turtle or creative

[PREST0]

Sorry for my ignorance, but I am just not a big audiophile. My interest is gaming and smooth visual performance. I am currently running a P42.66ghz i865 chipset, 512 ddr333 dual channel, radeon 9600, Sb Live5.1. Okay this soundcard seems to be a bit poor, I get a lot of popping and crackling in certain games, I also get missing sounds in BF1942. Looking into the bf1942 problem I noticed the game has issues with this card. Anyway I want a card that is going to be stable, produce clean undistorted sound gaming wise, and not be too much of a drain on 3d performance. Doesnt have to support 45 speakers I have a simple sub and 2 satellites that I am happy with. But I am not sure I want to deal with creative I havent had a good experience with mine and I see countless problems in forums like this one. Hows turtle beach? I was thinking I would get a santa cruz. I was also wondering if the audigy series is more stable than the older stuff. There are really only 2 brands I guess my question is which one?

 

[lwj81]

The Santa Cruz is getting old but its still a great card.

 

[blah]

Old? People are still using Aurial cards because of their superiority to anything new in 3D, that's old. I am myself still using MX300 and will hold it untill it dies (if thats ever gonna happen

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

 

[4Ryan6]

I have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and it was a fantastic card for awhile, unfortunately it started falling behind in game performance, in some games it wouldn't work at all and others some of the sound was missing, and in some it worked great so I started looking for a suitable replacement for the card.

For some of your mentioned reasons I was reluctant to even look at the Creative cards but gaming wise they were at the top of the line so I got an Audigy 2 ZS and have had the card now for about 8 months, with no crackling and popping, no performance lags at all, so far no game it hasn't been able to run, its really turning out to be the best soundcard I've bought yet.

So my advice is to get yourself an Audigy 2 ZS soundcard, you don't need the Gamer Card, just they regular ZS.

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=2541" target="_new">My Rig</A>

 

[marshahu]

Creative is the way to go for games. Santa Cruz is a decent card but Audigy 2 series are far superior. As well as handling all the standards that Santa Cruz can deal with, it will be VERY futureproof with support for EAX 3 and 4 and 6.1 or 7.1 speakers.

I received the Audigy 2 as a christmas present in Xmas 2002 and coupled with the Inspire 6700 speakers the quality is simply outstanding. Oh yes and the rear center speaker does make a difference in Hitman 2, Solider of Fortune and GTA III! Furthermore, performance should be like butter with this soundcard as many standards can be decoded using hardware decoding.

In short, Audigy 2 ZS should be extremely futureproof, providing you with unrivalled sound quality, whilst introducing a major improvement in performance

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ running at 1.25ghz, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows Me

 

[PREST0]

Thanks for your help. I have been doing a little research myself and it seems as though the santacruz was indeed a fantastic card but no longer has support from cirrus logic which i guess isnt a good thing. So Turtle has come out with the riviera which is some cmedia chip that you can get on other cards for about 12 dollars. They also released the catalina which is a via envy 24 chip and can also be had from makers like chaintech and gainward for around 25 to 30$. So I guess at this point the audigy line is about the best you can do for gaming. But I am wondering about the Via envy chip. I read some good reviews on it and the chaintech board is a paltry 25$ at newegg, the turtle beach version with this chip is 71$ quite a difference. That pretty much kills any chance of my buying a turtle beach, but how does the via chip stack up against audigy2zs? 2zs 83$@ newegg ViaEnvy 25$. I know the via envy doesnt support eax with hardware only through software, which results in more stress on the cpu with eax enabled. But I only have 2 speakers and I never enable that anyway lol. I know the 2zs is arguably the best gaming card out there but I am thinking for my situation maybe saving 60$ and going with an envy based card could be a better value.

 

[blah]

If you run only two speakers (I do 2.1 too, or headphones) then any ell chipo card will do the job as fine as any expansive ones.

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

 

[marshahu]

Hmmm, you only use 2 speakers? I guess any soundcard would do then, LOL, nevertheless if you want to ensure full compatibility with games and be able to take advantage of the new sound standards then the Audigy 2 series is the way to go. However if you dont fancy splashing out for the top end Audigy 2 ZS then why not step down and see if you can get the original Audigy 2 or failing that get the LS version. The former card is nothing short of fantastic - I should know, I own the card! The latter only offers 5.1 sound but it is still capable of handling the new standards.

PC Spec: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ running at 1.25ghz, ECS K7S5A Motherboard, 768MB SDRAM PC133, Sparkle nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32MB AGP Graphics Card, Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 6.1, Windows Me

 

[4Ryan6]

I know the via envy doesnt support eax with hardware only through software, which results in more stress on the cpu with eax enabled. But I only have 2 speakers and I never enable that anyway lol. I know the 2zs is arguably the best gaming card out there but I am thinking for my situation maybe saving 60$ and going with an envy based card could be a better value.

Its not really the fact of how many speakers you run, some games are done in EAX and targeted towards Creative, that was where the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz started falling behind, when games were done in a higher EAX than the card covered, and there is a lot of EAX games out there.

Theres nothing more frustrating, than getting that game you've been waiting for, and finding out your soundcard won't cut it. As far as surround sound speakers go, I didn't have them either until I went to a friends house and listened to his, then I went out and got my own. Because the surround sound is awesome!!!

I still reccommend the Audigy 2 ZS even running 2 speakers, because it will run any game out there, and one day you may want surround sound.



<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=2541" target="_new">My Rig</A>

 

[lwj81]

I agree.I have two Aureal Vortex 2's and have yet to find any card better.Long live A3d 2.0!

 

[r2k]

I disagree. IMHO the [much] better quality you get off an expensive card that has a better DSP and a better CoDec chip is worth it even if you ONLY use a 2/2.1 speaker setup. Actually, if you listen to music a stereo setup is still the best because it's what the artist and the mixing engineer intended in the first place and good quality for a stereo setup in a sound card doesn't come cheap.

 

[blah]

Dude, wash your eyes before you look. Read carefully, we were talking about 3D in GAMES, not music. Simple Yamaha for $12 bux from my local store can play MP3s no worst than newestestest card there is.

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[Gunz]

Best sound card available is the Audiotrak Prodigy 7.1

 

[r2k]

No, we weren't specifically talking about sound in 3D games and a $12 card cannot play your mp3s like a ~$100 M-Audio Revolution, a Creative Audigy2 ZS etc. The reason for this is discussed many times in this forum and in my original reply to your post in this thread.

And rest assured 'dude' that I wash my eyes every single time I read your junk.

 

[blah]

I've listened side by side with "my own eyes", you did not, so I know better (there is a difference is in speakers though)

And I WAS talking 3D (wash your eyes).

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[Crashman]

Hello blah! heh, I love my SQ2500

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[blah]

I have no doubts, and who does anyway, men do love their 'equipment' don't they

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