YAMAHA YMF744 PCI Sound Card with great DOS compatibility

[@draganraxrax7497]

Thanks for Yamaha 724 driver,your page is only one where I could find it.Thanks man.

[@AshtonCoolman]

I have Yamaha PCI and ISA cards and they're fantastic. I've been a Roland/ESS guy for a long time but Yamaha has been winning me over. The XG MIDI is like having a MU-80 inside of your system.

[@blakkpatron]

this is pretty cool, most of these captures I've never heard the sounds these games could produce since all we had at the time was a pc speaker.

[@EthanAQueen]

Phil - Thanks for the review. Cards have started shipping.

[@EthanAQueen]

One other thing to note. The unboxed cards also come with the driver/software CD and manual as is stated in the listings. Thanks all for the orders so far. I am shipping them out as fast as I can.

[@sldkjh]

I have a DS-XG for 25 years now and it is still being used for the digital I/O once in a while. The driver I have was not released for long because it can record stuff that has SCMS, Sony did not like that probably. I managed to get the driver from some very sweet Austrian guy who was kind enough to email it to me in parts. I still keep three Pentium 4 systems in working condition just to be able to use that sound card every now and then.

[@mungo_meat9250]

Just received mine in the mail, excited to get it set up tonight. I've just recently built my first Win 9x/DOS machine and have had issues with the drivers for the on board audio in DOS so this should be a big help. Thanks for the tip, Phil!

[@neppy-chan9297]

Is there any way to get Duke 3D (and Redneck Rampage) running with this card in Windows? Under pure DOS it's fine after getting everything set up, but whenever I try to initialize the Soundblaster audio under the setup program in Windows, the system will typically just crash. I can play Duke 3D under DOS if I really need to, but it kind of sucks to not have General MIDI support while in DOS, since it sounds fantastic on this card.

[@ph1losopher]

I've finished my build, Phil. Asrock 775i65g, Pentium E5800, Yamaha YMF744, $16, 16GB SSD, Win98SE, GeForce 6800 GT. Perfect.

[@philscomputerlab]

Nice! How does the 6800 GT work out for you? Personally I see it more as a windows XP card.

[@InfiniteClouds]

Incredible! Some of us out there like to push the limits with the fastest systems we can for those super demanding high resolution, purely software rendered DOS games and these boards always leave ISA behind. To not only have SB compatibility, but also true OPL and then Yamaha XG support as whip cream?? Thanks for highlighting this card, Phil. I waited on the on the Audician 32s and missed out... but I jumped on this one -- grabbed two!

[@danielson9579]

That system is running perfectly 🙂

[@mrburns366]

I used to have a Maxi Sound Fortissimo with the same XG chip in it. I really remember being blown away by how good the MIDI music sounded! I may have to buy another one :)

[@davidkiddell6950]

Real OPL over PCI!! Love it!

[@philscomputerlab]

Yea nothing beats the real thing :D

[@bigfootape]

Hey, Phil. As you're testing with a VIA chipset, any chance of testing an ESS Solo 1? I'd be interested in your take contrasting it with the YMF744.

[@davidfranklinv2860]

Thank you phil! I have almost the exact same system specs and i was trying to get the onboard via audio to work for awhile with dos or dos mode. Nothing worked. Then i found your video and i bought this card from the same seller. He still had some. Needless to say, I have sound now in dos!! I'm also using your ms dos mode pack under win 98. Works great. Thanks man.

[@davidfranklinv2860]

I spoke too soon. Cd sound doesnt work and then all sound stopped working very soon. After many hrs of messing with different settings. My keyboard and mouse stopped working. Pretty sure its because the system is a pos compaq presario oem build. Guess ill start over with new components. A lot of the issues root from the fact on this compaq, the Bios is basically mental. It doesnt have a real bios. No options. And very very simple.

[@GiSWiG]

I think you opened a new window of cheap Windows 98 and DOS gaming PCs for many old-school gamers. You can build a PCI/AGP based PC much cheaper than an ISA and add a decent ISA sound card on top of that. It would be interesting how this performs on later generations of Athlons. How does it sound compared to the Audician 32 Plus? And big thanks to listing the games you used. I couldn't remember the name of Raptor but I do remember playing it.

[@philscomputerlab]

Something like a Geode NX could be ideal as you can control the multiplier. Definitely something I want to investigate. The Geode is basically an Athlon XP-M.

[@ChristopherBushman]

This sound chip is what is used as an integrated sound device in my Dell t700r motherboard. The DOS compatibility is indeed amazing and makes this dell board very special. I have been pleasantly surprised at what I can throw at the Sound Blaster emulator (including the setup utility for Earthsiege and Witchhaven!). It's pretty dang good

[@SneakiestDuke68]

YAMAHA XG YMF 724F-V also have OPL3 chip ?

[@Ale.K7]

Great review, Phil! :-D

[@UpLateGeek]

I was literally about to install Windows 98 on a VM to play around with old dos and windows software, so thanks for reminding me to copy the install CD to the HDD first, a very handy tip for saving time.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yea it saves a lot of time, and Windows often asks to insert the CD otherwise...

[@Khaalcium]

I have the same card (currently in my drawer) and I was really looking forward to this review. I had an issue of driver freeze with MIDI devicee plugged in though. Need to get that thing out and test again :)

[@Wushu-viking]

Thanks Phil, That cards sound just RIGHT on the FM synth !

[@NightMotorcyclist]

A-Open was like Asus back in the day when it came to making add-on sound cards. They would put in a bit of effort to be a viable value solution and they've even tried some interesting concepts such as vacuum tubes on their motherboards for a theoretical boost in sound quality

[@BeerBaron23]

Vacuum tube amplification on a mainboard? That's awesome!

[@super0sonic]

Fun fact! I bought and love this sound card, but when I first stuck it in I would get a hard lock up when installing drivers. What solved it was when I moved the card to a different pci slot it would fail to see it or lock up in a different place when installing the driver. Turns out my salvaged motherboard that had spent years outside had dirty pci slots. After inserting and removing the card about 20 times I had cleared the slot contacts enough and now it works flawlessly.

[@philscomputerlab]

Nice.

[@stevenyjtsai]

great FM+wavetable card

[@phantasiaPT]

What a great option for a dos win98 win xp machine! Thanks for yet another great video Phil

[@manuelzaratebrizuela2799]

Can you explain me how to enter in that's Dos configuration utility of the card? Or maybe change the configuration of the dos box in w98

[@NightSprinter]

Hey Phil, don't forget that PowerYMF can unlock a lot of stuff for the cards in Win9X. Especially so if you use the VxD drivers. I know the program in the past few years had its registration code made available to the public. It worked well with my SE440BX-2's built-in YMF-740C audio. However, you only need DSDMA if your motherboard and card do not support the SB-Link port or can do so over the PCI bus. So.. you do lose out on the ability to play non-speed-sensitive games that refuse to run on EMM386..

[@philscomputerlab]

Thanks for the reminder. What sort of things can you do with that tool again? I should upload it to the website.

[@philscomputerlab]

Ok I found all the PowerYMF files and banks, they are uploaded to the website.

[@NightSprinter]

PhilsComputerLab I know you can load other banks, enable features like SondiusXG.

[@primus711]

i left the link above didnt see someone else mentioned but here it is again web.archive.org/web/20080408103257/www.yohng.com:80/powerymf/ work great for setting audio channels back in my streaming days

[@adamkittenlover9231]

Looooooooool just found the same card like 10 minutes ago, then your vid pops up XD

[@FloppyBoy123]

the same

[@keithpetrino]

Phil, it would be nice if you could identify the titles depicted in the video with a simple text overlay next time. I often wonder which specific game it is you're showing.

[@marcinkrupinski3782]

I used to have one of those, it was great

[@Zardoz66]

super nice that Yamaha and aopen keep the drives available, nice video.

[@foo80]

I'm building a VIA EPIA ITX build with the same soundcard now, thanks for the tip :) It has the same VT8235 chipset.

