Awe 64 Gold (direct sound) vs. "Pro" GSIF Cards

[Midian]

I currently own an AMD 650 with an SoundBlaster Awe64 Gold card. So far, I have not run into many problems with GigaStudio, except for occasional \"pops and clicks\", which I am not sure what\'s causing that (RAM fill\'d up?). I understand that it is using \"Direct Sound\", instead of GSIF, but this doesn\'t mean much to me.. The AWE64 functions as both my MIDI in/out (sequencing) as well as Wave out (gigastudio).

My question is, will I run into any problems later down the road (like when I start using more samples in my compositions) by not using a GSIF \"Pro\" card? Are there any other advantages to buying a more expensive card (or disadvantages to staying with the Awe64)?

Thanks, in advance...

[Midian]

I just realized that this should be under the \"sound cards\" topic. I tried to move it, but was denied due to access privileges. My apologies for posting in the wrong forum...

[LHong]

You need to add more DRAM!
What is a GSIF \"pro audio\" card? that only give you more output channels and a little lower latency...I see the SB-LIVE has better voice polyphony! why?
Make sure the RAM/CPU giga\'s metter reads about not more than 75%, check the Vcache setting, your RAM in MBx256 for Min=max (system.ini)
Have funs,

[Midian]

LHong,

Thanks for the reply! I will try adding more RAM (I\'m assuming you brought that up in regard to the \"pops and clicks\") and I will make sure the settings are as you suggest.

So, you don\'t think that owning a GSIF card will give me more performance than my SoundBlaster, because all that does is reduce the occurance of latency.. I haven\'t noticed any latency yet, but maybe when I try GigaStudio with some more complex compositions I will notice the lack of performance the DirectSound card provides.. Until then, I guess this is a good enough setup, once I add more RAM.

Thanks again for your help!