nVidia SoundStorm

[Kain]

How does the nVidia SoundStorm compare to other sound cards?

[volt]

Well, it's superior I tell you that :)

Since it's powered by NVIDIA's APU, it's simply amazing (so are the drivers). It also has encoding capabilities.

[GlowStick]

Also buy a 100$ sound card, get a free mainboard :D

The SoundStorm is on par with the Audigy 2, but with less intursive drivers. Also their drives actually work. (note john carmacks comment on sounblasters drivers never working)

[ALobpreis]

But what about CPU usage?? I think it consumes more % of the CPU...

[GlowStick]

Im not sure about CPU usage, but if you use the install CD from Soundblaster (witch was made with FLASH)......

it installs sooo much crap that runs in your background it takes more usage than the soundstorm.

you can however try to just install the drivers, they recently tried to make it easier.

[Smokey]

Originally posted by GlowStick
Also buy a 100$ sound card, get a free mainboard :D

The SoundStorm is on par with the Audigy 2, but with less intursive drivers. Also their drives actually work. (note john carmacks comment on sounblasters drivers never working)

It is not on par with the Audigy1+2 when it comes to games, nor do I think it does when it comes to music or dvds. It is however, the best intergrated soundchip that you will find. As to the soundblaster drivers, I do believe you are miss quoting JC, Ive had my SBLive about 4 years, and not once have I had a problem, also do some reading up on the drivers for the Audigy2, no problems there either.

By no means is the Soundstorm sound bad, just remember that the Audigy1+2 are the best gaming sound cards you can get, for music and dvds, I would say any of the soundcards using the new Via Envy soundchip, eg. M-Audio Revo and others.

[GlowStick]

Originally posted by Smokey
It is not on par with the Audigy1+2 when it comes to games, nor do I think it does when it comes to music or dvds. It is however, the best intergrated soundchip that you will find. As to the soundblaster drivers, I do believe you are miss quoting JC, Ive had my SBLive about 4 years, and not once have I had a problem, also do some reading up on the drivers for the Audigy2, no problems there either.

By no means is the Soundstorm sound bad, just remember that the Audigy1+2 are the best gaming sound cards you can get, for music and dvds, I would say any of the soundcards using the new Via Envy soundchip, eg. M-Audio Revo and others.

Ill take your word for it about the games and Audigy 1 + 2.

About the 5.1 sound issue i am correct.

Since the SoundBlaster Live! they claimed they have 5.1 Sound support for GAMES not movies.

Now that is quite an advancement for soundcards, if it worked. Doom III will be the first game to implament 5.1 sound in a game, so he was the first one to try it. As he stated in his .plan he contacted Creative and they confirmed this. He also mentioned that the flaw still exsists in Audigy (though this was dated, they may have fixed it by now).

Creative dosent have a good history of fixing issues.

Best example is the issue Creative Boards have with SMP systems (2cpu's)

[StealthHawk]

Soundstorm should be on par with Audigy1, with the exception of not supporting EAXHD.

Audigy2 should be a little better all around than Soundstorm.

[GlowStick]

I wonder if Nvidia will decided to throw their hat into the un-intgrated sound card market?

If they threw it in with Videocards ala gainward at little additonal cost htey could get a huge user base. Thent hey could start writeing the standards insted of crappy EAX. audiostands shoudl support DirectX but should have their own *OS undependant* api that is usually faster : )

[SavagePaladin]

I suspect they will with PCI Express...they've said PCI just isn't good enough.

BTW, the next driver set will have even lower CPU usage, I'm told....new code! yay!

I expect it in...April or so. (Not that that means anything.) It's in testing right now, but obviously that means nothing to reality.

BTW GlowStick, both UT2003 and Unreal 2 use the dolby digital 5.1 support on the nForces...so Doom 3 won't be the first.

[GlowStick]

Originally posted by SavagePaladin
I suspect they will with PCI Express...they've said PCI just isn't good enough.

BTW, the next driver set will have even lower CPU usage, I'm told....new code! yay!

I expect it in...April or so. (Not that that means anything.) It's in testing right now, but obviously that means nothing to reality.

BTW GlowStick, both UT2003 and Unreal 2 use the dolby digital 5.1 support on the nForces...so Doom 3 won't be the first.


Hmmm, well, you have a good point iwth UT2003.

Im sure he implmented it first, just takes his time releasieng stuff ; D ; D

Seriously i dont know, but he did catch Creative with their non working drivers.

[SavagePaladin]

Originally posted by GlowStick
If they threw it in with Videocards ala gainward at little additonal cost htey could get a huge user base. Thent hey could start writeing the standards insted of crappy EAX. audiostands shoudl support DirectX but should have their own *OS undependant* api that is usually faster : )
They've praised OpenAL on that front already, just a small FYI.

[GlowStick]

OpenAL wow. i just really cant stand creatives DirectX crap.

[SavagePaladin]

http://3dss.com/reviews/nForce/
<- in depth review, using 2.0 drivers
quotes:
OpenAL
'NVIDIA, like Creative, has positive things to say about OpenAL hence their decision to deliver the native support. From NVIDIA’s perspective OpenAL's plus comes from the ability to do everything directly (no offense to DirectX). This means far better performance, lower latency, and the ability for game titles to write once, run anywhere (Windows or Linux). They report that with DirectSound out of the picture things do speed up noticeably and the latency drops. The gains in overall game performance allows for the addition of even more 3D audio streams in the game while maintaining good performance. '
EAX-
'When comparing against stock Sensaura products we generally find the Creative cards have a reverb quality/complexity edge over the Sensaura engine. On the nForce we found this edge was in many cases non-existent and where it was present it was smaller than typical. That is the output from the nForce reverb engine has a lot more in common with the output from the Audigy reverb engine than with the stock Sensaura reverb engine!'

And so on. Boy do they ramble sometimes, but its a good read if you're interested.

[GlowStick]

I wonder how creative is reacting to this, though nvidia is not hurting creatives market share, they have the means to pump out a very competative card and already have brand recognition.

[Smokey]

Correct me if Im wrong, but isnt DoomIII support DD5.1 hense the first in a game, it isnt just plain old 5.1, I too remember JC saying, that you will need either the Audigy or the Soundstorm, if you want to hear it right. But yeah as for the SBLive cards, the chipset is like 5 years old ;)

[GlowStick]

Originally posted by Smokey
Correct me if Im wrong, but isnt DoomIII support DD5.1 hense the first in a game, it isnt just plain old 5.1, I too remember JC saying, that you will need either the Audigy or the Soundstorm, if you want to hear it right. But yeah as for the SBLive cards, the chipset is like 5 years old ;)

Hm im to lazy to look it up, so ill just go with it :D it sounds right