[@philscomputerlab]

Nice :)

[@prezeskodaty4637]

I chose Diamond Monster Sound M80 because DOS systems use MPU401, midi sounds, audio music in stereo quality with hardware acceleration, but Sound Blaster Live 5.1 is of good enough quality for less money.

[@retropcscotland4645]

Very nice card mate, great insightful review. This one I could see me using as a main dos board for sure. Maybe if I ever upgrade my windows 98 machine from a Slot 1 pentium 3 which still has ISA slots so I use those board like the old ESS audiodrive. Excellent video as always can't wait for more.

[@philscomputerlab]

I do want to look at other PCI cards in the future, so watch the space :D

[@Storm_.]

I used to have one of them, I really loved it for it's excellent hardware midi playback.

[@georgez8859]

Thanks for the Update Phil, I bought one one these [Cobra] the last time you had the video up. Easy to set up and works well in windows 98.

[@philscomputerlab]

Nice!

[@dreammfyre]

Wow. Didn't think I've ever heard the Doom theme sounding that good.

[@FoxMulder78]

In my experience, Yamaha sound cards have very clean, clear and punchy sound output. :D

[@tubulartoy]

You show us these Sound board works in DOS Protected Mode of Win98, but is it work in pure DOS, eg. MS-DOS 6.22? Thanks for your attention.

[@ltlk937]

i had one of these... Seriously if you play Final Fantasy 7 for the PC you are given the option to install a special sound driver to make it sound like the playstation. If you have this card its not needed it uses a special mode to produce incredible midi sound.

[@Chrono86]

I have this card and it works really well with Final Fantasy VII. The game allows you to select XG under the midi data section (not the same as using the xg softsynth) and it sounds fantastic with the card.

[@philscomputerlab]

Now they just got to release it on GOG :)

[@stamasd8500]

You didn't mention the PC/PCI solder pads, to which you can easily add a 2x3 header and connect to the PC/PCI connector on the motherboard, if it has one... That will allow you to not need dsdma.exe, thus no emm386.exe either (or other EMM managers such as jemmex). Via chipsets and in general Athlon motherboards don't support PC/PCI, but many Intel motherboards of the era do. I have found motherboards up to chipset 845 supporting it. I have several Yamaha 7x4 PCI cards, and all either have the header or the solder pads for it, and all work just as well when connected by SBlink (PC/PCI) to a motherboard that supports it. Also, depending on the VIA chipset you may be able to use DDMA which doesn't need dsdma.exe either. You need to edit the setupds program in a hex editor to alter the PCI ID list to allow for that to work... I have posted about it on Vogons a while ago. It has worked for me with chipsets up to Apollo Pro 133T and KT133A (DDMA and PC/PCI are dependent on the southbridge, and the 2 chipsets above use the same).

[@ericmdk]

The i850 sucks with this soundcards!!! :p

[@Jack7277]

I had yamaha 719 isa, it was perfect

[@greggregson9687]

It's amazing how things change over the years. I can pick one of these up for the measly sum of $200 now. Haha.

[@hassanjafary1666]

Hi all , i have ymf 754r on my old computer and never think about that and since i watched this video, i love to fire that sound up again!

[@betamax80]

I'm excited by the footage - this does sound like an awesome GM card! Think I want to try it now!

[@philscomputerlab]

Under DOS, you can connect an external MIDI device as well!

[@betamax80]

Hmm working MPU-401 port? That's handy! I heard as much on the forums.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yea so you could use a -Sound Canvas- YAMAHA MU80 :D

[@CWarren410]

@@philscomputerlab So only the YAMAHA MU80 works with the MPU-401 port?

[@philscomputerlab]

@@CWarren410 Why?

[@stevenyjtsai]

GREAT MIDI CARD ever

[@silverwolfjfk]

Lol i was given few those for free back in the day sure brings back memorys.

[@foch3]

I haven't played one game that sounded good with this card, what am I missing here?

[@andrestartrek]

Lol some weeks ago I ask you about this card and if you make a new video about it because thought it was the best PCI sound card for dos. You did not like the card then, what changed your mind to test the card again? Also I could recommend to try the pci/pc also known as sb link connector. That is the best known solution to "emulate" DMA. I am glad you give the soundcard a second chance.

