Nvidia Sound Storm and UT2K3 PLEASE READ!

[dguy6789]

I have an A7N8X nforce 2 mainboard with nvidia sound storm. it is supposed to have all this stuff like 6 channel audio, 5.1 Dolby digital surround and stuff. Any way, i was wondering, should i use hardware audio in ut2k3? Will it go faster, or will it go slower, will it sound better? Also, could you tell me what the differences is between software 3d audio, hardware 3d audio, and hardware 3d audio and EAX.

 

[Acanthus]

yes use hardware audio, software is controlled by cpu/memory for crappy integrated codecs.

 

[BoomAM]

Software 3D
Performs the calcuations for the sound on the host CPU.

Hardware 3D
Peforms most of the calculations on the hosts sound chip, and sometimes uses a bit of CPU time.

Hardware 3D+EAX
As above, but with EAX effects. Such as echo, reverb, ect;

If the soundstorm supports eax, then go for the hardware3d+eax.

 

[dguy6789]

Ill use hardware 3d audio for now, but Does anyone know if the ASUS A7N8X motherboard's integrated soundstorm supports EAX?

 

[Lager]

It is ok to use hardware+eax with soundstorm on a7n8x deluxe?

 

[BoomAM]

I dont think the sound chip on the Asus nForce2 mobos can be classisified as SoundStorm. I remember seeing a article on it a while back.

 

[LiekOMG]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
yes use hardware audio, software is controlled by cpu/memory for crappy integrated codecs.

If this is true, then why do I get an extra 10fps in UT2k3 when I use software 3d sound over hardware 3d sound? I'm using an Audigy btw.

 

[BoomAM]

Cos, In the ut2003.ini file theres a setting that specifys wether the games uses its generic sound renderers, which are cpu controlled or the sound card renderer, which is hardware accellerated, which is faster. For compatibility reasons, all installations of unreal use the built in generic one, unless it is manually changed.

 

[John]

Originally posted by: BoomAM
I dont think the sound chip on the Asus nForce2 mobos can be classisified as SoundStorm. I remember seeing a article on it a while back.

The A7N8X Deluxe was classified as "soundstorm" certified in the beginning, but NVIDIA or Asus saw fit to declassify it for some reason. The exact reason are still unclear to me.

 

[dguy6789]

On asus's site the a7n8x, it says has nvidia sound storm/dolby digital. I have a standard A7N8X though, the site says it has 6 channel audio, but it doenst tell me any more.

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: John

Originally posted by: BoomAM
I dont think the sound chip on the Asus nForce2 mobos can be classisified as SoundStorm. I remember seeing a article on it a while back.

The A7N8X Deluxe was classified as "soundstorm" certified in the beginning, but NVIDIA or Asus saw fit to declassify it for some reason. The exact reason are still unclear to me.

It is missing one optical out I think, thats the only reason it isnt soundstorm certified.

 

[gramboh]

Yes the soundstorm supports EAX (1 and 2) and A3D 1.0, pretty sure anyway

 

[BD2003]

Software 3d sound is non-accellerated, barely 3d sound.

Hardware 3d sound runs on your hardware, but also jacks up the effects and sounds better, and therefore runs SLOWER, not faster. Sounds counter-intuitive, but true, as it has been for every game that uses 3d sound. Youll lose about 5-10 fps.

Hardware 3d + EAX adds echo and reverb, but only works on audigy cards, and only a select few maps. Wont do a thing for nforce. Trust me on this one.

 

[pelikan]

It's true that software audio is the way to go with UT2003 for FPS.

 

[Gstanfor]

There are two variants of the ASUS A7N8X. The plain model (ASUS A7N8X) and the Deluxe model (ASUS A7N8X Deluxe). The difference is that the non deluxe model uses only the MCP 'southbridge' whereas the deluxe uses the MCP-T 'southbridge'.

What this means is that the non deluxe model has AC97 audio only, and all sound is processed by a seperate codec chip (which only translates digital to analog and back on MCP-T boards) whereas the Deluxe has the full nVidia APU present.

This applies to all nForce2 boards. If the board does not have the MCP-T 'southbridge', you will not be using nVidia sound, just AC97 sound from a third party codec.

 

[Brian48]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
I have an A7N8X nforce 2 mainboard with nvidia sound storm. it is supposed to have all this stuff like 6 channel audio, 5.1 Dolby digital surround and stuff. Any way, i was wondering, should i use hardware audio in ut2k3? Will it go faster, or will it go slower, will it sound better? Also, could you tell me what the differences is between software 3d audio, hardware 3d audio, and hardware 3d audio and EAX.

For your setup, I'd stick with software audio. I've always found 3d HW audio to be somewhat buggy or not even sounding right under anything, but a Creative based card. As BD2003 said, EAX only works for Audigy/Audigy2 cards even though you can select it under the game options. It just defaults to plain ol' HW upon start of the game. The game readme.txt will tell you this. It uses EAX 3.0 and only the Audigy series support this.

Performance hit aside, 3d HW+EAX DOES sound incredibly good when you have an Audigy2 paired with a good 4.1+ speaker setup. It's very noticable.

 

[dguy6789]

Ok then, so ill just use 3D hardware audio, because it sounds much better then software audio.

 

[squidman]

nVida got permission to creative to use EAX (1 and 2) on its MCP-T chips, so A7N8X has EAX support. THe other deal is that nVidia cannot make a good driver for EAX to work proerly. Under 2.42 it did, but they only have old 2.03 on their website right now. Dont use EAX yet, not unless the updated driver comes out. Otherwise, the reverb will get so huge, that it ll sound horrible. Just leave at HW audio to use Audio accelerator and its optimizations.