Sound cards

MorpheusPT · Post by **MorpheusPT** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:39 am

I haven't had any sound card issues, and the sound quality is quite good, so i'm not complaining about that. But:

Right now, i'm using integrated audio, a AC'97 codec sound card, that is integrated in the motherboard.

I have at home one SoundBlaster 512, PCI card.

from which one do you get better performance, an integrated sound system, or a PCI card?

does an integrated sound system slow down your computer, comparing with a regular PCI card?

basicly, what i'm asking is, having a integrated sound card = PCI sound card?

MasterOhh · Post by **MasterOhh** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:48 am

I think the impact on the performance of onboard soundcards is realy minimal. But I do not know if a SB 512 would improve anything on your system because it is pretty old.

Post by **.Sup** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:50 am

its hard to decide which 1 is worse. they both have poor chips. get yourself an x-fi music at least, you will have hardware rendering+advanced audio decoding/encoding and effects (eax, all sorts of Dolby® decoders). And integrated sound card doesnt slower your system but it does make the mobo temp a bit higher. For me personaly sound card is the most important component of my PC.

Post by **Ash2Dust** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:12 am

512 is ancient and you'll have to load those old crappy Creative drivers.

If you have dual core cpu, I dont think you wont see any real BF2 performance hit with onboard sound. Tho with XP, the XiFi will be better sound in my opinion.

XiFi out of the box on Vista will only give you stereo sound in your favorite games. You need to install an additional application 'Alchemy' to get your EAX and surround sound settings available in games. Creative claims they're working on Alchemy for Audigy 2 cards.

Post by **.Sup** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:01 pm

Ash2Dust wrote:512 is ancient and you'll have to load those old crappy Creative drivers.

If you have dual core cpu, I dont think you wont see any real BF2 performance hit with onboard sound. Tho with XP, the XiFi will be better sound in my opinion.

XiFi out of the box on Vista will only give you stereo sound in your favorite games. You need to install an additional application 'Alchemy' to get your EAX and surround sound settings available in games. Creative claims they're working on Alchemy for Audigy 2 cards.

+hardware acceleration is not supported on Vista (yet)

Post by **Ash2Dust** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:13 pm

I think CL's Alchemy allows the hardware acceleration for Vista. Havent looked at it more than a glance.