Is it possible to make use of features from onboard and dedicated card simultaneously

[mutantmagnet]

I've decided that if I'm going to get a sound card in the future I'll use an HT Omega Claro.

I've seen only two flaws mentioned in reviews. They don't bother me but I've noticed a possible work around for one of them.

The P6T6 WS Revolution motherboard supports EAX 4.0 with its integrated card while the Claro only supports 2.0 through software emulation. Do you think it Is possible to get the overall performance I would get from the Claro while enabling the superior EAX support on the audio codec when I need to use it?

 

[ashmedai]

The two devices are completely separate. You cannot install the Claro and an EAX 4 card and then magically the Claro has EAX 4. However, you could always use the onboard sometimes and the Claro other times.

 

[guney]

To elaborate on that a little further, you can have two separate sound output devices installed on your computer at the same time. Under the Control Panel audio settings, you can specify which audio device you want for handling audio output, for voice output, for recording input, etc. You can keep both installed and keep switching back and forth between them through those settings, as far as I know. (Though don't bet money on it just because of my say-so. )

 

[Menelmarar]

Nicer applications you can select. I would set the EAX4 card as default, and any pro audio applications you have likely have selections in their configuration for which audio outputs to use and for those you could select teh Claro.

I use have my X-Fi set as default for gaming, but I tell vent to specifically use my onboard audio which is where I have my headset plugged up. Use both simultaneously. Works great.

 

[mito]

Hybrid 'audio' SLI?

 

[Ranma13]

Most applications will use the audio device set by Windows, but certain programs will allow you to specify which audio device you prefer. Ventrillo is one of them, Winamp is another, for example. For your purposes though, you might just have to switch the audio device through the control panel each time. Unfortunately I haven't found any program that can manage this switching based on the application.

 

[ashmedai]

Unfortunately I haven't found any program that can manage this switching based on the application.

Vista's volume mixer is application-based and has a device selector. It might do it - but I don't have a second device hooked up to test this with at the moment.

I don't know that it stores settings either. Mostly I use it to make web pages that think it's cute to blast loud annoying sounds at me when I load their site STFU. Awesome for that.