SoundCards: Onboard VS. a regular card

[LazerTag]

I do some other emulation, but this question should be more directed towards the effect of particular sound cards with N64 emulation.

OK, so my new Dell is coming this week. It will have

"Integrated 5.1 Audio with Dolby® Digital 5.1 capability3"

I do have a Sound Blaster Live! (or it's a Live! Value) card here somewhere.


Which would you choose and why? If possible, I am looking for folks who have actually experienced what the difference is, first hand. I'm not picky though I'll take 3rd party and hear say.

 

[t0rek]

IMO your Sound Blaster Live will work better than any onboard sound card.

 

[Knuckles]

True, all onboard audio aren't the best one an aren't giving a really good sound Sounblaster cards. Even for me, my onboard AC'97 6 channel (controlled by VIA chipset) isn't giving the same performance as my CMI8738 6 channel PCI. the onboard doens't supports EAX or good 3D audio effet and have a poor 6 channel supports. If I were you, I would put the Soundblaster right away in it

 

[Doomulation]

Onboard isn't as bad as people think they are. Why? I know myself, because I have it, as you see with my specs. The sound quality it perfect for my part and the drivers offers extra-ordinary stuff like an eax control panel. It isn't EAX, but it does affect the sound in general, which is quite nice.

So, don't throw away onboard sound, but as you have a sound card...well, I dunno. Try them both? Or just choose one, I don't think it would matter in the end.

 

[LazerTag]

OK, I have to say with as unstable as I have seen EAX, I'm not worried wether any card supports that or not.

6 channel and dolby interest me more (DVD movies and such)

Well what about N64 emulation itself, Does a real sound card compared to an onboard offer any speed boosts? (or anything else). I thought I had read somewhere that onboard sound kinda bottlenecks most sound plugins. Is there any validity to that statement?

 

[fivefeet8]

The SoundStorm onboard sound on Nforce2 mobo's match the quality/performance of SB Audigy cards. They also have 6channel dolby digital sound and EAX. I have both the Soundstorm onboard and a SB audigy gamer.

 

[Reznor007]

If your Dell is an Athlon based system then it might be an nForce2 motherboard. If it is, then you get Dolby Digital 5.1 output for all computer audio. If it is a P4 based system, the Dolby 5.1 is just for decoding movies, and doesn't work for PC audio.

 

[LazerTag]

If your Dell is an Athlon based system then it might be an nForce2 motherboard. If it is, then you get Dolby Digital 5.1 output for all computer audio. If it is a P4 based system, the Dolby 5.1 is just for decoding movies, and doesn't work for PC audio.

Thanks. I did not know that. It is an Intel based system. Which 5.1 for movies is what I really want, but too bad for the games.

So does anyone know the answer or have any insight about my N64 question just above in my last post of this thread?

BTW, thanks to everyone for all the great info so far.

 

[Malcolm]

I'm running an ASUS A7V8X-X with onboard sound and I don't hear any difference compaired to my SB Live value in my old rig. Gimme an hour and I'll test them side by side...

 

[Malcolm]

ok. I tested both systems side by side with zelda OoT and the only thing I noticed was everything is a little choppy on my old system (with the live, has an ATi Rage); the sound quality, however, is the same to me.

I didn't hear any difference at all.

 

[LazerTag]

Cool. Thanks Malcolm.

For a "Crack Smoker" that was a pretty nice thing to do, lol.


Guess I'll do the same once the new unit gets here. Just try 'em both ways to see which sound card causes the most lag and/or which sounds best.

 

[nephalim]

Onboard sound is perfectly fine for those who aren't technofiles or really into sound, hooking up good speakers to get excellent sound, etc.

 

[LazerTag]

I was never saying or implying that onboard sound "sounds" bad. I thought I had heard here somewhere that audio processing time is higher with onboard sound then compared to a regular sound card?

Like myself on my current rig, I normally hit 75% audio in 1964 with my onboard CMI. Would that be lower with a normal card?

 

[The Khan Artist]

I was never saying or implying that onboard sound "sounds" bad. I thought I had heard here somewhere that audio processing time is higher with onboard sound then compared to a regular sound card?

Like myself on my current rig, I normally hit 75% audio in 1964 with my onboard CMI. Would that be lower with a normal card?

Most likely. The onboard CMI chipsets use the CPU for a lot of DSP stuff.

 

[olger112]

I prefer a seperate Soundcard because:

1 It can always be removed (the onboard can be disabled in the BIOS most of the times though)
2 If your Onboard soundcard breaks down your Mobo might stop to function
3 A lot of Onboard soundcards are based on the RealtekAC'97 Onboard Sound Chip and this one does not have HW DirectSound3D support (only through software buffers) no EAX or EAX Advanced HD support, no A3D support
4 Lots of games often have issues with it. (Look at various game readmes)
5 The don't have Soundblaster Emulation support (meaning you won't have any sound in older DOS games)

and I think I can fill this list a little longer anyway if you plan buying a new mobo, make sure you can disable the onboard soundchip and buy a seperate soundcard, you have good ones nowadays for like just 15 or 20 bucks with good drivers, HW DSound3D support and more

 

[Doomulation]

2) Yes, but it wouldn't normally just shut down. It would be the mobo itself that shut down then.
3) Some of these onboard sound does have hardware acceleration, believe it or not (via hardware buffers, I've tested). Some of these has EAX support as well. For this advanced and a3d support, I don't know what they are.
4) Mine works perfecly fine in *all* games.
5) Actually, some does have this. An older version of my onboard sound had this option, which you could enable in the bios. On this new one, though, there isn't, but there's rarely any dos games left. And there's a very nice program that can activate sound for dos for these cards via xp.

So you're wrong on most points here. You haven't throughly tested them.

 

[Xade]

Simply put, if you have something like an nForce 2 with integrated 6.1, there's no point whatsoever paying something like £20 for a seperate soundcard.

That said, the integrated sound in question isn't going to compare with a high-end dedicated soundcard, but then, unless you're particularly fussy over your sound you won't be all too bothered. I'm only using an Audigy 2 because it came with the system (incidentally it sounds brilliant with 6.1 speakers).

My last PC had integrated sound, and as far as emulation went this wasn't a problem.

I think, too, people are missing the crucial factor; that emulated sound is utterly rubbish, and that there will be no perfomance gain even if you do vouch for a high-end card; the quality is so poor to start off with.

 

[nephalim]

The difference onboard vs. dedicated standalone sound as far as emulation goes is hardware acceleration. Generally speaking, an onboard sound system will be slower than a sound card. This only matters in situations where the CPU is taxed, by other things, such as emulation of other parts of a system. (Or if you want to play MP3's and multitask some CPU intensive things, for example.)

 

[james.miller]

the soundstorm has the lowest cpu usage of *any* soundcard on-board or off-board.

If your Dell is an Athlon based system then it might be an nForce2 motherboard. If it is, then you get Dolby Digital 5.1 output for all computer audio. If it is a P4 based system, the Dolby 5.1 is just for decoding movies, and doesn't work for PC audio.

you ONLY get that if has soundstorm. Most nforce2 boards don't.