AC'97 Sound vs. TB Santa Cruz or Audigy???

[TheeeChosenOne]

One professional reviewer likened the AC'97 as good as ANY on the market:

" Uses nVIDIA's MCP-T which includes the SoundStorm APU (Audio Processing Unit) which supports 5.1 speakers and is 100% Dolby Digital compliant. The MCP-T southbridge works in tandem with the AC'97 codec to produce chrisp clear audio which rivals even the top of the line soundcards on the market in terms of audio quality. This is certainly good news for audiophiles, gamers and multimedia users alike. One of the best qualities of nVIDIA's APU audio is that it takes up very few CPU resources so you're overall computer experience will not suffer due to the soundcard hogging the processor."

Is this true?

Is the AC'97 sound as good as Creative Labs Audigy or Turtle Beach sound cards?

Heck, if that's true, I can save some extra real estate on the PCI side of my mobo and use AC'97 instead of my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card.


Please advise............................

 

[Amber]

I have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card and AC97 I like them the same,The AC97 on board sound is very nice and I don't use the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card any more

 

[lobadobadingdong]

really that kind of thing really depends on what quality of speakers you are using, if you have some high dollar klipsh promedia's you would get better fidelity with a higher end sound card, if you are using simple 2.1 3.1 or 4.1 sound you might not notice a difference either way. for everyone but audiophiles the AC'97 chips work great.

 

[Dragon365]

Are you using an Nforce 2 board with soundstorm? If so, the sound should be excellent and an add-in card will not be required.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

All AC97 sound chips are not the same. The Soundstorm APU happens to be probably the best of them all. Ultimately, though, the Audigy cards are the best for gaming since they use the lowest CPU percentage in games while supporting the most standards.