AC97, is it ok, or does it suck?!

[Galactus]

Hello! On the motherboard I plan on buying, ASUS P4T533, there is sound onboard, in form of the AC97 standard. I don't have any experience of integrated sound whatsoever, so I wonder how good is it? I know you can disable it, and just put a PCI card there instead. But how does it compare to, for example, the SB live series? Which is good enough for me. Is it more CPU demanding or so?

/Galactus

 

[Need4Speed]

yes you can disable it and install a pci sound card.

its ok for normal everyday use but not for the serious gaming or HT buff

it uses more cpu cycles and often does not support some of the features as add-on cards.

 

[paralazarguer]

No. AC'97 is horrible. Read this article which specifically lists AC'97 and how it compares to the live, audigy and Mia. You can disable and add these cards if you want.

 

[InFecTed]

AC97 is crap, buy a sound card.

 

[whitelight]

it's decent for mp3s, but since you can get a good sound card for ~$50, go for that.

 

[paralazarguer]

It's not even decent for Mp3s I'm afraid. Your sound will be muddled and squashed because of the 50+dB DC offset. Again, if you don't know, read this

 

[Galactus]

Ok, seems that I will get a sound card Maybe I'll just take the SB Live player from this rig, and put there

Anyway, thanks for the fast response!

 

[Hector13]

Anyone know how the c-media chipset used for the ASUS P4S533 stacks up?

 

[paralazarguer]

Very poorly. I have that board and it has a DC offset of 57dB!!!!! That's completely useless. Read that article I linked to to learn why that sucks and then get a real card. BTW that chip is also in some low end hercules cards which suck also. Don't get that to replace it. It doesn't have a seperate DAC or ADC but instead a hardware CODEC. Seriously, read the article, get a good soundcard.

 

[nowayout99]

I have the Epox 8KHA+ with AC97 (but screw that, I used a Live card). Does disabling AC97 in BIOS save CPU cycles, or consume more?

You'd THINK it would save cycles, but I've heard differently with other mobos and on-board audio before.

 

[PH0ENIX]

I'm in total agreement - AC97 is suck.

I've had 2 mainboards with it now, one Via one SiS.

The first was an Aopen AX37-pro (Via Apollo pro 266) board - which don't usually have any quality issues thanks to half-decent R&D, but it was damn shonky as far as the sound went.
Using scroll bars in any program causes interference, the first 3 seconds of any track (CD, MP3, WAV, MID, whatever) is skipped, and the sound quality was comparable to a 60kbit MP3 - even when playing CDs with digital playback.

The second board is my current system - MSI 645 ultra (no prizes for guessing the chipset) - which, although I had little of my own experience with MSI, came fairly highly recommended. The board itself, like the Aopen, is great, but the sound is even worse than on the Via chipset (is that even possible :/)

I can actually distinguish each one of my drives when they're reading, thru the speakers.
The most audiable of all being the cdrom - so every CD track has a nice little into that sounds like a HDD spinning up - but more electronic than mechanical.
Naturally it's also got a lovely crisp high-pitched whine in the background for the whole song.

CD audio seems ok except for the interference, but MP3s - again - sound like they're recorded from Vinyl.

I had a mate's SBlive (1.0 original woulda liked to keep it) to test on both mainboards - and it worked 100%.

AC97 = sh!t

 

[paralazarguer]

Disabling prevents winodws from seeing it. It doesn't exist. Same with serial and parallel ports. It will definitley save performance.

 

[Palvaran]

AC97 does not always suck. The AC97 on my Soltek SK-75KIV board is excellent. Also, some boards use an actual hardware chip, such as a SoundBlaster Pro, instead of software. FYI, I have the original SBLIVE with the SPDIF/MIDI addon hooked up to a Yamaha receiver and Energy speakers and can tell no difference between the AC97 from the Soltek versus the SBLIVE.

 

[Chadder007]

My AC97 on an Epox 4G4A+ board sounds fine to me. No hisses or cracks while playing MP3's and game music and sound effects sound good....in fact better than my good ole Diamond Aureal MX300 card. It used to crack a bit, but that was because of poor drivers.

 

[Wingznut]

I too have to disagree with the statement that ALL AC97 sucks... Some boards are better than others. Besides, A LOT of it has to do with your speakers. If you don't have high quality speakers, I'm not sure you'd notice the difference.

