Any problems with G400/Vortex2?

[Skynet8]

Hi guys.

Does anyone have any problems with the G400 and a Vortex2 A3D sound card? I have an SBLive! Value that just doesn't work at all with my G400 no matter what I do (all games freeze within a few minutes), including all sorts of fixes suggested on this board, so I'm selling off my SBLive and planning to buy an Aureal Vortex2 SQ2500 card (it looks good). I've a few things to check out first, though.

Do the Vortex2 cards have ANY problems with the G400? I really don't want to experience the same problem as I did with my G400/SBLive combo.

Do Vortex2 cards support EAX? If Creative can release drivers support Glide, Aureal can use EAX technology, right? I'm interested in this because EAX is more widely supported by games due to the easier implementation in games as compared to A3D, although A3D is anytime better than EAX. Also, Ultima Ascension (THE game I've been waiting for) supports EAX but not A3D (bleah!).

Which Vortex2 card should I buy? I'm mainly considering the Aureal SQ2500 and the Diamond MX300. Strangely, the Diamond MX400 doesn't support A3D.

Thanks!

[Zwisch]

I would definitely go with the Vortex2 SQ2500. I have ordered mine and should receive it next week. The MX300 has amost no driver support (latest are at least 8 months old) and does not have as many features... futhermore, since Aureal stoped supporteing Diamond... why go with them?

As for EAX, it is only for SBLive cards. The aureal will do A3D. by the way, creative released glide drivers illegaly and are being sued BIG TIME by 3Dfx for this... Although that it would be fun to see this happen to them in return, I do not think that this will ever happen.

PS i agree that the MX400 name is a scam since it does not even have the same chip name nor board type and features... They are doing the same with the Viper name... the next Viper will be an S3 chip while all other Vipers were Nvidia... We can clearly see that S3 took over Diamond and from these marketing decisions, the have no confidence in there products and feel the need to give them a popular name to get people to buy them... wihtout the name and the porr suckers that will fall for it, what's left of S3/Diamond?

[Greebe]

I've installed the TB Quadzilla with the G400 Max on an Athlon system. No problems.

[merchant2112]

g400 on abit bh6 at agp2x and xitel vortex 2 sound card no problems.

[Hunsow]

You know it's not unthinkable that you're going to have those same problems with another soundcard. Whatever you do don't ever consider diamond's MX400, or any of the creative PCI series (64,128,512). They are not "the real thing".

[Inzan]

I've got a Diamond MX300 and it runs perfect with the G400.
Nothing wrong with this card...except that Diamond never update the drivers.
It works with all the games I've tried..

[Mark F]

No problems here, with any combo of G200/G400 and VORTX/VORTEX2. There is some more info in another thread, just go down some past all the SB post, to find the info about AUREAL chipsets.

TO THE THREAD

And AUREAL plan to add EAX to a later driver release.

Mark F.


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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD


[This message has been edited by Mark F (edited 03 November 1999).]

[surferpop]

G400 max and xitel storm platinum.
No problems and the eax support will be in the new 2045 drivers to be released any day now.

[JesTa784]

so how come everyone thinks no driver updates are bad? maybe it just means the mx300 is just that stable? is there anything wrong with it really? I just ordered one and i'm just making sure.. hehe

[Mark F]

JesTa -The DIAMOND drivers are "fine". However AUREAL had been updateing and refineing the drivers for the chipset. DIAMOND however has not incorporated any of these. One of the biggest benefites of the newer drivers are less overhead (IE less CPU usage). That's the "bad news".
The "good news" is the AUREAL drivers work fine with the MX300.

Mark F.

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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD

[EchoWars]

Mark...was gonna say the same thing...the Aureal drivers work fine with the MX300 board, have installed the card on several of my friends systems..

As far as the other cards based on the same chipset...I had my TB Quadzilla actually sharing an IRQ with my G200 Mill for several weeks before I decided to force it to another IRQ...didn't have any problems when they shared tho...

AFAIK, the Turtle Beach is the only Vortex2 card that cannot use the reference Aureal drivers due to it's two-card design. If I was gonna do it all over again, would get the SQ2500 card. But TB is usually good at supporting their cards, and there is in fact a pretty-new release of drivers for the card on their site...

[dave m]

The MX300 is a nice card, I am now happy with it. There are known issues with its drivers that Diamond acknowledge but haven't yet fixed. If you have a four way speaker and subwoofer setup (eg Creative Four Point Surround) the subwoofer won't work in Quad mode (which is bad news if you want four way sound with any bass in it). The Good News is that the (2035 and later, now on 2040)Aureal reference drivers fix the problem, so I don't know why Diamond are waiting so long to fix theirs. I don't know how much the Aureal card is but on this basis alone I'd go for the Aureal product, because it doesn't look as if driver support is high on Diamond's list of priorities just now.

best wishes,

Dave

[cirrus]

There is a issue with MX300, G400, Diamond Drivers and MSI-6167 Athlon board, but that can be fixed with Aureal Drivers.


--
Arto

[adamhamilton]

What is the difference between the SQ2500 and the SQ1500 (apart from the price)?

Also, how many IRQs do these cards take - is it one for windows sound and one for DOS compatability?

[Mark F]

The SQ1500 is based on the original VORTEX chip (like DIAMOND's MX200) and the SQ2500 is based on the VORTEX2 (an "enhanced" version of S3's :O MX300). Both sound pretty good sonicly. The VORTEX2s are needed for A3D2. If the price difference isn't the top prioraty, go with the SQ2500or other VORTEX2 card.
As for DOS compatability the VORTEX2 chip handels it much better and natively. That's why the MX200 came with a patch cable so you could leave a SB(ISA) card in your system. Don't know if it's been improved since. AS for IRQs, I don't know. Haven't used/needed it in quite a while, so a don't load the drivers.

Also something I've noticed on a freind's SB Live Value. If you do a "quick" restart of windows (ie. hold down the SHIFT key as you choose RESTART), it can't find the EMU-10K1 and causes all kinds of problems :-P

Mark F.

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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD