nforce audio or codec

[zoomy942]

on my mobo, i have an nvidia mcp southbridge. i use the integrated audio, and the thing is, i can use the c-media cmi 9739/a audio codec... or i can use the nvidia audio drivers in the nforce set of drivers. they both work fine. which one do you guys think i should use?

[Dazz]

ALWAYS use the manufaures drivers, if it's CMedia then use their drivers, the nForce drivers are VERY VERY poor and installing them will make the sound chip 100% software.

[sxotty]

Dazz you are wrong :)...

However seeing as you have only the MCP and not the MCP-T I would agree that you might as well use c-media drivers.

[Dazz]

I am 100% right as i have an MCP board and have tested audio mark, nVidia drivers = no direct sound hardware acceleration, while the Realtek drivers = 24 hardware Directsound acceleration.

2# ALL moden boards have intergrated hardware sound, sure it still uses up more CPU resources then a dedicated high end card like Soundstorm or Audigy2 but it still uses less then cheapo PCI soundcards.

[sxotty]

Originally posted by Dazz
I am 100% right as i have an MCP board and have tested audio mark, nVidia drivers = no direct sound hardware acceleration

I have no issues with that part man. I am glad you are confident you are right about it. And in fact as you saw I agreed with you that he should use the cmedia drivers.

You did say was that the drivers were"VERY VERY poor" and I was implying that making statements based on opinions like that always requires someone to disagree that is why the :) was included, it is simply poking fun.

[zoomy942]

as always, thanks for the replies. and one last thing. would i be better off to get a soundblaster live of some sort? it should be able to process more sounds per channel and all that right? i miught try to get one, if its worth it

[Dazz]

Well they are very poor if they are installed on an none Soundstrom system as they disable hardware acceleration.

I wouldn't bother with a Live as it's as good as the intergrated sound you currently got, the Live! card has had a canny long life but it's dead now. You may want to look into Santa Cruz or Audigy2 ZS.

Aso for sound yeah it allows more, if a card does 64 hardware sounds then it uses little CPU usage but if it does 64 in hardware and 32 in software it will steal CPU cycles. The Audigy2 & Soundstorm do 192 HW, more then enough few games even use 64.

[zoomy942]

i wish wish wish wish i had the soundstorm. how would an audigy platinum suit me? should kick the crap out of my integrated cause its not the 5.1 from the old days.

[sxotty]

CumputerGeeks had audigies for really cheap btw, but not the ones with the break out box.

I try to get folks to buy soundstorm btw when they order motherboards and I helpd them b/c it is usually only $10-20 more expensive and I always feel bad when after they get some on board sound they then turn around and go gee whiz I wish I had gotten the soundstorm :)...

edit: HAHAHAHA Computergeeks i meant

http://www.compgeeks.com/

[goofjb]

The Realtek drivers even make the sound quailty better than the nvidia ones. I know with the earlier release of the nforce drivers I couldn't even get my rear speaker out to work. (you know where you set it to use your microphone port as an audio out.) I had to use the Realtek drivers. Now with the latest release of the nforce drivers I can use the rear out but it dosen't sound as good as the Realtek drivers.

[Dazz]

I noticed that also, it also allows use of EAX.

[zoomy942]

there seems to be an extremely generous person out there who posts on nvnews, they had pity upon my integrated audio, and now i have a soundblaster audigy platinum on the way.. w00t!:angel: