Upgrade from a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

  • Two Factor Authentication is now available on BeyondUnreal Forums. To configure it, visit your Profile and look for the "Two Step Verification" option on the left side. We can send codes via email (may be slower) or you can set up any TOTP Authenticator app on your phone (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc) to deliver codes. It is highly recommended that you configure this to keep your account safe.
shoptroll

shoptroll

Active Member
Jan 21, 2004
2,226
2
38
40
So I'm starting to finalize plans for the next build of my desktop PC (version 3.0!) I'm planning on doing this in the fall or early next year at the latest, which kinda rules out setting CPU/GPU/Mobo/RAM in stone, but I am really uncertain about whether or not it's worth upgrading my Audigy 2 ZS as part of the process. I'm planning on keeping a 2.1 (stereo desktop PC speakers + woofer) setup with the occasional headset usage. Expected OS will be Windows 7 64-bit.

Right now the options I see are

A) Keep the Audigy 2 ZS and make sure the mobo has a PCI slot
B) Drop the Audigy 2 ZS and use on-board sound
C) Get a new PCIx card from Creative or a competitor.

I'm not 100% sure A is the best option since I've noticed UT3 tends to drop sounds although I'm not sure if this is how the game is trying to keep framerate steady or something.

Is option B even really an option? Has on-board sound improved significantly to the point where the Audigy 2 ZS is obsolete?

How is the compatibility for most non-Creative cards with OpenAL? I've heard the Xonar is a good alternative, but I haven't heard of any others. The Creative lineup was confusing and it doesn't look like they've done any significant changes to the product line since Audigy 2.
 
SkaarjMaster

SkaarjMaster

enemy of time
Sep 1, 2000
4,870
8
38
Sarasota, FL
The only two reasons I stick with Creative is that I've never had a problem with their cards like a lot of people had in the past (crosses fingers for new system) and I never bought an X-Fi (highest card I have now is an Audigy2 6.1). I still play older games as well and don't want to lose support for them at the moment. I will probably eventually buy another brand at some point (especially if Creative keeps fubaring their driver support), but not now. I'm also still using XP and will for a while.

For your case, I would definitely stick with what you have and run with it if you can. If the driver support isn't there, then you may have to get a new sound card and the Auzentech sounds like an excellent option.

Skakruk, what are you really missing without hardware acceleration on that Xonar card? I'm just wondering because I haven't explored this issue in a while.
 
Last edited:
shoptroll

shoptroll

Active Member
Jan 21, 2004
2,226
2
38
40
Current speakers are an old 2.1 Boston Accoustics set that came with an old Gateway PC. Headset is the logitech thing that came with UT2004 LE. Planning on replacing both since the speakers have fallen off my desk numerous times and the fuzz is evaporating on the headset (plus there's a short in one of the cables).

I'm not an audiophile, so as long as stuff isn't crackling or popping or sounding like junk I'm content. I do like environmental audio effects which is the primary reason I'm asking about if a discrete card is better than current on-board.

AFAIK, OpenAL obsoleted EAX and if your card supports OpenAL you can use ALChemy to map the EAX effects into OpenAL api calls. Which you have to do anyways in Vista and Windows 7 to even get EAX to work on a Creative card so I don't have a problem moving away from Creative.

I'm not entirely sure what's causing the issues with UT3. I think the problem cleared up a little when I dropped the resolution, but I'm running Daniel_K's driver pack on Windows 7. Plus I've got an nForce mobo which supposedly might be causing the issue too since i have the mediaShield drivers installed, and I haven't really had the desire to much with drivers too much on a beta OS running Vista mobo drivers until the Release Candidate arrives and there's actual Windows 7 drivers for my mobo. Could be UT3 as well, I've been waiting for the new patch to see if that clears up the problem too.

Essentially if there's no real compelling reason to upgrade the card I don't plan on it. If it's worth it and costs $100 at most I might do it eventually, but I would rather replace the speakers and headset instead.
 