[@Ridata01]

Interesting video, last year i bought an AOpen "AW744 Pro" , i never tried it, i will use your drivers and instructions to see if get the same compatibility. BUT i think that the difference with the PRO version that i have is that this one has digital toslink audio out.

[@philscomputerlab]

Oh nice, yea there are versions with digital output.

[@danielson9579]

Great vid very informative pci cards can be a pain with dos game but thanx for showing another option :-)

[@HolyEDBahamuth]

I have 2 questions: Which version of Duke Nukem 3D have you used for this video ? I´m asking because first version and shareware of Duke Nukem 3D was known to crash in the second level after you blow up the big building and jump down into the sewers behind it due to the fact that the PCI system transfers data differently than the older ISA slots...and YES i know 3D realms released a patch for this problem... I also had problems running The Lion King game with my Windows 98 computer and a Soundblaster 128 PCI card, it crashes already in the first level and this seems to be also because of PCI/ISA data transferring differences, maybe you can test this if it works for your Yamaha sound card ?? Many thanks and thumps up for the good video ;)

[@philscomputerlab]

HolyEDBahamuth Hmm, I believe I got it from that anniversary pack?

[@aidenCBR94]

phil quick question, where do you get your retro games? i have been looking for a way to start my own old school build, i would like to focus on early 2000 games, like nfs underground and a few others, but have no idea where to get those kinds of games today, any tips or pointers as to where you got your own programs and games, if you cant divulge that information due to legal reasons that is fine, anyway, love the videos!

[@saxxonpike]

The SETUPDS utility offers different options on older versions. Some of these are enabled in older versions and disabled in newer ones. I wonder what the difference is? I've had great experiences with both the 724 and 754. The Windows drivers are rock solid if you get the right version too. I had to find some from Toshiba.

[@philscomputerlab]

I've uploaded a bunch of different versions, especially the DOS drivers, onto our website, so hopefully this covers a wide range of setups.

[@kamerat7689]

The options that are available depends on the chipset of the motherboard it's coupled with. You can change the PCI id's in SETUPDS with a hex editor to make the VIA 686B southbridge work in DDMA mode for instance.

[@ZeroHourProductions407]

>VIA chipset >Windows 98 *PTSD flashbacks* "no, not again. Never again..."

[@philscomputerlab]

Interesting, I've had nothing but great experiences.

[@ZeroHourProductions407]

In a way, i was relieved when my first pc was with an amd 751 chipset for slot a, except for the fact that it degraded itself to agp 1x on anything but an ancient agp card. I've never not had problems with VIA chipsets. With Windows 98 i was reformatting daily, and i had to underclock just to not get a bsod every five minutes. More recently with the socket 939 opteron and the a8v deluxe, thr install would instantly degrade itself to a bsod kill cycle the moment i installed the chipset drivers. The only part of my old nv7-133r motherboard that failed was the usb2.0 suppprt, which was per an add-on VIA chip. Windows would recognize and install the driver, but soon as i plugged anything at all into them, i would get another spectacular crash. Frankly, I'm more amazed that *your* experience is as smooth as your videos imply.

[@philscomputerlab]

I knew to stay away from the KT133 and 266, but the 266A has worked really well for me.

[@philscomputerlab]

We can now also benefit from having the latest and greatest drivers with all bugs ironed out.

[@ZeroHourProductions407]

PhilsComputerLab unfortunately that didn't help me with said Opteron PC. Nothing was, or is, saving that.

[@blinkachu5275]

Sucks that 5 years later these now go for 150$ I hate scalpers man

[@davidfranklinv2860]

Hey phil any chance of getting some help from you here. Im really struggling with getting this thing setup under win 98 dos. I am using your restart in ms dos mode pack and the drivers you provided and after enabling dsdma i get a codec error when i run the setup. And if i dont run the dsdma i get a cannot find the dma. You dont detail in the small specifics enough im really lost here. Id like to get use out if this card on my win 98 machine if possible it does sound better than my sb16. I have a slot 1 pentium iii 450 mhz and 256 mb ram. And a geforce 3 ti 200. And win 98se. Thanks phil.