Sure, it's not as good as a quality sound card, but it's not "horrible" by any means. I have no problem suggesting to people to try it out first... You can always add in the sound card later.

As for CPU cycles... Give me a break. Do you really think you'd notice the lost cycles on whatever multi-gigahertz P4 you throw in that P4T533?

 

[SnoopyDog]

Just my two cents worth.

I am the happy owner of a SOYO DRAGON + with C-media 5.1 on. I compared this with the SB 1024 Live I have and decided NOT to put the SB on the board.

The sound to me is MUCH better with the onboard sound compared to the SB 1024 Live.

Just my point of view.

 

[Adul]

most onboard sounds is suck! Sblive is suck compared to my TBSC

 

[holdencommodore]

The C-media 9738 (not to be confused with the 8738) is probably going to be the best bet for AC97 sound. It's a 4 channel codec and has Sensaura 3D. That means it will have Sensaura's ZoomFX, MacroFX, Multidrive. The C-media drivers are also pretty good.

As regards CPU usage, it really depends on the AC97 chip. Some are better than others. The diff b/w a proper soundcard and AC97 may be round the 1-2% mark according to a couple of tests i've run. Nothing to get excited about, I really wouldn't worry about CPU usage on current computers.

Other than that, if you want more features like SPDIF etc (the boards with CMI 8738 usually have this) your probably better off getting a proper soundcard.... like a Philips Acoustic Edge, or even the lower versions, the PSC705 or PSC703 (they all use the AE's chip)

Also, something to note is that most soundcards usually come with AC97 codecs on the board. The quality of this codec on the sound board will effect the output from your soundcard.

With regard to quality of AC97 sound, it depends on the codec, and what YOU think of the sound through YOUR speakers. Sound is a very subjective matter so everyone will hear things differently.

Cheers

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: Chadder007
My AC97 on an Epox 4G4A+ board sounds fine to me. No hisses or cracks while playing MP3's and game music and sound effects sound good....in fact better than my good ole Diamond Aureal MX300 card. It used to crack a bit, but that was because of poor drivers.

I agree, the onboard sound on my 4G4A sounds great.

 

[bsr]

Dont use AC97 onboard sound, It will do nothing but crash under XP and 2000. And if you deside to use it download the latest drivers from www.viaarena.com

 

[NFS4]

Dont use AC97 onboard sound, It will do nothing but crash under XP and 2000.

Bullcrap!:|

 

[agentK]

Originally posted by: bsr
Dont use AC97 onboard sound, It will do nothing but crash under XP and 2000. And if you deside to use it download the latest drivers from www.viaarena.com

i disagree. :disgust:

 

[paralazarguer]

People who say that AC'97 or a C-media onboard controller are acceptable just don't know sound! It will squash your dynamic range and make the lows seem mucky and highs tinny. Please read the article here for soundcard 101 if you don't know the basics. AC'97 is a joke.

 

[Lucky]

With regard to quality of AC97 sound, it depends on the codec, and what YOU think of the sound through YOUR speakers. Sound is a very subjective matter so everyone will hear things differently.

Finally someone who knows what they are talking about!

 

[holdencommodore]

"People who say that AC'97 or a C-media onboard controller are acceptable just don't know sound! It will squash your dynamic range and make the lows seem mucky and highs tinny. Please read the article here for soundcard 101 if you don't know the basics. AC'97 is a joke."

Do you think that you'll really be able to hear the difference in the frequency range when playing games? The Sensaura 3D API used in the C-media 9738, 8738 and quite a few other soundcards is a very fine API. Personally I would rather a nice API that supports MacroFX, ZoomFX and Multidrive than having a card with slightly better output.

I do find that my C-media isn't as crisp a my beautiful Acoustic Edge, Seismic Edge or Aztech PCI368DSP with the wonderful QMSS algorithim, but the C-media was never designed to compete with the AE, or even the SB Live.

What do you expect for around $15?? The C-media offers 4 or 6 channel sound, (some offer coax SPDIF in/out as well as Optical in/out), and the Sensaura 3d API, and has solid drivers for most OS (including BeOS and Linux). If you check out most reviews for the Hercules Muse, you will find most people are quite happy with the sound. Like i've said before, each person will have different likings when it comes to sound.

Cheers