DirectX/DirectSound support with AC97?

[Jonny5]

I have a Soyo SY-K7VTA pro motherboard which features the Sigmatel AC97 onboard sound chip (with VIA southbridge 686B). Using WDM sound drivers supplied from VIA, I was able to get WDM-based sound working fine under Win98SE after I made sure Win98SE was up-to-date (esp. its WDM support).

However, the test application under DirectX reports that DirectSound 3D is not supported by the HW, and hence SW buffers are being used. I suspect this may be the reason why at times the sound quality degrades - esp. after running games which uses DirectX 8.0 and up.

I was thinking of getting a separate PCI card sound card, and had my eye on a Cmedia card produced by Pine, but I notice it ALSO uses AC97. Should I be concerned?



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