What should I replace my Audigy 2 with?

  • Thread starter Deleted member 89137
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Deleted member 89137

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I could care less about having a budget. I want something that will work with vista 64, and that means the x-fi probably won't work, considering EVERYONE who owns one and has vista bitches about it.
If that's not true, maybe I'll get one.

Anyways, my audigy 2 was replaced when I got my new system, with the onboard card that came with my motherboard (titled the Supreme FX II by soundmax)... Honestly it sounds awful, but it lets me take my speakers much louder than the audigy allowed.

So what's a good sound card?

I don't hear much about any brands besides creative... Maybe someone can shed some light.
 
I've heard a lot of good things about the M-Audio sound cards. I have no idea, however, if they work for vista.
 
I've just got my new system up and running with Vista X64 and my XtremeMusic X-Fi card and it was painless. OpenAL games are fine so far... I'm still using headphones, so haven't attached it to my 5.1 receiver and amp yet. The Creative ALchemy patch tool seems to work with the couple of Direct3D EAX games it patched, and I was able to patch one without a database entry by manually entering the info. That tool is free for X-Fi and costs $10, I think, for the audigy cards. There's a loud pop whenever the I start the direct3D patched games that is a bit annoying, but I can live with it.

Note there were a lot of issues with the X-Fi cards popping with early PCI-E system boards, I haven't experienced with my popping with my new MSI P35 Neo2-FR mobo. Also half decent Vista drivers were *VERY* late which wasn't helped by Creative Lab's lack of customer communication even on its own forums.

I'm not sure how much audio acceleration helps these days with fast multi-core cpu's. But the soundblaster cards do offer better noise isolation than most on-board audio.
I'm not sure of the state of the Vista Audigy drivers, but am aware that Creative has stated that current cards come first, and since there are no current Audigy cards, the Vista support will not be as good as for the X-Fi.

I'd hold off on upgrading and see if built in audio is good enough or if you can transfer your audigy over.
 
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