Soundblaster sound card VS Matrox video card

[DGhost77]

I'm wondering a couple of questions. Creative lab is one of the most popular company for sound card. With the soudblaster and the audigy filling the market, does anybody have ever experieced the sound loop/computer froze problem? I do. I've read some articles on the net talking about how Creative blame Matrox for their products to really working well with the sound cards of Creative. Recently I've found out that if you lower the hardware acceleration of the sound card itself, the problem of sound looping in OpenGL games will be gone (almost... ).

The question then I'm asking is what is the most stable sound card to run with a Matrox video card (I've got the G400 max and I wanna get rid of my soundblaster live!).

So far the only one I'm interrested is the Fortissimo I/II from Guillemot (wich is also EAX compatible) but I don't wanna buy it without doing some research first and I'm looking on some feedback about it. The video card, the sound car and the OS you are using will be good to know with your feedback.

I've been running my G400 max and my soudblaster live! on win 2000 and now XP and I always have to lower the hardware acceleration to make it works properly in OpenGL. Doing so, the sound volume and quality go down at the same time. I don't like that and I don't like Creative labs also.

If also you would like to have more details about the problem I'm talking about you can check my thread on the forum of technical support of Matrox:
Quake 3 will froze and so my heart will goes...

Also there is this post of the same problem:
Alphameridian's problem

Thank you for all the feedbacks I can get.

[GNEP]

I use a G450 and a SB Audigy under Win2k, and they seem to coexist fine (once I applied SP2 for win2k, and updated the audigy drivers). I don't use many OGL apps/games though.

Having said that, I am not 100% sure that the Audigy lives up to the hype, so would probably steer clear given the same choice again - I have seen too many others around the web have compatibility problems with it.

And previous bad experience with Creative's tech support that I've had would suggest to me that it is really worthwhile finding a different soundcard company. Heard good things about the Fortissimo.

If only Matrox made soundcards ...and I pity those who rely on 3dLabs card for work now that Creative have them!

gnep

[DGhost77]

I used win 2k (pro, server, advance server and datacenter) with almost all the patches I could find. It never solved my problem. Now I'm running XP and still same thing. Even with my older computer wich had a different sound card (but still a Creative lab) I had the same problem. Only when I lower the sound hardware acceleration then I can play OpenGL game without any sound loop/freezing problems.

I'm a Quake addict so it's a little bit a pain in the ass with this problem.

[dZeus]

I have had the occasional 'OpenGL src null' error when trying to start Quake (it would just stop at the small blue-background console and give that error message). If I would try and launch quake again after that error it would always 100% freeze on me.

But I still get it after upgrading to a Santa Cruz, so that's not the cause I guess

though now you mention it, I did have very infrequent crashes (very, very infrequent, say once ever 100+ hours of q3a), which I haven't experienced yet with my Santa Cruz, though I haven't had the latter long enough in my system to be sure it was due to the live or not.

[The PIT]

Mmm since the boards are Via biased it maybe worthwhile hopping across to Viahardware and download Georges latancy patch.

http://www.viahardware.com/download/viatweak.shtm

[DGhost77]

Mmmm I heard about the George's drivers but never actually tried it. And I didn't knew that there was a patch for the sound card only. This brings more light to this problem.

But as I'm reading this:

Also, George has created a program that adjusts the latency of VIA PCI controllers, in order to work around a soundcard/IDE issue uncovered in our forums. VIA has acknowledged the bug, and their own fix can be found on our downloads page, as well as integrated into all 4in1 version 4.31 and newer.

It seems that VIA already put their own patch in their 4in1 drivers. Wich I already tried almost all version. I'll give a try to George's patch this week.

Thank you for this new information.

And to answer your signature:

Via or ATI which one makes buggier drivers

Both!

[EvilDonnyboy]

I own a Fortissimo II (do not get the 1st version). I owned a SB Live value, and have put together rigs with different types of SB Live's, a Herc GTXP and built-in sound.

I find the Fortissimo II definately ahead of the SB Live in sound quality, and I feel it has more convincing 3d positioning. The last 2 driver revisions worked perfectly for me with the 2 rig's I''ve built with Fortissimo II's (used both winXP and win2k).

Of course the biggest reason to get one of these is price. There isn't a single card that's cheaper than the fortissimo II yet offers more.

[The PIT]

Georges patches aren't just for soundcards however they do include a few settings that may help.
I don't use Georges patches or Via drivers and after fiddling in the Bios managed to get either all my Via boards stable or down too one crash in a month.
Some people have used them to great effect.

[DGhost77]

Okay so I installed george's via tweak and it enable the hardware acceleration for my sound card at full. So far it worked really well.

Thx for the tips!

[The PIT]

Its George you've got to thank. The work he does he gets no credit from Via at all pity really as he's created a lot of happy via users.

[Electric Amish]

I've been running a G400 and the Aureal 2500 for awhile under Win98 without any problems. When I moved to Win2k I went with a Santa Cruz with my G400. Haven't had any conflicts with them either. I don't play any OGL games, tho...

amish

[The PIT]

I remember a few people going across to Santa Cruz to cure the 686b corruption. In some cases it worked others just spent £50 just too get the same problem. Of course others who didn't have a soundcard and found that the via chipset trashed the hard drive were left mainly in the cold.