upgrade sound card now?

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Seraphim974

Gawd
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Nov 7, 2003
Messages
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So i was sick of hoping for some sort of a digital solution for 5.1 gaming and i went and bought a Denon AVR-1804 receiver because it has 5.1 analog inputs. My motherboard (Abit AI7) actually has a 5.1 outputs on the back, different colored 1/8th inch jacks (the onboard sound is Realtek ALC658 6-Channel Codec). That is where my question is.....Will this onboard sound be as good as some sort of PCI card solution such as the audigy 2 ZS? What do i look at when comparing cards? Should i dich out 100 bucks for a nice PCI card now? Necessary?
 
Save your money.

I had the same onboard sound, and even had a LIVE MP3 card for comparisons purposes; what I noticed was nothing! no dramatic change, so I bought an audigy2 thinking it would compliment my new sound system (Logitech z680), but I can't say I notice any difference.

Again, save your money.
 
IIRC only the nVidia nForce Soundstorm (available only on AMD-processor-based systems) supports 5.1 gaming at all. If you have an Intel-processor-based system, you'll have to settle for only 4.1 gaming support. There is currently no way around this DirectSound3D limitation, in the case of Intel-based systems.
 
you're saying that with everything hooked up to the analog inputs of my receiver i would not get my center speaker working? wtf
 
whew, just tried it out and it works. i went from the center speaker output on the back of my computer to the right speaker input on my old receiver and started up COD and it works perfectly in game.
 
Seraphim974 said:
you're saying that with everything hooked up to the analog inputs of my receiver i would not get my center speaker working? wtf
Click to expand...

digital solution for 5.1 gaming
Click to expand...

Soundstorm is the only way to correctly output digital 5.1 for gaming

And no, the onboard analog will not sound as good as a standalone card. Your milage may vary though.
 
Let's put it this way: according to what I've read, Doom3 is going to use software positional audio completely.

Too bad A3D 3.0 never made it and Creative bought up the IP and locked it away.
 
Leukotriene: Where did you read that Doom 3 is going pure software positional audio?

I'm looking to get a MSI K8N Neo motherboard and my main question is: will the onboard audio solution (Realtek ALC850 8-Channel Codec) provide hardware acceleration in modern games and to what level? What will I be missing without EAX and EAX Advanced HD support? And if Doom 3 is only using software positional audio, does that mean that buying an Audigy 2 specifically for Doom 3 will be pointless?
 
IsAnybodyHome said:
And if Doom 3 is only using software positional audio, does that mean that buying an Audigy 2 specifically for Doom 3 will be pointless?
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Yes, it does.
 
Are you sure? If the sound is software diven as stated in the interview then the sound card doesn't even factor.

For any other game, then ya, the Audigy 2 is going eat up about 1% CPU while the mobo sound would be about 2-10% depending on the board. So could it help either be a hair or a fair amount depending.

But the question was specific to D3 so then the answer is no, it won't help.
 
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