[Rodent]

Well, I originally bought this soundcard to be able to use A3D in games, though there aren't many that use A3D anymore, and now it's mostly just keeping me from going from w98 to 2000 or XP.
The reason as to why I haven't is because I've heard there are no drivers for those OSes that support surround sound(thanks to Creative) in games.
Now, I wonder if anyone here has the definite answer - how does the Vortex2 work in win2000?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bill Ward]

I don't have the answer to your question. Have you done a Google search for
Aureal Vortex2 and XP? I did a quick one, and there seems to be information available.

Might be worth looking into.

BW

 

[Rodent]

Well, it definitely works in both OS's, but I haven't found any information on whether EAX works or not.

 

[damitamit]

im using one now on winxp (as well as my Chaintech Av710).

Thou I never play games. I'll find out if EAX is working or not...

 

[Rodent]

Thanks a lot

I'm mostly interested in if eax works in HL/CS, but any game will be fine

How do you think that the Vortex 2 compares to the Chaintech in regards to sound quality etc? I might be looking for a new soundcard.

 

[Rodent]

Hello?

 

[damitamit]

oops! totally forgot about this. sorry!

will find a game tommorow to try it out with.

The chaintech is definately miles better sound quality wise. Just the fact that you dont get dodgy hissing and stuff makes the Chaintech better for me. Also the chaintech has much detail and better highs. The vortex2 has quite a soft sound with a big low end, whereas the chaintech is good in all areas. This is using the optical outs with my dac. It should be even more of a difference using the analog outs...

 

[damitamit]

cant seem to find a eax game.

But just did some googling. Seems eax emulation drivers for vortex 2 cards were never released for win 2000 or XP. They were only available for win 95, 98.

So it most likely doesnt work in XP.

i think you should get a chaintech

 

[Goober]

The Vortex2 also doesn't support A3D 2.0 very well if at all under 2k/xp.

I recently did some tests comparing my Vortex2 under Win98SE to Win2k.

Under Win2k the volume is much louder than under Win98. Under linux it's also much louder than Win98. Odd.

I'm not sure yet because it's very hard to get an equal sound level to compare especially when you have to wait a minute or 2 between reboots but it seems to sound better under Win98. It sounds brighter or harsher under Win2k.

I ran RMAA 5.3 on both cards. The level was adjusted to -2.1 under Win98 and -2.4/2.5(both channels weren't equal) under Win2k. Win2k did very poorly in most tests. It did a little better in the frequency response test and better in one other test but was much worse in every other test. I'll post the results if anyone's interested.

 

[Skarecrow]

I remember liking my Vortex2 card's sound quality very much, but of course that was when i was running a set of Sennheiser HD570s straight out of the headphone jack and I didn't know what sound quality actually was. heh.

I stepped up to a Hercules Gametheatre XP that I still use in my gaming machine. It is a pretty nice sound card that sounds fairly similar to the Vortex2 if memory serves. You can get them dirt cheap. they are excellent for gaming, and decent as far as music reproduction goes (they are no revo 7.1 in that area, but they kick the hell out of onboard sound).

 

[Goober]

Here's the results of my RMAA comparison between my Vortex2 under Win98SE and Win2k. The reason Win2k did so poorly could be because of the extreme difference in volume between the 2 OS's. I tried to adjust the level to be the same under both OS's. Win98 is set to -2.1db and Win2k was set to -2.3/-2.5(the channels weren't the same for some reason). If I increased the Win2k volume to -1.9db the intermodulation distortion went up to like 6.

Anyway, I used MME for both tests because Directsound caused odd results under Win98. Under Win98 the mixer settings were as follows: line-in=100%, Wave=100%, Master=90%. Under Win2k they were: line-in=50%, Wave & Master were set approximately to the second notch from the bottom. That should give you some idea of the extreme difference in sound level.

I'm really disappointed because I was going to switch to Win2k but now it looks like I'll be stuck with crash happy Win98 until I get a new sound card.

 

[Rodent]

Thanks to everyone who's responded. However, I'm still not exactly sure if EAX works or not in 2k/XP. I've done a lot of searching and reading and haven't found anyone talking about this yet. I do know about the a3d issue(there's actually a way to make it work in XP) but I don't know how it affects EAX, if it ports to a3d or not etc.

So, has anyone tried EAX in 2K or XP? It only has to work in one game

If it doesn't work, I'll get an Audigy2 for cheap, AV710 isn't even available in Sweden.

 

[Goober]

I've never heard of anyone getting EAX working under Win2k/XP. What game do you need it for anyway?

 

[Rodent]

CS

 

[Goober]

If you're playing CS then why would you want EAX anyway. A3D sounds a lot better.