This is a driver review of the Soundblaster Audigy Value sound card with a BFG FX 5500 256MB video card performance with RabidHampster R4, a visualization program.
The test rig: the hardware mentioned above with:
2.0 GHz P4 (Northwood, no HyperThreading)
512MB PC2100 DDR RAM
Intel 845 Chipset
OpenGL was tweaked to a Prerender Limit of 3 (Using RivaTuner), which enhances framerate. (sometimes you might experience screen tearing, my system didn't though)
R4's settings were 1024X768 by 32 bits per pixel of color (32bpp)
The Audigy drivers I used were Kx Audio (most updated version) and the standard Creative Drivers (also, most updated)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value seen below
BFG FX 5500 256MB AGP OC seen below
The FX 5500 Drivers that I used were XTreme-G 86.63 32bit and the NVidia Forceware most current version for my card.
Side note: XTreme-G 86.63 is a hard driver to find lately, uploaded it, as well as the XTreme-G 92.91 version as well, to my Live SkyDrive. Check this page for that driver, which is highly optimized for that card, and also offers overclocking options as well:
My Live SkyDrive:
http://cid-1c1c9ed3fcb4a3a6.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Documents?authkey=dYQT6A3RMU4%24 It contains RivaTuner, Xtreme-G drivers, and my program, FireClipse.
I tested performance with all the possible combinations of drivers and found that R4 runs the fastest framerates with the XTreme-G driver combined with the standard Creative drivers.
[color=CC0000]Lowest ranges were with KxAudio and standard NVidia Forceware running one 'standardized visualization' at 32-35 FPS.
Highest ranges were with the Xtreme-G 86.63 and the most recent Creative drivers running the 'standardized visualization' at 60-62 FPS[/color]
Note: No overclocking was done to the video card, RAM, or the CPU.