N

Noobnugget

New Member
Jan 10, 2006
121
0
0
Skakruk said:
Your ZS might begin to lose some definition if it's very old - Creative like to cut production costs, using lower quality components and thus reducing the lives of some of their cards (I'm not sure whether this was the case with the Audigy's, but it certainly was with the X-Fi's) - but otherwise, there is no way any onboard solution should be sonically superior.
Click to expand...
I'm not so sure i agree with that. My X-fi xtreme music is a couple or so years old and it still seems that it sounds as good as when i bought it. Perhaps it's just not old enough yet. How old do they have to be to start to hear losses?

I do agree, however, that onboard can't touch a decent soundcard.

Skakruk said:
The most noteworthy thing would be EAX.

Theoretically, I think HW Acceleration is also supposed to improve performance in games because the sound card does all the complex audio processing instead of the CPU, but I don't know whether this is true anymore. Modern PC's are so powerful, that it's not an issue anyway.

It should be noted, that most cards that are not capable of HW Acceleration/true EAX, can still emulate EAX to a certain level (although the quality of the effects is still not as good as true Creative EAX). My Xonar Essence can emulate EAX, and so can my Auzentech Xplosion.
Click to expand...
PC's may be reasonably powerful these days but i'd be willing to bet that emulating the eax effects comes with some degree of cpu usage cost added ontop of the already existing costs from lack of hw acceleration. Which may or may not be visible in a games performance.
 
shoptroll

shoptroll

Active Member
Jan 21, 2004
2,226
2
38
40
Skakruk said:
What? Creative EAX effects are the only kinds of environmental effects that should be dependant on the actual sound card. All other environmental effects (like those in Crysis) are conrolled entirely by a games sound engine.

So aside from EAX, discrete vs onbord wont make any difference to environmental effects, will it?
Click to expand...

I think you're right... as long as the onboard supports OpenAL it should be fine, but I have yet to hear of an on-board chipset that does support OpenAL.
 
shoptroll

shoptroll

Active Member
Jan 21, 2004
2,226
2
38
40
Yeah so I'm confused what we're debating at this point...

Anyways, UT3 2.0 is dropping SFX after I cranked the screen resolution back up to 1024x768. I'll try 800x600 again and see if I get more SFX. I've got a feeling that it's probably the engine trying to keep frame rate steady.
 
KaL976

KaL976

*nubcake*
Nov 28, 2003
2,515
5
38
Cardiff | UK
Visit site
I upgraded from the Audigy 2 ZS to the x-fi fatality [i know i know] & noticed a pretty marked improvement in games more than music.

I had issues with both cards when I installed the full suite of drivers/apps & no issues after just installing the audio drivers.

You might also try editing your 2K4 ini to increase the number of simultaneous sounds from 32 [default] to 64 & see if that makes a difference.
 
SlayerDragon

SlayerDragon

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLADIES
Feb 3, 2003
7,666
0
36
40
Ugh, Creative drivers :(

The worst part is there aren't really any better alternatives that I know of.
 
shoptroll

shoptroll

Active Member
Jan 21, 2004
2,226
2
38
40
Skakruk said:
Then I'm assuming that you meant 'doesn't'...
Click to expand...

Well EAX is proprietary, OpenAL is supposed to be a new standard like OpenGL so I think it's possible for things that aren't made by Creative to support it. But I've never seen any mobo that had EAX support as a bullet point.

Should be easy enough to double check: Try setting 'MinDesiredFrameRate' (or whatever it's called in UT3) to 0, and see if UT3 keeps missing sounds.
Click to expand...

I should try this. 2.0 didn't fix the problem. It could be a driver thing since the sounds are fine at the start of a match and then I stop hearing most of them after a few minutes.
 
Last edited:
shoptroll

shoptroll

Active Member
Jan 21, 2004
2,226
2
38
40
Ok so I figured out what was causing the UT3 sound to drop out. I played around with the Creative Alchemy settings for UT3 and got it to work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom