Creative Audigy!!

[Technoid]

One of our supliers had the Audigy in stock.

So I ordered the cheapest one to test....(And that one was expensive!!)

Probably get It tomorrow and I will have a detailed review of it by saturday.

As I Dualboot I will test it in both W2K and Win98SE (Sorry I hate WINME).

And In my NLE machine (Vidcapture system and editing).

[Technoid]

S**T!

I just checked my supliers online site and eiter they are lying through their theets or I did not ask if they had them in stock....

Pc. Description Price/St Price Deliverdate
1 Soundcard Audigy Player PCI Retail ***.** ***.*** 27.09.01
And then they sent it requiring 1 to 2 days

Thats funny because I have gothen the habit of alway asking if they have it in stock before I order it. (back orders suck)

[Gurm]

To save you some trouble...

On my machine (and you all KNOW just how goddamned picky I am) it is near-perfect.

No SMP trouble, no VIA trouble, no RAID trouble.

No corrupted sounds. Works with every single freaking game.

Wonderful little card. Oh, did I mention the onboard 1394?

- Gurm

[Technoid]

Sounds great, I cant wait!

Gurm I willl test it with something that is pickier than you!

My old Matrox RRG.....

[Jammrock]

is it just me or...uh...did Gurm just praise a Creative Labs sound card?

Jammrock

[Indiana]

Some further questions:

1. Does it still sound as crappy as the Live?

2. What about CPU contention (again, here the Live was unbearable...)
3. What about AC3 out from DVD-players in Win2k?

4. What about the drivers? Still 20+MB and ridiculously high latency?

[[GDI]Raptor]

SB Audigy...

Haven got it in Sweden yet....... We have in Norway!!!

Yesterday I orderd a Sound Blaster Audigy Platinium EX from an importer, and the package was mailed today.... I should have the card tomorow if i get to the post office in time, something that's not likely to happen, so friday........

I'll tell you my experience whith Win2k & WinXP when I get the opertunety to test everything.....

[isochar]

1. The Audigy is much better than the sound quality of the Live!
2. You mean CPU utilization? Very, very low.
3. Don't have a 5.1 setup connected to my comp. (But there is a feature for it in the surround mixer)
4. The drivers are only ~5mb. All the extra crap that they throw in there is what makes the packages so large. Yes, I still get latency during the installation, as well as a slower boot-up time.

Definately the best card out there for now... (far from perfect, though)

[GT98]

I've heard problems with these cards and Via chipsets still. I really didnt get into depth reading the postings though..then again with the way Gurm bitches about sound cards on here and at the Hercules forum..well I guess Soundblaster does have something good now

Scott

[Dr Mordrid]

Well, if it doesn't work out you can always go with a Santa Cruz.

They just released CERTIFIED Win2K & XP drivers that also reduce CPU utilization even more than before. Soon you won't be able to measure it

Dr. Mordrid

[Gurm]

Ahh... certified Santa Cruz drivers are just as bad as previous betas - which is to say glitchy with certain video codecs (!!! yes video, crashes with a blue screen even if audio is disabled !!!), and no luck with Infinity Engine games.

As for the Audigy, it has <10ms ASIO latency (albeit limited ASIO functionality, but hey it's a start), very low CPU utilization, and those reports of VIA problems are REALLY REALLY spotty. Like, nobody can corroborate them, and the people posting them MIGHT just be people who can't deal with their motherboards.

- Gurm

[Novdid]

Seems like I'm getting an Audigy platinum+KT266A+1,5GHz Palomino by x-mas.

I think it will be a better package than the nForce. (Nvidia, ughhh!!!)

[Dr Mordrid]

Grum,

What kind of problems have you actually SEEN with the TBSC using the certified drivers? Or are you depending on the rumblings of others who may or may not have screwed systems?

I'm using the certified drivers in Win2K-SP2 and XP with NO problems at all. As in none, nada, zippo. NO BSOD's, no crashes, no instabilities.

I'm talking about 7 different editing systems using both Athlon and Intel CPU's and RT-2000, G450-eTV, Marvel G400-TV, Hauppage WinTV Theater and OHCI DV editing hardware. I'm also using both Premiere 6.01 and MSPro 6.5.

It's also rock solid in Win98SE using the 4081 drivers and the same editing hardware.

All of my systems are at least triple boots of Win98SE, Win2K and XP with a few having Linux as well.

Of course one might get problems if they don't read the install docs. The certified drivers require DirectX8 for both OS's and SP2 for Win2K. But then that's a personal responsibility issue and not the card or drivers fault.

Dr. Mordrid

[MultimediaMan]

Gurm's problems revolve around the bastard VIA chipset.

My 440BX-based Duallie has far fewer issues in general than a VIA based board.

I too, have set up the latest iteration of my Duallie with Win98SE/Win2K Pro just to make it a little easier tweaking some settings.

And, as you are all WELL AWARE , I've loaded my Duallie down pretty heavily as far as hardware goes: The IRQ sharing going on is notewarthy, yet the system is utterly stable (In Win98SE and in Win2K).

Now, I'll get to do it again when I get the SC, and hopefully will have NO issues with Win2K and sound.

Most of the people over at 2cpu.com that are having the issues now are running VIA chipset-based Mobos.

I am curious to know how the Dual AMDs fare.

[isochar]

The firingsquad review said that the MPs on an AMD chipset had no problems.