[@davidfranklinv2860]

If there is a better way to communicate one on one that may be better. Email? Text? Facebook..

[@jerezer2009]

just bought one . that bat file you made do you run it every time you run dos? Cant wait for mine to arrive I see that its working in blake stone one of my favorite fps's

[@zapzap7458]

I have a labway ymf724 card with spdif output. It sounds nice

[@kathleendelcourt8136]

It's a shame you can't use the XG midi for native dos games, this card would be almost perfect otherwise.

[@philscomputerlab]

Many GM games will work just fine in a MS-DOS prompt. And you can always get a YAMAHA MU and connect it to the gameport.

[@brostenen]

Yup. I have been a big advocator for YMF-724/744 cards for the last couple of years now. Perhaps 3 years in all. I think the 724/744 and the Vortex2 are the only kind of PCI cards you ever want to buy for an retro rig without ISA. SB-Live are just rubbish compared to all these three cards. Heh'. Every time I see someone do a build with SB-Live for dos gaming, and every time I see that, I am wondering as to why! Anyway... If you are not planning to play any dos games, then go for the Vortex2. If you plan to play at least one dos game that only support OPL, then go for the 7x4. And if you prefer stereo over surround, then choose the 724.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yea I'm glad I pulled the last video, I didn't use the right drivers, and the highlight is really the DOS compatibility. I don't mind the Live! as it does give you Sound Blaster 16 compatibility and a somewhat usable General MIDI device, but it's not as compatible as the YMF of course, also no SB-Link options and authentic OPL3.

[@linkfreeman1998]

I guess people who uses SB Live prefers late 90's Windows gaming rather than DOS, but who am I knowing what they're using it for.

[@brostenen]

@@linkfreeman1998 YMF-724 is for 1997-01 hardware, or rather Win98 gaming. SB-Live is for XP gaming.

[@linkfreeman1998]

@@brostenen still, I guess people choose it for other reasons, like the EAX (basically hardware accelerated sound in games) support? And those dont need Win XP, those are easily available for Win 98. And ik that its not available for DOS games, so that's that.

[@Crazy_Borg]

This card is a great one-in.all package, especially for an DOS only computer. But for the time I'll stay with a DB50XG mounted on a Vortex 2, albeit it requires Windows.

[@niels_m_h]

Well, going to give this one a try. It's probably better than my current SB PCI128 card. I wonder if it's actually technically possible to make a PCI sound card with SB16 compatibility that does not require a protected mode driver (i.e. needing EMM386) so it could work with demos like Second Reality. I wish I knew where to look for relevant documents on PCI PNP configuration and so on.

[@stevenyjtsai]

I love the Dagger of Amonra, best game ever.... nice demo, but..... can you turn on the Yamaha MIDI synth for DOS game?

[@philscomputerlab]

No you can't unfortunately. Only from a MS-DOS prompt, but not from MS-DOS mode or DOS 6.22.

[@RaumfuerSpiele]

Hey Phil, could you give me hint which DOS sound card you would recommend? I watched some of your videos and I have a Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold ISA at home. Just bought a 8MB expansion for it. Would love to buy the 32MB expansion, but it seems nowhere to be found. :( The DOS time is long gone for me and now I like to rebuild a 486 PC for my channel and a review. The sound card should sound great in every way and with midi, but also should be easy to configure. I guess the AWE 64 is not that easy.

[@Overdozeofthedemoscene]

it is much easier, if you create a virtual machine, install the win98 there, and copy the hdd image to the sdcard. then you can boot in your sd-ide adapter.

[@spuriouspodge7416]

What a tip, I must remember that.

[@Bewefau]

Did I miss it or did you already do the the older computers? Like the IBM 5150 5160 5170 and model 90 would be cool to see how to put them together.

[@Diwwah]

Sounds like they use the same wavetable patch set as the DB50XG daughterboard and their SYXG50 software synthesizer. Can you use the wavetable in games? Just setup midi device to General Midi and go?

[@Romerco77]

Yes, but only under Windows 98 dos box, not in pure DOS environment.

