You know what would be nice? If Realtek had a decent version history/changelog accompanying their drivers. Instead, all it ever says under the "Added/Fixed" section is "Customization". Could we get a little more vague?

6. Add/Fix
1.) Customization.
For New architecture:
1.) Customization .
CPL :
1.) Customization.

[QUOTE]
I fired up Battlefield 2. This game had been unplayable with older Realtek drivers and EAX effects enabled, where the lack of proper occlusion and obstruction support resulted in the player being bombarded by sounds from all over the battlefield. Unfortunately, little has changed with the 1.71 drivers; you're still assaulted by sounds that should be muffled by buildings, walls, and other in-game elements.
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I'm playing Bioshock and it sounds like I'm having the exact same problem while using the 1.73 drivers in Vista 64. I'm considering buying a different sound card, but with the different sound standard supported in Vista I think any thing I buy will be obsolete with the next generation of sound cards that are arriving.

Can anyone confirm that this problem exists with the Realtek HD audio card and Bioshock in Vista?

Did they "fix" EAX for the older AC'97 codecs like ALC650/850?

Unfortunately, I have had bad experiences with AD chipsets. Poor sound quality and buggy software, so I don't much care if they implement EAX properly or not. To top it all off, they don't offer generic drivers, so if the audio control panel (for eq, speaker configuration, etc), keeps crashing, and ASUS doesn't offer any other drivers, you're stuck. OTOH, the newer Realtek drivers have some strange issues on my ALC888 equipped mobo, so I'm using some older version. Still wouldn't give Creative one red cent.

Um, what if it's EA/DICE's fault? Anyone ever ask that question?

This sounds screwed up. Pardon the pun, but really... is it even worth it to rig a benchmark score in this sector?

My guess is that Realtek has idiots writing its drivers. They cut corners to make a profit, and don't care about quality so long as they have a stable product. For most computer users, that's a passable philosophy, but not here!

I wonder if it would still work if you used a hex editor to change the name of the application.

Quack3, meet RealMack

It's all a ploy to gobble up the people that want properly implemented EAX, but don't want to spent the extra cash on a dedicated solution!

Seriously rigging benchmarks for a integrated solution is beyond me. I guess everyone wants to look good, even when it doesn't matter.