OnBoard Sound or Sound Blaster Live?

[wetcat007]

Ok I just bought a new motherboard and it has Realtek ALC650E 6-channel audio sound onboard, I currently have and use a Sound Blaster Live, I was wondering which would get better sound quality, and which would give me better performance in games.

Oh yeah if it matters the motherboard is the Epox 8RDA+

-Mark

 

[Hardtarget]

use the onboard, better sound (gasp!).
now if you had say an audigy 2 it would be a different story.
onboard sound is starting to get pretty good, i think one day it might surpass pci sound cards on the higher end mobos.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Most people would say they're about even. If you have speakers that can work properly, use the onboard. There are issues with Realtek's codecs not working right with 5.1 speakers.

http://www.8rdafaq.com/Epox_nForce2/index.php

 

[Lord Evermore]

Onboard sound, even in the Soundstorm, is still just AC'97 audio. The external codecs can get better and better but they're only converting from digital to analog. An individual AC'97 implementation can be better than a PCI card (as is seen with Soundstorm) but the PCI cards will always have a better solution available. Onboard sound will never be made to be competition for the very best PCI cards, it's just not worth it. Only nvidia is really trying.

 

[wetcat007]

Ok that website is confusing, I does this motherboard have soundstorm or not? Epox.com lists it as having Realtek ALC650E 6-channel full-duplex integrated sound, but then that other stie says a whole bunch of junk that doesnt seem to make sense. I don't belive 5.1 having issues would be a problem, I actually only have 4 speakers, and my SoundBlaster doesnt have 5.1 only 4.1. SO is there soundstorm on this motherboard and it just says otherwise on epox's website or what?

If it's soundstorm according to what I've seen it'll get very good performance in comparison to just about anything... So if this could be explained it'd be great......

 

[wetcat007]

*BUMP*

 

[tallman45]

Originally posted by: wetcat007
Ok I just bought a new motherboard and it has Realtek ALC650E 6-channel audio sound onboard, I currently have and use a Sound Blaster Live, I was wondering which would get better sound quality, and which would give me better performance in games.

Oh yeah if it matters the motherboard is the Epox 8RDA+

-Mark

You have both at your disposal, check them out using the same speakers.

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: tallman45

Originally posted by: wetcat007
Ok I just bought a new motherboard and it has Realtek ALC650E 6-channel audio sound onboard, I currently have and use a Sound Blaster Live, I was wondering which would get better sound quality, and which would give me better performance in games.

Oh yeah if it matters the motherboard is the Epox 8RDA+

-Mark

You have both at your disposal, check them out using the same speakers.

Well I thought if I knew a bit more about it, I could save some messing with the drivers, and the board hasnt arrived.

 

[Lord Evermore]

The Epox is not Soundstorm-qualified, but it does have almost all the capabilities. Since it doesn't come with the SPDIF connector, nvidia won't allow them to use the name Soundstorm, but you do get the MCP-T with the Dolby decoding and all that.

The ALC650 is just the external codec. All it does is convert the digital signal from the APU in the southbridge to analog signals for each speaker. Some codecs only support 2 channels, some support 6. Pretty much every current codec is probably equal in terms of quality of output.

 

[wetcat007]

Well if it did include the SPDIF conenctor thingy, it would be qualified right? I can just make my own.. What I was really wondering, is I see all these benchmarks of soundstorm audio like firingsquad.gamers.com had one a while back, so I was wondering if I'd be getting that kind of speed from audio processing, because they were amazing and took almost no toll on game speed, even bested the audigy 2, except in sound quality.

-Mark

 

[Lord Evermore]

Yep, the SPDIF is the only reason it's not officially Soundstorm branded. You'll get the same sort of performance.

 

[Matt84]

My motherboard has the Realtek codec built in on my GA-8IEXP and the sound is pretty muddy. I installed my soundblaster live 5.1 DE which is hooked up to a 4 speaker plus two sub setup and it sounds a hell of a lot better

 

[TronX]

Use the sound card, not because it has better sound, but because
it saves your system in processing speed and decreases your risks
of compatibility issues with games and unsupported sound chips.

 

[wetcat007]

Um well according to reviews of Soundstorm, it apparently performs better than the Audigy 2....

 

[Insidious]

I tried the on board sound on my MoBo and..... disabled it to install my SBLive

My onboard was 'tinny' and the control panel was not very effective or easy to use.

YMMV

Abit KD7-Raid: RealTek ALC650 6-Channel AC 97 CODEC on board
- Professional digital audio interface supports 24-bit S/PDIF Out

my speakers dont take advantage of the S/PDIF though

 

[Supermercado]

I've got a related question... I just got a new system and put it together last night (Abit IC7, P4c 2.4GHz, Radeon 9700 non-pro) and while I was doing so, I got confused about a few things between my current sound card (SoundBlaster Live), the onboard AC 97 sound, and front headphone/microphone jacks. I wanted to use my SBLive because it has a game port on it and my IC7 doesn't. My joystick is old and isn't USB and I don't want to get a new joystick. My case has front headphone/mic jacks. The case has them wired already and gives me a bunch of little leads for them that fit onto the motherboard where headphone jacks/mic jacks would normally plug into. My problem is this: I don't think they work. I currently have the onboard sound disabled. I assume that means that the jacks won't work at all, but... can I use both the onboard sound and my SBLive together? Use the SBLive for the game port and the AC 97 for the front jacks? Anyone know? Thanks.

