Asus 8V Deluxe Onboard sound?

Hi, I've been looking at a new cpu / mobo combo lately and found the Asus 8V deluxe quite to my liking (the socket 939 model). I was wondering if the onboard sound provided by that motherboard is any good in terms of cpu usage or wether I should stick to the Audigy 2 ZS I am using now? All the best & thanks in advance, uwe -- GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

> I've been looking at a new cpu / mobo combo lately and found the Asus > 8V deluxe quite to my liking (the socket 939 model). I was wondering > if the onboard sound provided by that motherboard is any good in terms > of cpu usage or wether I should stick to the Audigy 2 ZS I am using > now? You may find it's better than the Audigy 2 in most categories (including CPU usage) though it doesn't support real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 output like its predecessor - the nForce2 SoundStorm.

This is one area that got me for a long time. I always thought that any soundcard that had a digital out (coax or toslink) could output 5.1 Dolby Digital from games, not fully understanding that the best you can get out of most soundcards is only PCM Stereo out of their digital outs. The SoundStorm amazed me because it could carry out Dolby Digital ENCODING, whereby it took 5.1 sound that a game created (that on most soundcards - even the top of the range Creative Labs cards - would be output from the various analog outputs), and encoded it into dolby digital to then output via the digital output (coax or toslink). The INTEL HDA (high definition audio) can also do this. Youd then obviously need a dolby digital decoder (home theatre amp/receiver etc) to create the sound from that digital feed (im running a Denon 2805 here) The problem with DDE (dolby digital encoding) is that it isnt a lossless compression technique. Sound quality can be affected (although how much depends on a number of factors - quality of original samples for example). Almost all soundcards that have Digital outputs (coax or toslink) will output Dolby Digital/DTS from DVDs, or other media that has already got an encoded digital stream available. Games dont - even a game like Doom3 which is heavily touted for its 5.1 doesnt output a digital 5.1 stream. It generates 5.1 that your audio device can output via its 6 or 8 analog outputs. The SoundStorm audio kit could then carry out DDE on that and you could run just one cable to your home theatre amp to do the business rather than 6 or 8 RCA cables that an Audigy card would require. Intels HDA can also carry out DDE (although its called Dolby Digital Live on that system). So, in summary (thank god!): - Almost all cards can output Dolby/DTS digital from DVDs that contain digitally encoded soundtracks output from digital outs (coax or toslink - if they have them) - All multichannel cards can output ANALOG signals from games, with some games being capable of multichannel analog audio out. - All multichannel cards with digital outputs can output 2 CHANNEL STEREO PCM through the digital output - this is the only audio you will get from a digital out for DOOM3 for example if you hook up an Audigy card to a home theatre amp via digital TOSLINK or COAX. - SoundStorm and Intel HDA can carry out Dolby Digital Encoding to take multichannel analog audio and encode it into Dolby Digital so that you can take 5.1 digitally from the digital out to a seperate home theatre amp to decode. - Most multichannel sound cards can carry out Dolby Digital Decoding, whereby they decode the digital stream from a DVD (for example) themselves and convert it to 6 or 8 analog outputs (quite why youd do that if you have a decent home theatre amp is another matter). As for the latest Asus boards, its an 8 channel analog capable system, but is based on pretty old AC97 codecs (bugs me that nvidia didnt include an update for soundstorm in the nforce4 chipset). Im getting one myself soon, so ill keep you posted. pez "Steve Simpson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> > I've been looking at a new cpu / mobo combo lately and found the Asus > > 8V deluxe quite to my liking (the socket 939 model). I was wondering > > if the onboard sound provided by that motherboard is any good in terms > > of cpu usage or wether I should stick to the Audigy 2 ZS I am using > > now? > > You may find it's better than the Audigy 2 in most categories (including

CPU > usage) though it doesn't support real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 output likeits > predecessor - the nForce2 SoundStorm. > >

I have an Asus A7V8X which may not have all the bells and whistles as the deluxe model, I've found the 5.1 support for the onboard AC97 isn't availble in the Win98 drivers and LFS sound is non-existant unless I add a soundboard. Different model as I say but the drivers may share some code..

Uwe Schürkamp wrote:

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> Hi, > > I've been looking at a new cpu / mobo combo lately and found the Asus > 8V deluxe quite to my liking (the socket 939 model). I was wondering > if the onboard sound provided by that motherboard is any good in terms > of cpu usage or wether I should stick to the Audigy 2 ZS I am using > now? > > All the best & thanks in advance, > > uwe > > >

Use the Audigy Uwe. -- Remove "nospam." to reply. SuSE 9.2 Pro KDE 3.3.2a

On Wed, 09 Feb 2005 17:35:01 GMT, Mitch_A wrote: > > Use the Audigy Uwe. pheww, I have to justify spending those 70 Euros somehow ;-) uwe -- GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

>I have an Asus A7V8X which may not have all the bells and whistles as > the deluxe model, I've found the 5.1 support for the onboard AC97 isn't > availble in the Win98 drivers and LFS sound is non-existant unless I > add a soundboard. > > Different model as I say but the drivers may share some code.. Yeah, given that Uwe is a staunch Win98 supporter, the Audigy may be a better choice in term of drivers but it certainly isn't in Win2K/XP. The Audigy 2 still has problems with GPL on WinXP in some systems.

