nforce 680i - onboard sound

[Adam Russell]

Im planning on getting a new rig pretty soon, both because the old one is
getting slow on new games and because a particular game coming soon has
strong requirements. One thing Im thinking on skimping on is sound though.
Ive never been impressed in the past when upgrading soundcards. One card
sounds pretty much like the other. So I may just go with the onboard sound
and not get a soundcard. Two things I wonder about though. Does the 680i
onboard sound support directsound (required)? Would going to onboard sound
put more burden on the other components, thus slowing the machine down?

 

[kony]

Im planning on getting a new rig pretty soon, both because the old one is
getting slow on new games and because a particular game coming soon has
strong requirements. One thing Im thinking on skimping on is sound though.
Ive never been impressed in the past when upgrading soundcards. One card
sounds pretty much like the other.

For gaming it may not matter as much, OR there could be
another reason - that your alternate sound cards were
roughly equivalent quality... this is assuming you're using
analog output, since digital should always sound identical
if bit perfect output.

The larger difference for gaming is if you use
spatialization, like EAX / Creative, it's a a higher CPU
overhead if it's done in software/CPU rather than hardware
(on mid to higher end Creative Labs cards). In general I
dislike CL cards' drivers and purity of sound, but they do
have this clear advantage of lower CPU utilization in
multichanel modes with gaming. If you only use 2 or 2.1
channels gaming, it won't make a significant difference.

So I may just go with the onboard sound
and not get a soundcard. Two things I wonder about though. Does the 680i
onboard sound support directsound (required)? Would going to onboard sound
put more burden on the other components, thus slowing the machine down?

See above, and yes, everything these days is targeted at
windows, directx, directsound... perhaps some exceptions in
pro cards but you don't seem to be considering those and
they dont' have any gains in gaming.

 

[Gojira]

Im planning on getting a new rig pretty soon, both because the old one is
getting slow on new games and because a particular game coming soon has
strong requirements. One thing Im thinking on skimping on is sound though.
Ive never been impressed in the past when upgrading soundcards. One card
sounds pretty much like the other. So I may just go with the onboard sound
and not get a soundcard. Two things I wonder about though. Does the 680i
onboard sound support directsound (required)? Would going to onboard sound
put more burden on the other components, thus slowing the machine down?

You may want to read this before buying an 680i board.
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTI0NCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

In addition to the SATA problems mentioned,I've also read of problems with
crackling with both onboard sound and add-on cards with some games.

 

[Shep©]

Im planning on getting a new rig pretty soon, both because the old one is
getting slow on new games and because a particular game coming soon has
strong requirements. One thing Im thinking on skimping on is sound though.
Ive never been impressed in the past when upgrading soundcards. One card
sounds pretty much like the other. So I may just go with the onboard sound
and not get a soundcard. Two things I wonder about though. Does the 680i
onboard sound support directsound (required)? Would going to onboard sound
put more burden on the other components, thus slowing the machine down?

If the on board sound chip is an AC97 I wouldn't bother using it.It's
of low quality and doesn't support hardware acceleration.I've just
fitted an old PCI 128 Creative soundblaster.Great old cheap classic
sound card which I got off Ebay for £5 GBP.Auto-detected and installed
even in WinXP.
Note:AC97 chips also eat up CPU time as they use software emulation
and are no good for top-end games.

HTH

 

[DaveW]

Yes, onboard sound can experience stuttering when the CPU is under heavy
load. This is because the $5 onboard audio chip uses the CPU for all
computations.

 

[kony]

Yes, onboard sound can experience stuttering when the CPU is under heavy
load. This is because the $5 onboard audio chip uses the CPU for all
computations.

It would only be true if the job priorities are set wrong...
using onboard soft audio it is routinely possible, quite
attainable to run related or unrelated jobs that peg CPU at
100% for hours on end without it causing audio stuttering if
the stuttering didn't exist without the other CPU load.

If it's a PCI bus problem instead, anything contending for
the bus may be a problem or exacerbation of already existing
problems. This kind of situation was most often seen on the
late Pentium 2, 3, and Athlon XP - Via chipsets which had a
marginal PCI bus efficiency.

 

[VanShania]

Onboard sound uses cpu cycles, so yes it does cause a burden. Sound
cards(especially the X-fi) unload that burden off the cpu. Onboard sound
when listening to mp3s is pathetic at best.

--
Love and Teach, Not Yell and Beat
Stop Violence and Child Abuse.
No such thing as Bad Kids. Only Bad Parents.
The most horrible feeling in the world is knowing that No One is There to
Protect You.

A64 3500+, Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939,AIW 9800 Pro 128mb
MSI 550 Pro, X-Fi, Pioneer 110D, 111D
Antec 550 watt,Thermaltake Lanfire,2 Gb OCZ Platinum 2-3-2-5
2XSATA 320gb Raid Edition, PATA 120Gb
XP MCE2005, 19in Viewsonic,BenchMark 2001 SE- 19074
Games I'm Playing- Falcon 4, winSPWW2, winSPMBT, Call of Duty War Chest

 

[Rod Speed]

Onboard sound uses cpu cycles, so yes it does cause a burden.

Thanks for that completely superfluous proof that you
have never ever had a clue about anything at all, ever.

Sound cards(especially the X-fi) unload that burden off the cpu. Onboard sound when listening to
mp3s is pathetic at best.

Thanks for that completely superfluous proof that you
have never ever had a clue about anything at all, ever.

Hasnt even been able to work out how to quote either.

 

[kony]

Onboard sound uses cpu cycles, so yes it does cause a burden.

Fairly trivial, the far larger issue is whether the onboard
sound solution has enough board real-estate allocated to
filtering if using analog output.

Sound
cards(especially the X-fi) unload that burden off the cpu.

It would be hard to find a difference listening to MP3, or
gaming with a reasonable system if not using spatialization
effects (EAX, etc) in > 2.1 channel modes.

Onboard sound
when listening to mp3s is pathetic at best.

Depends on the amp, speakers, MP3 file itself as much as the
sound in many cases... the better every part is, the more
you may notice the flaws in one particular subsystem. X-fi
is a gamer's card though, it is not ideal for MP3 or any
other *music* playback.

 

[Adam Russell]

Fairly trivial, the far larger issue is whether the onboard
sound solution has enough board real-estate allocated to
filtering if using analog output.




It would be hard to find a difference listening to MP3, or
gaming with a reasonable system if not using spatialization
effects (EAX, etc) in > 2.1 channel modes.

Does that (2.1) mean that if I use headphones Im ok? (gaming only)

 

[kony]

Does that (2.1) mean that if I use headphones Im ok? (gaming only)

2.1 means what your game is set to output that for it's
audio. You could have it set to 4 or more channels and
still have headphones or speakers plugged in if you chose
to, but of course there would be no point to having more
than 2 channels set with 2 channel headphone use.

Then there's the issue of your particular headphones... many
(most?) onboard audio isn't very good for directly driving
loads, even high impedance such as headphones... but, games
aren't quite what I'd call the ultimate in fidelity and
dynamic range to begin with so you will have to decide if
you hear a difference.