[@Halon1234]

What are the odds of getting this card working in DOS on a Sandy Bridge motherboard with an ICH5 southbridge?

[@MidoriMizuno]

Very interesting card, am.i getting it right that it also contains a hardware ROMpler synth compatible with XG MIDI? If so that's actually pretty neat. I do wonder though, since you mentioned the compatibility with NT line of Windows systems (XP), whether there's any chance for it to run under Windows 7 or 8.1 as well.

[@jollegrat6590]

hi mr phil. could you please sent some driver link so i can use in windows 7 ? thanks in advance. i cant find the driver

[@armorgeddon]

What a shame that the model sold lacks digital output, CD audio digital input and SB-Link especially since all those features are there on the PCB but the parts are not soldered on.

[@matsuretro]

Got this card and popped it into an Epox MVP3G-M motherboard. I downloaded the DOS driver pack and the modified setupds.exe (setupds-via-vt82c686a-b.7z) from your site. I've only tested pure DOS so far, but it's working perfectly. :)

[@philscomputerlab]

Great to hear!

[@neppy-chan9297]

I've been able to get it mostly working with that version of setupds, but it's only allowing me to set it to DMA 0. Maybe it's an issue with one of the integrated components, but I'm really not sure. I do have integrated sound and legacy audio disabled, so I don't know what else it could be.

[@tassadar1977]

I bought one of these and after installing the win98 (win) drivers, the card instantly locks up the PC. Fresh install of Win98SE. Southbridge is a VIA VT82C686A. EDIT: Fixed with the VIA 4in1 drivers on Phil's website. Thx Phil.

[@RETROCENGO]

Dear Phil, what a great review 👍🏻 How would you rate this card against AWE32/64 in ms Dos games? Its not easy to find a Tualatin motherboard with AGP and ISA slot. Sound is very important for me, but before i buy this, would be great to hear about the dos comparesion -Retrocengo

[@philscomputerlab]

Do watch my AWE 64 and SB 32 reviews, they are both complex cards with lots of features. They aren't easy to compare, they are all good to be honest.

[@RETROCENGO]

PhilsComputerLab Yes i have watched your amazing AWE card reviews. I also own both models. Im not after features, not different stuff in win 98. My interest is only which card has the most awesome sound/music in DOS games. I want to replace my P4 build, couse it only has PCI solition, thinking about going for a Tualatin system with ISA. Both running Win98SE, but mainly DOS gaming. So playing DOS games, will i get better sound solution with this yamaha card? I really love the AWE cards, also the general midi emulation, but if this card sounds better, then ill keep my P4 system, and order this card for it😁😁 If you have the time, you can see my P4 video, uploaded today, there i tell more about my love for dos games/sound😁👍🏻

[@RavageReeves]

@@RETROCENGO why do you need a 1ghz plus build to run dos games? Wouldnt a 386 or P1 build with isa be better and p3 around 1ghz would be more suited to a window's 98 se build?

[@ajieajie2933]

i had one this installed on amd k56 mb, feels like nowsadays my sony xperia L whre using 16bit architecture engine sound smartphone but in sony there had been 3d suround on it, as i prefer 16 bit rather than 24 bit or maybe 32 bit that have not listened yet

[@jedikwon]

I finally managed to solder some pins on PC_PCI solder pads to get it work with my motherboard. OMG it works perfectly in DOS. No need for dsdma anymore. Now, can you give me some tips on adding digital output connector? I see there is an empty space right above blue connector. Do I just need to solder a connector there to get digital output? Do I need to add some parts to get it working? Please share any idea with me. Thank you!

[@philscomputerlab]

Wow, that's amazing! I've done no hardware modding with this card, not much I can help you with. But I have a feeling you will figure it out somehow :) The card is very quiet, so I have no issues using the analogue output.

[@philscomputerlab]

What motherboard are you using?

[@jedikwon]

@@philscomputerlab Sorry, I didn't know you left a reply until now. My slot 1 motherboard is Shuttle HOT 661V31. And I also tried this card on a Dell custom Intel CA810E motherboard which didn't have any pin on its PC_PCI solder pad. I only had to solder 5 pins on that Intel motherboard to get it working with the sound card.

