=green>

 

[Fuzz009]

hmm i guess going with creative will be smart in the long run. Big company..usually means big support. JUst takes time.

Thanks all for posting

 

[chaotictech]

Ok I told you in my first post to go with a soundblaster live card.
But I now have the best sounding card I've tried and its a turtle beach santa cruz. This thing puts out awsome sound and it has xp drivers(you have to get them from the site). W2k drivers worked fine in xp also. So far its the only card that didnt give me trouble from the getgo.

If you ever stop learning, YOUR DEAD!!

 

[Fuzz009]

Ok you sold me chaotictech. I am going with the santa cruz!!! THanks alot for your help.

 

[FatBurger]

going with creative will be smart in the long run

Not at all. They have incredibly infrequent driver updates, even when there are glaring problems that should be easily fixable.

BTW, the new GTXP drivers work great in XP. I haven't really noticed any difference in games (UT), with the 'virtual 6.1', but it does add support for 6.1 speakers.

<font color=orange>Quarter <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>

 

[AEboy128]

I'm running XP home with a live and was fine till i needed to use some software that came with the card and had to install creative's drivers to get the software. My computer has been unstable since. If you do get a Live DO NOT use creative's drivers.

My system: <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=8946" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=8946</A>