Onboard sound or Audigy 2 Value?

[5t3v0]

Newer and better cards aside, which should I use for a Vista setup with a 2.1 speaker setup used for games & mp3s?

Audigy specs are here but I'm struggling to find specs for the ALC889A. Not even Realtek have it posted on their website!

I read about DirectSound & Vista & tried the Creative Alchemy patch with the Audigy card which made the sound stutter (no surprise there given Creative's track record on drivers). Do I actually need 3D positional audio on a 2.1 setup?

 

[lopri]

Strongly suggest the on-board Realtek. ALC889 should belong to ALC880 series, I assume? Either way it's plenty for desktop stereo speakers.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/prod...vel=5&Conn=4&ProdID=42

If you're not satisfied with the quality of sound, then you can think about purchasing a discrete card. Vista's sound is handled by OS (thus CPU), and it's vastly improved for HD audio codecs.

 

[5t3v0]

Thanks lopri

 

[Nickel020]

I wouldn't go with Audigy 2 for Vista, might be ebtter than the Realtek, but it may also be PITA. Creative support kinda sucks, having to pay for a driver sucks, especially since creative support still sucks when you pay them money for that support.
If you want a discrete sound ard I'd go looking for a used Audigy and save the money for the driver.

 

[5t3v0]

No I'm not after a discrete card - I already have an Audigy 2 carried over from my last build. It's which will give the best performance & quality that I'm interested in. Both look similar spec'd on paper from what I understand about sound hardware (very little). Are there any tests I can do to see which uses the most CPU?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: 5t3v0
Are there any tests I can do to see which uses the most CPU?

To test it, just run some game benchmark that uses sound. Run it three times, once with sound disabled, once with onboard and once with the Audigy.

I'm thinking if you're using just two channel sound, there won't be much difference between onboard and the Audigy as far as CPU utilization is concerned. There will be more of a difference if you are using more than two channels and enable EAX.

Someone will probably come along soon and tell me I'm wrong.

 

[5t3v0]

I think you're probably right. Playing mp3s with the installed Audigy2 consumes 2-3% of cpu, virtually all attributable to mfpmp.exe. I remember this used to in excess of 15%. Have M$ patched it?