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 06:49:19 +1000, Steve Simpson wrote: > > Yeah, given that Uwe is a staunch Win98 supporter, the Audigy may be a Was, that is. Was. GTR forced me to "upgrade" to WinXP (license provided for home-office use by my employer). > better choice in term of drivers but it certainly isn't in Win2K/XP. The > Audigy 2 still has problems with GPL on WinXP in some systems. > GPL works ok when sound acceleration is set to "basic", but with the default SB drivers I still get the "sewing machine" engine sound in N2003 & friends, so I've decided to use the kxproject drivers. Now those drivers give me really low-volume (next to inaudible) engine sound in RBR, but I can live with that for now as I am mostly racing GTR at the moment, anyway. I suspect it's also to do with the el-cheapo ECS KS75A LAN mobo I'm using, and this one will fly out of the window next week when I'll upgrade my gaming rig to a asus a8v deluxe / athlon64 3200 system (again, for GTR ;-). A friend of mine had similar problems with the audigy which went away when he tossed the ECS mobo in favor of asrock hardware. Well, not out of the window exactly, but into my linux machine. Cheers & thanks for all your thoughts & comments, uwe -- GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

"Uwe Sch�rkamp" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Hi, > > I've been looking at a new cpu / mobo combo lately and found the Asus > 8V deluxe quite to my liking (the socket 939 model). I was wondering > if the onboard sound provided by that motherboard is any good in terms > of cpu usage or wether I should stick to the Audigy 2 ZS I am using > now? > > All the best & thanks in advance, > > uwe > GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

I've had my Asus A8V Deluxe about two weeks now, (with an Athlon 64, XP3200+ CPU) and have logged in a couple dozen "short" N2003 races, and a couple longer ones (1 to 2 hrs), and during the last long race--while I maintained car engine sound--I lost all speech from the pit boss, spotter and track officials. Haven't figured out the reason yet since it just happened, so don't know if it was MB related or not, but I suspect it may have had something to do with the onboard sound. Has anyone else heard of this occurring with the Asus A8V and N2003?

On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 10:26:33 -0500, JD wrote: > longer ones (1 to 2 hrs), and during the last long race--while I maintained > car engine sound--I lost all speech from the pit boss, spotter and track > officials. Haven't figured out the reason yet since it just happened, so I've had something similar happen in an online race using an audigy 2 zs. I had to turn off "3d sound" in N2003 to regain spotter and crew chief messages. I don't know if the problem is reproducible, but I think that solved it for me. Good luck, uwe -- GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

"Uwe Sch�rkamp" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 10:26:33 -0500, JD wrote: > >> longer ones (1 to 2 hrs), and during the last long race--while I >> maintained >> car engine sound--I lost all speech from the pit boss, spotter and track >> officials. Haven't figured out the reason yet since it just happened, so > > I've had something similar happen in an online race using an audigy 2 > zs. I had to turn off "3d sound" in N2003 to regain spotter and crew > chief messages. I don't know if the problem is reproducible, but I > think that solved it for me. > > Good luck, > > uwe > > > -- > GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

Thanks uwe, but I am not running 3d sound.

On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 14:21:32 -0500, JD wrote: > > Thanks uwe, but I am not running 3d sound. > > sorry, then I guess I'll have to wait and see how "my" asus performs once it arrives. Good luck, uwe -- GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

"Uwe Sch�rkamp" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 14:21:32 -0500, JD wrote: >> >> Thanks uwe, but I am not running 3d sound. >> >> > > sorry, then I guess I'll have to wait and see how "my" asus performs > once it arrives. > > Good luck, > > uwe > > > -- > GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61

Uwe I've had sever long races since my last sound problem and it hasn't reoccurred (knock on wood) so maybe it was an isolated problem and not something you will encounter. I just stumbled across this site and it has a lot of good info on our MB. I thought I would pass it along. You might want to check it out. http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=332591

Uwe =?iso-8859-15?Q?Sch=FCrkamp?= <[email hidden]> wrote in news:[email hidden]:

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>> longer ones (1 to 2 hrs), and during the last long race--while I >> maintained car engine sound--I lost all speech from the pit boss, >> spotter and track officials. Haven't figured out the reason yet >> since it just happened, so > > I've had something similar happen in an online race using an audigy 2 > zs. I had to turn off "3d sound" in N2003 to regain spotter and crew > chief messages. I don't know if the problem is reproducible, but I > think that solved it for me. > > Good luck, > > uwe >

ya know, I've seen that behavior in Papy sims in the past. I can't remember which ones, probably N99 and N3. We'd run fairly long offline races and sometimes the extra sounds would just quit. Usually a reboot would fix it...but it sounds like it's an unusual problem that has been around for a long long time. dh

"JD" <JohnAnderson221z(nospam)@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:4BeQd.1756$[email hidden]...

