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+/- about onboard sound and video

F

FunkyPorcini

Member
Ok, First off, I'm a bit new to this so spare me if I claim ignorance.

I notice that some boards come with onboard video and/or sound. With the video cards and sound cards we have available is this really necessary? What are the advantages? Do they run faster because they are so close to the main board and if that's the case are you going to get the same kind of performance from them (I'm pretty sure the answer to this for the video is "no" but how about the sound)?

Are there companies that focus on the chipset and processor only, making a very fast stripped-down board without all the bells and whistles which will work excellent with separate video and sound?

educate me, please.
 
Pardon the brevity of my answer(someone here will undoubtedly go into great detail) On-Board video is pretty bad at this point compared to a G2 MX card or higher, but the sound can be very good depending on the implementation used. So, I wouldn't hesitate on buying a board with good on-board sound but if you need good gaming performance stay away from on-board video unless it's a stop-gap and the board has a 4xAGP slot for upgrading later. EDIT: Abit makes very fast boards without sound or video and the NForce is a good platform that has excellent on-board sound and good(for on-board) video.
 
Onboard sound can range from awful, to very good. It lacks the options that you can get with many full blow cards though, like the platinums or the game theater cards.

Onboard video sucks in all cases, the only usable one I've seen is nforce.
 
onboard video is ok if you only going to be using a word processor and interent 🙂

but as was said above onboard video sucks for anything 3d (especially games)


i only use sound to listen to mp3's and play games so i like onboard sound, (works good for that), but if you are a real audiophile, or use your pc to compose music, etc then you either need a board with high quality onboard sound (example soyo dragon plus), or you need to get a high quality soundcard (and good sound cards arent cheap 🙂 )
 
ok, guys, I can see where this is going. I agree that onboard video is archaic and sound can be decent. I also agree that a third part card will most likely give you a better sound quality.


Since this is the case, why do mobos like the SOYO Dragon come with onboard sound? Is it because it's faster? Is it because sounds cards may conflict with how the architecture of a board is built?

Since I know I am going to buy a sound card and a video card...what kind of motherboard manufacturers understand that most decent builders will do the same therefor they take these things of the damn board and charge? Any model suggestions? Any thoughts on quality of the boards that do come stipped down?

Am I way off here?

Does this make any sense?
 


<< ok, guys, I can see where this is going. I agree that onboard video is archaic and sound can be decent. I also agree that a third part card will most likely give you a better sound quality. >>


The reason why onboard video is lacking is very simple. It taps into the main system memory, which is (1) slower than the dedicated memory found on graphics cards, (2) doesn't provide the necessary bandwidth and, on top of that, (3) onboard video has to share with the CPU what limited memory bandwidth is available.

That is why nForce goes to such great lengths as implementing dual-channel DDR memory controllers. That way, the total bandwidth amounts to 4.2 GB/s (instead of the usual 2.1 GB/s), out of which the CPU can use no more than 2.1 GB/s, so the remaining 2.1 GB/s could be used by the onboard video. That is just a little bit less than what GeForce2 MX requires. Without that, onboard video would choke and suffocate.



<< Since this is the case, why do mobos like the SOYO Dragon come with onboard sound? Is it because it's faster? Is it because sounds cards may conflict with how the architecture of a board is built? >>


Unlike onboard video, however, there is no inherent technological reason for onboard audio to be bad. In most cases, it is bad simply because the motherboard manufacturers wanted to save bucks, so they made do with an AC97 codec and let the CPU do the job instead of dedicated DSP(s). Large OEMs love onboard audio, because they can assemble a cheaper system, and most customers just don't seem to care. And large OEMs drive far more sales than what the do-it-yourself enthusiast market can field.

In some cases, however, onboard audio is pretty good. nForce audio, for example, beats the best consumer level sound cards on the market.

Leo
 
Onboard sound has become almost universal because its extremely inexpensive and adds flexibility. Even the ac97 codec is fine for the bings and bongs windows gives off, and other onboard implementations can be pretty good- The Creative CT5880 chip is the same as that used on their PCI128 card.

Onboard video is very much the same kind of deal, you really can't tell the difference unless you're gaming or have an extremely good monitor and high end 2D card like a Matrox. Many boards also have an AGP slot to further enhance flexibility.

It's part of the competitive marketplace, manufacturers need to have these features to compete at the low and mid end of the spectrum. Higher production volume means lower cost per unit and a better deal for consumers.

Few of us actually use every feature on our boards. Just be sure that the board you buy has the flexibility to turn off the unwanted ones and to add different hardware to suit your desires.
 
Has anyone actually seen test results for onboard sound/video mobos compared to stripped down mobos?

I'd be curious to see if there is any performance difference for all the different combinations.

Thanks for the info so far.
 
I was using the onboard sound on my Epox 8k7a with 1.4 266 Tbird and 512 pc2100 DDR and it worked really good. However I burned up my 1.4 so I put in a spare 1.2 200 Tbird and went down to 256 pc1600 ram for a spell. The sound was terrible. Was always skipping and popping! So I bought a hercules sound card for like $40. So if you have a very beefy system with plenty of headroom, onboard sound can be nice. It's easy and comes with the board. But I would still say go for an actual card. I am much happier now with a card then I was with onboard sound. The quality is just much better!
 
Mofunk,

Thanks, playa. It makes sense that an onboard component would lack performance in some way. Whether or not the allocation of memory and processing hits the sound last I am not sure. Meaning if you systems not beefy it would effect the onboard sound but not the other way around.

Just seems more logical to get stand-alone components to take care of themselves and not leech off the mobo.

 
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