 

[Insidious]

I don't think you can enable the on-board and also use a sound card.... (without major problems)

the one thing I would think of is try this:

disable the on board sound in BIOS to begin with.....
install the sound card and then use device manager to disable all but the gameport
then enable the on board sound.

I really dont think you'll get away with this.... but.... it is my only idea

Check the manual for the sound card... you may find that you have provision for those case connections on it. (I don't know... worth a look)

-sid

 

[TronX]

Originally posted by: wetcat007
Um well according to reviews of Soundstorm, it apparently performs better than the Audigy 2....

Then he would be stuck with an Nforce2 motherboard and AMD system.
So when he upgrades later it would mean losing sound that could have
be ported over and used again into the next system. The same thing
happens when people buy those videocards with TV out rather than
buying a TV card for that purpose alone.

 

[Matt84]

If you use the front jacks you won't be using the sblive audio at all - you'll be using the AC97 codec which defys the point of putting the SB LIve in in the first place.

Also I've tried to have both my Realtek ALC650 codec and Sound Blaster Live enabled at the same time. It works in 98 but XP will not work with two sound cards on my system. It will give an unexpected error upon driver installation of the second sound card regardless of what order you install the drivers.

 

[Lord Evermore]

The pins on the motherboard only pass the audio for the onboard AC'97. You can use both at the same time, though it might be a hassle, but different apps would have to be able to specify which audio system to use, otherwise they'd just use whatever your Windows default is. And as SpeedKing said, your headphones wouldn't be using the Live's audio.

The Realtek codec is ONLY doing the conversion between digital and analog. Muddy or tinny sound might also be attributed to the Intel AC'97 controller but could also be the drivers. Most people find the Soundstorm to be very good quality regardless of the external codec used. The drivers for the ALC650 weren't all that good from my brief view on my roommate's system before he put his Live back in.

Saying that the audio can't be carried over when you upgrade is silly. The chipset changes as well, but you don't try to use a chipset that can be carried over. If he upgrades later, then he just installs a card if needed and installs the drivers, or uses the onboard sound on the new board and installs drivers for that. Most people don't successfully swap motherboards without reinstalling or repairing Windows anyway, which requires reinstalling all drivers.

Video cards with TV out don't compare with TV cards, which only have TV tuners for input, not output. Cards with video-in/video-out are also not meant to compare with a TV card, since they don't have a tuner, they only accept RCA or S-Video input from an external device. All-In-Wonder style cards with TV tuners save a PCI slot and can be moved to another system. If you upgrade to another card without a tuner, then yes you've got to buy a TV card, but so what? Why is that a reason to never get a combination card? What happens if you buy a new TV card? You have to remove the old one and install the new one.

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
The pins on the motherboard only pass the audio for the onboard AC'97. You can use both at the same time, though it might be a hassle, but different apps would have to be able to specify which audio system to use, otherwise they'd just use whatever your Windows default is. And as SpeedKing said, your headphones wouldn't be using the Live's audio.

The Realtek codec is ONLY doing the conversion between digital and analog. Muddy or tinny sound might also be attributed to the Intel AC'97 controller but could also be the drivers. Most people find the Soundstorm to be very good quality regardless of the external codec used. The drivers for the ALC650 weren't all that good from my brief view on my roommate's system before he put his Live back in.

Saying that the audio can't be carried over when you upgrade is silly. The chipset changes as well, but you don't try to use a chipset that can be carried over. If he upgrades later, then he just installs a card if needed and installs the drivers, or uses the onboard sound on the new board and installs drivers for that. Most people don't successfully swap motherboards without reinstalling or repairing Windows anyway, which requires reinstalling all drivers.

Video cards with TV out don't compare with TV cards, which only have TV tuners for input, not output. Cards with video-in/video-out are also not meant to compare with a TV card, since they don't have a tuner, they only accept RCA or S-Video input from an external device. All-In-Wonder style cards with TV tuners save a PCI slot and can be moved to another system. If you upgrade to another card without a tuner, then yes you've got to buy a TV card, but so what? Why is that a reason to never get a combination card? What happens if you buy a new TV card? You have to remove the old one and install the new one.

Good points, a lot fo that is pretty much personal preference i suppose, anyways, I guess im going to be using my motherboards soundstorm audio with nvidia drivers, since that seems to be the obvious thing to do IMO.

-Mark

 

[Lord Evermore]

I'd be using it, but I don't have an RCA SPDIF to digital DIN converter for my speakers, and I don't want to use analog cables.

 

[EglsFly]

For playing games, and better game performance, who cares about the SPDIF connector.
Lets get down to the actual question, better performance in games.
From what I read in the online reviews, the nForce2 does not use hardly any CPU time for processing audio, where as the old SB Live is going to eat up more CPU cycles.

More info:
nForce2 Sound Info
nForce2 Specifications

The nForce2 APU also supports EAX2.0 per the specifications listed in the above link.

Bottom line:
The nForce2 audio on the 8RDA+ is better for game performance than using that old SB Live card.