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> > "Uwe Sch�rkamp" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]... >> On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 14:21:32 -0500, JD wrote: >>> >>> Thanks uwe, but I am not running 3d sound. >>> >>> >> >> sorry, then I guess I'll have to wait and see how "my" asus performs >> once it arrives. >> >> Good luck, >> >> uwe >> >> >> -- >> GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61 > > Uwe > > I've had sever long races since my last sound problem and it hasn't > reoccurred (knock on wood) so maybe it was an isolated problem and not > something you will encounter. > > I just stumbled across this site and it has a lot of good info on our MB. > I thought I would pass it along. You might want to check it out. > > http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=332591 >

I just tried a test on my system - A8V, FX53, X800. Bear in mind I'm only interested in 5.1 and then only for sims! I don't need firewire, gameport, midi etc. On this basis, I thought it would be worth trying the onboard sound to save a slot. I tested the two systems using 3DMark03, no sound and 24 sounds, with the graphics board set to 6xFSAA and 16xAF (the settings I usually have it on). The good news is that the ALC850 ran perfectly, giving lovely surround sound in NR2003. The bad news is that frame rates with 24 sounds were 15% down on the same figure using my Audigy 2ZS. For that reason, I've gone back to the Audigy as I don't plan to give up using all my sims at max settings. I wish there was a 939 board out there with onboard 5.1 sound that had no worse a hit than a 2ZS. Maybe there is and I just don't know about it ;) Hope this helps. Regards

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> I tested the two systems using 3DMark03, no sound and 24 sounds, with the > graphics board set to 6xFSAA and 16xAF (the settings I usually have it > on). The good news is that the ALC850 ran perfectly, giving lovely > surround sound in NR2003. The bad news is that frame rates with 24 sounds > were 15% down on the same figure using my Audigy 2ZS. For that reason, > I've gone back to the Audigy as I don't plan to give up using all my sims > at max settings. > > I wish there was a 939 board out there with onboard 5.1 sound that had no > worse a hit than a 2ZS. Maybe there is and I just don't know about it ;)

That's a pretty massive hit - my nForce2 SoundStorm barely makes any difference to the frame rate in N2003 compared with having sound turned off completely. 1-2fps.

> That's a pretty massive hit - my nForce2 SoundStorm barely makes any > difference to the frame rate in N2003 compared with having sound turned > off completely. 1-2fps. Seems it's true though from what I've just read in a couple of forums - the new nVidia sound chips are pretty severe on the CPU compared to the SoundStorm. It really is baffling why they got rid of such a great chip in the new nForces.

"Steve Simpson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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>> I tested the two systems using 3DMark03, no sound and 24 sounds, with the >> graphics board set to 6xFSAA and 16xAF (the settings I usually have it >> on). The good news is that the ALC850 ran perfectly, giving lovely >> surround sound in NR2003. The bad news is that frame rates with 24 sounds >> were 15% down on the same figure using my Audigy 2ZS. For that reason, >> I've gone back to the Audigy as I don't plan to give up using all my sims >> at max settings. >> >> I wish there was a 939 board out there with onboard 5.1 sound that had no >> worse a hit than a 2ZS. Maybe there is and I just don't know about it ;) > > That's a pretty massive hit - my nForce2 SoundStorm barely makes any > difference to the frame rate in N2003 compared with having sound turned > off completely. 1-2fps. >

Hi Steve, What I actually meant was: With 2ZS and 0/24 sounds, fps = 70/64 With onboard sound, fps = 70/54 So they both take an fps hit, but the onboard is way bigger than the Audigy. Regards

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 10:10:40 +0000 (UTC), Neil Charlton wrote: > > I wish there was a 939 board out there with onboard 5.1 sound that had no > worse a hit than a 2ZS. Maybe there is and I just don't know about it ;) > Hi neil, thanks for going through the trouble of providing some "hard numbers" on this issue. It's good to know that the 70 Euros for the 2ZS weren't wasted after all ;-) It's probably overkill as I still have only two speakers connected to that card which features a "slot ful of holes" to connect fancy stuff to... cheers, uwe -- GPG Fingerprint: 2E 13 20 22 9A 3F 63 7F 67 6F E9 B1 A8 36 A4 61