[@foo80]

That SD adapter looks useful, most of them do not have the bracket. Do you have a link for it?

[@philscomputerlab]

No I don't, but take a look on eBay or AliExpress!

[@darrenwendell1723]

Done everything but when I type dsdma it says bad command or file name. Ymf744 works great in win98, can't get it to work in dos.

[@wfp9378]

Do you have Gary Grigsby’s Carrier Strike? It is probably the fussiest game I have found for SB Pro compatibility. Must use IRQ 7 or its a lock up. SB Pro and the AL100 handle it fine but most everything else needs you to press the reset switch.

[@philscomputerlab]

I have my set of DOS games that I like to test, beyond that I simply don't have the time to test individual games. But hopefully this video encourages more people to try PCI cards in DOS and document their findings.

[@Serdaco]

Wow this is great !

[@LeftyPem]

Does this card work with the HP T5720?

[@davidfranklinv2860]

Year later i still cannot get this working. 😪

[@Dudulinek82]

i dont know what iam doin wrong ... installed yamaha windows audio working fine, DOS games under windows working fine with GM and SBPRO settings Doom 1 and 2, Descent, Transport Tycoon Deluxe and more ... only Duke Nukem 3D hang up system when i select sound card. General midi in duke setup and in game without sound working playing without problems. But sound missing :( Duke version is 1.3D ... i dont have SB link mobo is this problem? Motherboard is MSI 815EPT PRO v5.0 + Tualatin 1.4G, 256MB RAM and ATI Rage XL PRO 32MB. Found patch for duke but nothing change 😢

[@emulatorthree7349]

Hey nice review., but I wish you would have at least previewed the xg sounds on the chip from a musicians point of view as apposed to just t hose cheesy old video game style fm type sounds since it is said that the xg sounds are excellent. Do they sound like the pro Yamaha MU SERIES midi sound modules? A side by side comparison would be good.....

[@philscomputerlab]

AFAIK there are no DOS games supporting XG, and in real DOS, the Synth doesn't work anyway. But you can connect an external MU through the gameport! This will then work with all DOS games supporting General Midi.

[@djrkzr]

Got ymf743 in my retro laptop unfortunately it looks like it is not compatibile with "pure" dos and under win9x dos games tend to have strange hickups evry few seconds.

[@Aeduo]

Have you ever mentioned the necessary patch for duke nukem 3d and various PCI-based sound cards. I believe E1M4 immediately exposes the issue. It's something to do with how duke nukem 3d does echo. The patch just disables the effect.

[@nikiiv]

Part of the compatibility comes from the mobo

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes, I do explain this in the video :D The VIA chipset for Socket A seems to work really well.

[@Mani-aX]

i have 2 of these cards. only game i have issues with is commander keen 4. it recognizes the sound blaster / adlib but no sound or midi. anyone else?

[@TheDemocrab]

VIA chipsets are highly under-rated, I think. A few of the other makers (eg. nVidia, Intel) often had flashier features such as dual channel memory and better integrated sound, but they often had nearly equal performance (eg. Running dual channel DDR400 on a Athlon XP with its fastest stock Bus interface isn't going to help all that much vs an Intel platform simply because of the bandwidth to the CPU) and some of the best compatibility of any chipset. Their SATA controllers usually are recommended for flashing devices because of this, even if you're better off using a different maker for performance.

[@primus711]

they allowed 4gb on p3 tualatin boards which is nice on my cuv4x-d plays crysis nicely with the 3850 agp though the cpus are at 2ghz but still plays well at 1.8 which all my tualatins can be stable at all day

[@CaptainDangeax]

Speaking about Nvidia and Athlon XP, the NVidia sound features were well above other makers, as the memory bandwith. NVidia Sata sucked though.

[@armorgeddon]

Nvidia SoundStorm had some nice features first on the market, but it lacked support for newer EAX versions and that made it useless for serious gaming.

