AC97 or Upgrade?

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craterse

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I am running onboard AC97 sound in my gaming system. I have a few questions.

1. How much would installing a sound card up the quality of sound?

2. Would putting in a sound card take away any work that the processor does?

3. What would be a good sound card to buy for about $100 or under?

Thanks for any help all.
 
You need to give more info on your motherboard. What is the brand and model? What CPU are you using? etc...
 
craterse said:
1. How much would installing a sound card up the quality of sound?

2. Would putting in a sound card take away any work that the processor does?

3. What would be a good sound card to buy for about $100 or under?
Click to expand...

1) Maybe a little. Maybe a lot. Maybe none. This depends mostly on how much your onboard sound sucks. Onboard sound has become pretty decent.

2) Maybe. There's no reason sound can't be processed in hardware using an onboard chip. If you have a really, really sucky onboard chip, it might not be doing everything it could be in hardware. I believe Vista decided "modern CPUs are just really damn fast," and does much more in software so as to avoid having to care about driver compatibility as much or something like that. For most recent processors, this is probably a non-issue. If you have a multicore processor, this is almost certainly a non-issue.

3) Usually I get my motherboards for roughly $100, and the last two (?) had a Realtek HD chip that worked rather nicely. After that I started outputting it as digital over optical to my receiver.

As stated - need more info. System specs and intended use - although I assume gaming from "gaming system" - will music be a large factor, if so what kind, do you want to support specific features that may not be available through your onboard sound like 7.1 channel surround etc.? There may also be better ways to upgrade your audio besides spending it on a sound card. Could you describe anything about your current sound setup that you find deficient?
 
craterse said:
My MOBO is an EVGA NForce 4 SLI.

My processor is a 939 Opteron 180.
Click to expand...

The nForce4 onboard sound tends to be considered "very good." Many sound cards could easily be a side-step or downgrade.

That CPU is no 3.8GHz-overclocked Core2, but it's still pretty nice. It shouldn't be having trouble with the (minimal) load that may be placed on it by sound processes in games.

What do you have for speakers?
 
I have some Logitech 6.1 system. I don't even remember what model. The 6.1 is one of the main reasons I was thinking about putting in a sound card. The audio on board does not give me a option for 6.1. It gives 5.1 and 7.1.
 
What the frack is 6.1? Front R/L + Rear R/L + center + sub is 5.1, I think. I don't know that anything gives an option for 6.1. :confused:
 
I was looking at creative labs Sound Blaster X-Fi series cards. They support 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 and others.

It is Front L/R/C Rear L/R/C and Sub.
 
For AC'97, the Realtek ALC850 (which is what I think your board has) is not a bad choice at all.

Stay clear of Creative stuff, not because it is really bad, but because the price/value is generally poor. And they are notorious for various and unpredictable hardware issues.
 
ashmedai said:
The nForce4 onboard sound tends to be considered "very good." Many sound cards could easily be a side-step or downgrade.
Click to expand...

I had a DFI Lanparty NF4 board and it was total crap if using analog. I'm not sure how the analog on my current board is since I use S/PDIF.

6.1 is L, R, C, SL, SR, SC, SW
 
Servant of Shodan said:
For AC'97, the Realtek ALC850 (which is what I think your board has) is not a bad choice at all.

Stay clear of Creative stuff, not because it is really bad, but because the price/value is generally poor. And they are notorious for various and unpredictable hardware issues.
Click to expand...

Well, as far as taking load off of the cpu, x-fi generally does that best. However, asides from that, sound-quality isn't always the best for the money.


alc850's considered a pretty good on-board chip...
well, at least it does pretty good for gaming in these benchmarks..


http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/399/10
 
JamesL said:
Well, as far as taking load off of the cpu, x-fi generally does that best. However, asides from that, sound-quality isn't always the best for the money.
Click to expand...

X-Fi beats onboard sound (or in fact any sound cards) hands down. If this is for gaming. For home theater there are more options to select from.

But for gaming the best value for money is X-Fi xtremegamer ($49 - newegg mail-in rebate price).

Also read this:
Impact of sound processing on CPU use investigated
 
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