What does the nvidia nForce APU do?

[flashbacck]

I'm slightly confused by nvidia's APU on their mobos. Is it just a fancy name for integrated audio? Or does it actually take audio from your computer (say you're playing a game or playing music) and encode it into Dolby Digital, then you could hook any 5.1 receiver to the minijack in the back?

thanks

 

[Megatomic]

It is a fully functional sound card built right into the MCP2-T chip (south bridge). It does all the audio processing your normal sound card does only with a much lower CPU utilization (only the SB Audigy 2 is comparable).

 

[MithShrike]

Tom's Hardware did an evaluation of integrated sound and sound cards and how they may affect your performance in games. Here it is. Hope it helps ya some.

 

[flashbacck]

thanks for the replies, but I guess what I'm asking is if the APU can take audio for ANY source, whether it's from a music CD, PC Game or DVD, and encode it in Dolby Digital. Then output the digital signal through it's s/pdif.

 

[flashbacck]

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[flashbacck]

^

 

[squidman]

Yes, it can encode the signal into dolby digital. It can ONLY output the dolby DIGITAL signal thru the s/pdif. "Regular" Dolby would be outputted thru analog 6 channels: fron l/r, rear l/r, subwoofer, center.
APU with SOundStorm is the best AUDIO out there. Audigy 2 only surprasses it in music quality output (24 bit, as opposed to 16 bit). But i hear no difference (i also have an M-audio 24 bit card on my other PC). Of course, Audigy2 also surprasses it in price, 10 fold.

 

[flashbacck]

So is there currently, or will there be, a sound card out there that can do Dolby Digital Encoding? Because I have a Cambridge DTT2500, that (rather stupidly) doesn't have a center analog. So I can only get all 6 speakers working when it's receiving a digital signal. I'd hate to buy an entirely new mobo, just for something that could be a soundcard upgrade.

 

[squidman]

Im looking at rear connectors of the DTT 2500. It has the center channel, to the left. M-Audio cards to Dolby Encoding, but they are really, really, expensive. There's little other thing. The S/PDIF out on the mobo is a "composite" (aka RCA) kind. On your DTT - its the "plug" (just like the headphones). I think you can find a cable with "plug" on one end, and the RCA on the other.

 

[flashbacck]

😛

I have the "white" version of the DTT2500. I got it off ebay, and didn't realize it wasn't the black colored version that went into production later on. Here's the one I have:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2725867246&category=3702

it's very similar, but the subwoofer is different, I think the center speaker is larger, and the back panel does not have the center analog.

well anyway, thanks for the help. Hopefully some company will start making cheaper soundcards with digital encoding soon...

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: flashbacck
thanks for the replies, but I guess what I'm asking is if the APU can take audio for ANY source, whether it's from a music CD, PC Game or DVD, and encode it in Dolby Digital. Then

Not really. This is the biggest nForce misconception. If the original source isn't DD encoded you won't get true DD out, in the sense that movies and such are pre-rendered to the 5.1 discrete channels. If, for example, you run a stereo audio CD through the encoder what you get out will be 2 channels upmixed to 6 lossily compressed ones. This is NOT generally a good thing, unless you have some weird ass speaker/amp setup since it chops off pretty much everything over 17kHz. The main purpose of the encoder is to simplify connections to more non-traditional gear.

 

[squidman]

His question was CAN it encode. Yes, it can. THe other thing, is what you said: THe Stereo would be split into 6 channels, and compresset into PCM. I dont think theres going to be audio quality loss. But its not going to be True 5.1, either (like on DVD).