[@DeadMouseis]

i just got the Cobra AW840

[@C6438911]

great review! thanks! Okay I maybe have a silly question, but is it possible to have two physical sound cards inside a computer. And can the system function with 2 cards, probably if it will work then 1 card will probaly work while the other simply disabled by the computer/os/bios.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes that is possible, in fact it's something many do. In Windows you can just disable one card in device manager, and in DOS just load the drivers for the other card. This might make for an interesting video to be honest...

[@C6438911]

indeed! nice to know it's possible!. I hope you can find the time to make a video about it in the future!. thank you for replying!

[@DeathVortex]

I recently picked up this card... but for some reason i cant get any (dos) games to use the xg synth through windows (98se) wonder if i need a fresh install of windows. I even used the same drivers you recommended... Nothing at all. I have another yamaha card that i imported from russia... that one works way better than this one through windows. at least I havent had any luck with this one. I'll try with a fresh install of windows to see if that helps.

[@DeathVortex]

Ok so this is fixed by using the drivers that come on the CD. The ones you recommended suck for windows

[@ewanwood]

Hey Phil, Whats the cpu overhead like on these cards for sound blaster support in DOS? Much the same as an SBLive or is it hardware supported?

[@KyoshoLP]

Phil do you own an ALS4000? It's a card I'd love to hear your thoughts on.

[@philscomputerlab]

I do have one now.

[@Romerco77]

Phil, the YMF724 and up needs the dsdsma TSR in Via KT266 chipsets, which needs emm386 and breaks compatibility with many many games. You were lucky to not run into games like that in this video, but compatibilty is hightly crippled in this situation. This card is amazing in a pentium 1, 2, 3, or K6, as it runs without the TSR and compatibility is almost perfect.

[@philscomputerlab]

There are modded drivers for various chipsets, with native support. No need for the TSR! VIA I believe is one that's supported.

[@Romerco77]

@@philscomputerlab Yes, i know, Via up to KT133A is supported with hacked drivers, but i am afraid KT266 is not, and cannot be supported even with hacked drivers because some legacy DMA compatibility features were removed from the southbridbe on that chipset ;)

[@philscomputerlab]

@@Romerco77 Try SIS chipset, I remember this working, but the details escape me. The ESS Solo-1 is another card worth checking out!

[@Romerco77]

@@philscomputerlab My comment was more intended to note that the KT266 was not the best setup for this card 😅, anyway trying how it works in a Sis chipset board might be interesting, i have some boards around, i might try some day. The Solo-1 is also amazing, but it does not have a TSR to provide compatibility with boards woth no DDma, pc/pci, or Tdma, so i think it just would not work. Last time i tried, it was a KM400 mainboard and there was no way to make it fully work in Dos.

[@RetroFors]

It seems the sound is slightly deaf compared to 724

[@MasterControl90original]

I think I had this card or something similar, it surely was a quadrophonic card with sensaura and ofc yamaha xg midi

[@wobu5361]

Will this card work with fortnite?

[@FloppyBoy123]

I don't think

[@dyter424]

I have a YMF724 in my old P133 machine running Win95. I would use a proper ISA sound card but unfortunately I don't have any of these anymore. It works very well, but I can't get it to work in WFW3.11. Maybe it needs DSDMA? On an unrelated note, would a Duron Spitfire 900MHz draw more than an equivalent P3 from the 5V rail?

[@philscomputerlab]

The Durons around 30 to 40W I believe, so yea they do draw a bit more, but not enough to be concerned.

[@dyter424]

Ok, so the 5V rail becomes more of a concern with higher-clocked parts. Oh well, personally I don't need anything faster for 98.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yea that's right. Also consider the AMD Geode NX, I have reviewed the 1.4 GHz model, yet to do a video on the 1 GHz model. These are low voltage Athlon XPs, with unlocked multiplier.

[@brostenen]

Davide424 Need more PC-Pci/SB-Link header, in order to give 100% dos compatibility in MS-Dos-6.22

[@dyter424]

It's an old ATrend ATC-1000 motherboard, no SBLink AFAIK. The machine runs Windows 95 (MS-DOS 7.1 under the hood; no 6.22 here). And yes, you can use WFW3.11 with DOS 7.1.