Radeon 5870 audio for gaming

[User28373a]

I'm planing to get Radeon 5870. I know it has HDMI audio support. My question is, how does it compare to X-Fi when gaming?
Does it support multi chennel audio such as 7.1 when gaming? (my HT receiver does support all the latest audio codecs).

I don't care much about CPU usage, as I have Core i7...
Only interested to have latest gaming with 7.1 surround.
Also would be nice if someone came out with a full review comparing the features of latest audio cards including ATI HDMI audio including some benchmarks of course ;-)

Thanks

 

[lsv]

I thought HDMI audio out only forwarded your current audio out and did not act as a sound card?

I'm sure someone will provide more insight

 

[User28373a]

On nVidia cards yes. But on ATI cards it acts as a separate sound card.
Well, it's still too early, but in case nobody comes up with answers, I'd have to try it myself. Maybe AMD should buy Creative and integrate X-Fi to GPU, with monthly drivers and stuff... One can dream

 

[blanketyblank]

ATI cards use a realtek chipset I believe. Anyways seems like 5870 will just send the sound out as LPCM when playing games.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1179134&page=13

 

[mfenn]

ATI cards use a realtek chipset I believe. Anyways seems like 5870 will just send the sound out as LPCM when playing games.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1179134&page=13

LPCM streaming is fine for games, as it is what the game software is generating anyway. Games will generally be using 44.1Khz or 48KHz sampling rates for their content. Thus, with 44.1KHz or 48KHz LPCM out through HDMI to a receiver, the receiver is getting an exact bit for bit representation of what the developer shipped with the game. It doesn't get much better than that!

 

[shangshang]

^ so mfeen, we don't need a separate sound card to play games if the games output the sound via LPCM streaming? I assume this means the receiver must be able to somehow recognize/decode this sound stream or else we don't hear anything?

 

[User28373a]

What about EAX or OpenAL? Any info on that?

 

[mfenn]

^ so mfeen, we don't need a separate sound card to play games if the games output the sound via LPCM streaming? I assume this means the receiver must be able to somehow recognize/decode this sound stream or else we don't hear anything?

Yes, you will of course need a receiver (or TV( than can decode LPCM. Many of the first generation HDMI-equipped receivers only supported "HDMI passthrough" and could not in fact decode the HDMI audio stream.

If you have a Radeon 5000 series card and install the ATI HDMI audio driver as part of the Catalyst suite, you will literally see a separate audio device in Windows for the HDMI output. Simply set your games to output to that device (or make it the default), and you will get the game's audio through HDMI.

 

[mfenn]

What about EAX or OpenAL? Any info on that?

IMHO, EAX is bunk. The best way to enjoy a game is to reproduce (as faithfully as possible) the sounds that the game's audio team recorded. The beauty of a digital signal path is that sound card "quality" is now completely irrelevant! All digital hardware is going to be able to perfectly provide the audio stream as generated by the games software to your speakers.

Of course, you then need quality speakers. But now, you can put the $90 you would've spend on a sound card towards the speakers themselves!

 

[Bull Dog]

IMHO, EAX is bunk. The best way to enjoy a game is to reproduce (as faithfully as possible) the sounds that the game's audio team recorded. The beauty of a digital signal path is that sound card "quality" is now completely irrelevant! All digital hardware is going to be able to perfectly provide the audio stream as generated by the games software to your speakers.

Of course, you then need quality speakers. But now, you can put the $90 you would've spend on a sound card towards the speakers themselves!

I would beg to differ. Have you ever played TF2 in a 5.1 setup with realtek audio device? Because you know, you can hear *all* the sounds pretty much exactly as the dev's recorded them. Walls and other solid barriers not withstanding.

On the contrary however, playing TF2 with a Creative X-Fi audio device yields a much different and vastly superior sound scape in game.

To those people that argue that EAX is just a bunch of reverb effects, they would be right. But that's the whole point. Sound bounces off objects, echos (reverb), and EAX tries to recreate that. No, it isn't perfect, but it sure is a hell of a lot better than nothing.

To sum up: Unless the game does all its own audio post processing, one is likely to hear better results with a discreet (Creative) sound card.

 

[vj8usa]

I would beg to differ. Have you ever played TF2 in a 5.1 setup with realtek audio device? Because you know, you can hear *all* the sounds pretty much exactly as the dev's recorded them. Walls and other solid barriers not withstanding.

On the contrary however, playing TF2 with a Creative X-Fi audio device yields a much different and vastly superior sound scape in game.

To those people that argue that EAX is just a bunch of reverb effects, they would be right. But that's the whole point. Sound bounces off objects, echos (reverb), and EAX tries to recreate that. No, it isn't perfect, but it sure is a hell of a lot better than nothing.

To sum up: Unless the game does all its own audio post processing, one is likely to hear better results with a discreet (Creative) sound card.

TF2 supports EAX? I didn't realize any of Valve's games used it.

 

[mfenn]

I would beg to differ. Have you ever played TF2 in a 5.1 setup with realtek audio device? Because you know, you can hear *all* the sounds pretty much exactly as the dev's recorded them. Walls and other solid barriers not withstanding.

On the contrary however, playing TF2 with a Creative X-Fi audio device yields a much different and vastly superior sound scape in game.

To those people that argue that EAX is just a bunch of reverb effects, they would be right. But that's the whole point. Sound bounces off objects, echos (reverb), and EAX tries to recreate that. No, it isn't perfect, but it sure is a hell of a lot better than nothing.

To sum up: Unless the game does all its own audio post processing, one is likely to hear better results with a discreet (Creative) sound card.

Were you using the digital output of that Realtek card? Mobo manufacturers are notorious for implementing the analog part of the onboard audio in the cheapest (read crappiest) was possible. That's the nice think about digital out.

Regarding the post-processing. With today's multicore CPU's, everything can (and should) be done in software. This allows everyone to experience these "effects" if they so choose. I, personally, have "experienced" them and found them to be revolting. Opinions may differ, of course.

 

[toyota]

TF2 supports EAX? I didn't realize any of Valve's games used it.

I dont know if their games use EAX or not but there is supposedly some benefit to using an x-fi card card. there is a list of games that use Alchemy to get all the effects and all the Source games are listed. http://connect.creativelabs.com/alchemy/Lists/Games/AllItems.aspx

 

[User28373a]

I think EAX is not only about reverb, but also about positional effects.
But if I get it correctly, OpenAL API should replace it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openal

I was looking for more specs on ATI's HDMI audio and it's features, but couldn't find any solid specs. I think some sites did mention that it's supports OpenAL, but nothing confirmed.

My receiver is Yamaha HTR6290B, which supports lots of latest features...
http://www.yamaha.ca/av/Receivers/HTR6290B.jsp

I was thinking of getting Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD which features HDMI, but now having second thoughts, because of high price. I guess I'll try ATI's HDMI and see how it works with latest games...

 

[mfenn]

I think EAX is not only about reverb, but also about positional effects.
But if I get it correctly, OpenAL API should replace it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openal

I was looking for more specs on ATI's HDMI audio and it's features, but couldn't find any solid specs. I think some sites did mention that it's supports OpenAL, but nothing confirmed.

My receiver is Yamaha HTR6290B, which supports lots of latest features...
http://www.yamaha.ca/av/Receivers/HTR6290B.jsp

I was thinking of getting Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD which features HDMI, but now having second thoughts, because of high price. I guess I'll try ATI's HDMI and see how it works with latest games...

Good plan. I'll bet that AMD's HDMI audio will suit you well. If it doesn't, it's not like installing a sound card is hard work.