What do people think of the C-Media CMI-8738 chip?

[meson2000]

I am looking at motherboards with integrated audio. Specifically the C-Media CMI-8738 6 channel chip. What do people
think of this chip? Does it sound good? Does it support EAX? How does the CPU utilization compare with a SB live card?
More, less, or pretty much the same? How does integrated audio effect overclocking? Does it help or hurt compared
to a SB live card? I am looking at the ASUS A7V333 or the EPOX 8K3A+ boards. Thanks for you help!

 

[Acanthus]

sound blaster lives dont take fsb overclocking at all, my current rig (iwill KA266+) can run at a 165 (330ddr) fsb Rock Stable using integrated audio, with a sound blaster live OEM it will freeze at 135, with a sound blaster live platinum it will freeze at 137. In conclusion, integrated rox compared to those 2 for OCing

PS: 3 different OEMs were tried.

 

[Jeff7]

It's....ok I guess. I do miss my Vortex2 card, but it was falling behind cause of Aureal's unfair death.
As for how it sounds, when it works, it is quite good. It supports A3D and EAX to some degree. A3D works fine in HL, but Quake III can't find any A3D capability.

There was static too in some places with a LOT of action, but I made some latency tweaks that helped it. I'll have to find the link; it's called PCITIMER, and I think it's at overclockers.com somewhere. I set the videocard and the sound chip's latencies to 0.

Some driver tweaking would be nice from Cmedia. I'm wondering how the new Realtek 6 channel sound chips are; I know they issue frequent updates for their network cards.

 

[tigerbait]

I have the Asus P4S333 with the Cmedia, and I like the sound. It sounds a little better than my Vortex 2 and definitely better than a SB Live I used to have. (Never heard an Autigy, though)

 

[TerryMathews]

Well, I have the pleasure of using two of this chip, one built-in to my Asus A7M266D, and the other is on a Zoltrix soundcard. The Zoltrix card is especially handy having it's coax digital and optical digital in/outs... Not only can it record and playback PCM audio streams up to 48kHz, it can also cross-connect the two, making the card into a coax->toslink and vice-versa converter.

I'm going to give you guys a slightly different view into this card. Under Linux, it is probably the best-supported soundcard today. ALSA has the full support and backing of CMedia Inc., with complete access to tech specs. For support under Linux, it blows the Live/Audigy out of the water.

Now under Windows, as I under stand it, the CMI8738 cannot decode/encode DD5.1, unlike the Live 5.1 and Audigy. It can, however, create 5.1 surround sound on it's analog audio jacks. The Live and Audigy have their own processor to handle the audio positioning (EMU10k1 or 2), whereas the CMI8738 utilizes the host CPU. Does this make a difference? Maybe if you're looking for that last 10 points in 3dMark2001. Otherwise, I don't care. To me, the price difference (significant) more than makes up for the performance difference (negligible). I'd rather spend that extra $50 or so and upgrade my processor or RAM or whatever is lacking at the moment.

 

[daveqb]

yeah i can back-up

<< TerryMathews >>

on that one.

i have the CMI-8738 on an Audio Excel sound card, it has never let me down.

there was a period of terrible sound, but it was found to be my HDD failing & XP putting it back to PIO mode, making everythign terrible.

but back on track now & pleased with it. i can do multiple things, even play MP3's while playing UT with sound from both clear & smooth.
i know that has to do wit hthe CPU too, but the sound chip cant be shabby

i was going to upgrade to a Live, considering it would take some toll off my CPU, but many ppl here advised against that saying ti will only make a slightest of difference in perfromance that i would never notivce (like 10 points in 3Dmark)

 

[DAPUNISHER]

<< I have the Asus P4S333 with the Cmedia, and I like the sound. It sounds a little better than my Vortex 2 and definitely better than a SB Live I used to have. (Never heard an Autigy, though) >>

My feelings as well

 

[Regalk]

I have a truck load of SBLive cards in all my rigs and for the first time I have decided not to use one on the P4S333. I would say it is definitely fine for gaming and a bit above average for mp3/audio. SbLive rocks in the audio department. However since that machine is used for gaming mostly I will not be using SBLive. The one thing I like with XP is the constant updates for CMedia.

 

[w9design]

The CMI8378 seems to be extremely sensitive to FSB overclocking -- on my P4B266, knocking it to Turbo mode (36MHz PCI) makes the system crash on boot in Windows. If the onboard sound is disabled, the problem is resolved.

 

[phillyTIM]

This is a great topic for discussion, as I'm looking for a motherboard and trying to decide if I want to use the C-Media sound or get an SB-Live.

Currently I use a SoundBlaster awe64-value ISA card, and I love the sound; will the C-Media sound as good? I love playing music/mp3s/cds LOUD from my PC and want to know if C-Media would accomodate my needs.

 

[308nato]

I have the MSI 845 ARU with the Cmedia sound. The sound quality is nice and I have had no problems with it in regard to overclocking.

 

[zhena]

is it just me?
when i install the full driver pack for win2k... and go and change the surround sound setting to "bathroom" or "hall" or something liek that.. the sound cracks like hell.

 

[flawedexistence]

Acanthus, I would like to respectfully disagree with your assessment of the overclocking properties of the SB Live cards. I admit I'm a bit behind the current technology curve harware wise but here is my experience. I am running an ASUS CUBX (Intel 440BX chipset) and a P!!! 733. Also in the system are a SB Live X-Gamer and a GeForce 256DDR card. Primitive, eh? Anyway, as you know the default FSB for the BX is 100mhz, but the ASUS board allows you to run the FSB up to 150 which is where I've been for the last two years. This gives me a CPU speed of 825mhz and a PCI bus speed of 37.5 mhz. This setup is rock solid and the system runs 24/7. IMHO, I think that is more a chipset issue than a SB Live issue. I would like to hear from you on this.

 

[TheCorm]

I currently have an SB Live Value and much of what has been said here makes me tempted on the 6 channel C-Media card, I can puck up one for a tenner. I am getting the 4 channel version for my mum so I will see how that sounds.

Corm

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I have CMI-8738 built into my Asus P4S533. I tried it briefly last night and found that it suffered from a slight popping sound after each sound effect - very annoying. I went back to my aged first-gen SB Live! X-Gamer instead and life is good.

 

[Gandalf90125]

I, too, have had no problems overclocking with a SB Live! I used to push my BX board to 148MHz, and the Live! kept up just fine.

I've tried the onboard CMEDIA sound on both an Iwill KK266 and an ASUS A7V266E, and I don't care at all for the sound quality. Maybe it's just the drivers, but I did try downloading the latest drivers from both Iwill and ASUS as well as CMEDIA's sites. In any case, I find that the sound is much better with an Audigy. Although I haven't played with the Live! for quite a while, I'd say that the Live! also sounds better than the 8738, at least in my experience.

 

[billyjak]

Bull on the Creative labs OC/ing.
I'm running my KR7A w/Audigy at 149mz right now and had a 5.1 before that that also did the same.
I can run mine stable up to 160mz on my unlocked 1900xp chip.