How good is onboard sound?

[Wreath]

How good is the VNF3 -250 onboard sound?

I have been using an old Hercules Game Theater XP with my Klipsch 5.1 Promedias up until now but some recent popping problems in games have got me wondering:

How good is the onboard sound that comes with the VNF3-250?

Wound it be an "upgrade" to switch from my Game Theater XP to onboard sound?


Here are the specs for the Game Theater from the Hercules web site:

The Game Theater XP uses the Cirrus Logic CS4630 DSP chip. Here are the CS4630 technical specifications :

• 420 MIPs SLIMD ™ DSP architecture with increased internal memory for greater performance
• Hardware acceleration for Microsoft DirectSound ® and DirectSound3D ® Positional Audio
• Sensaura™ 3-D, 2- or 4-channel audio
• EAX™ 1.0 enhanced environmental audio standard
• Unlimited-voice wavetable synthesis with effects including DLS support
• Acoustic echo cancellation hardware acceleration for NetMeeting™
• 10-band graphic equalization
• High quality hardware sample rate conversion (90+ dB dynamic range)
• PC/PCI, DDMA, and CrystalClear Legacy Support (CCLS ® )
• PCI 2.1 compliant PCI interface
• Full-duplex, 128-stream DMA interface with hardware scatter/gather support
• PCI power management (D0 through D3cold ), APM 1.2, and ACPI 1.0
• Power Management Event (PME#) generation within D0-D3 cold
• Dual AC ‘97 2.1 codec interface
• Asynchronous digital serial interface (ZV Port)
• S/PDIF digital input and output support for PCM and AC3 encoded 5.1 channel formats
• DirectInput ™ joystick and MPU-401 MIDI in/out
• 3.3 V / 2.5 V power supply (5 V tolerant I/O)
• PC 98 and PC 99 compliant

vs. Onboard

• CMI9761A Audio Codec
• Xear3D CRL3D DS3D EAX2.0 A3D1.0 Audio Engine

[dethwing6]

Not sure what the Hercules is based on(pretty sure they don't engineer their own stuff), but with how cheap the thing is, I would say you should just buy an Audigy 2 ZS. I just got one today at Newegg for $79, and for the rest of the month there's a $20 mail-in rebate. $60 plus 4 for shipping!! Can't beat that. I assume you can afford that since you're buying an Athlon 64.

oops, just noticed it's based on a sensaura card...damn that's old. You aren't even taking advantage of your 5.1 channels with that thing. To answer your original question, on-board audio sucks. I can't stand it, it's so hollow and weak. Soundstorm is ok, but it rolls off the bass and still sounds a bit hollow. But that's neither here nor there. Anyway, just spring for the Audigy 2 ZS. Hell, buy a cheap Audigy 1(which I have right now) and stuff the Audigy 2 ZS drivers in them. I did that a few days ago for the first time and I'm seriously noticing new parts of my music.

The last thing I noticed with those two sound cards, they have terrible EAX support. So if you're going to use this beautiful 5.1's to their fullest in-game, you're going to take a huge CPU hit. Most new games will start incorporating EAX 4.0, and neither of yours even support 3 in hardware.

Hope that helped.

[MadWolfZX]

If you have a Circuit City store that is nearby, stop in and see if they have a Soundblaster Audigy 2 PCI card left in stock. I just picked on up in a local Circuit City for $50 + tax. They are on clearance. At $50 locally, how can this be a bad thing?

Chris

How good is the VNF3 -250 onboard sound?

I have been using an old Hercules Game Theater XP with my Klipsch 5.1 Promedias up until now but some recent popping problems in games have got me wondering:

How good is the onboard sound that comes with the VNF3-250?

Wound it be an "upgrade" to switch from my Game Theater XP to onboard sound?


Here are the specs for the Game Theater from the Hercules web site:

The Game Theater XP uses the Cirrus Logic CS4630 DSP chip. Here are the CS4630 technical specifications :

• 420 MIPs SLIMD ™ DSP architecture with increased internal memory for greater performance
• Hardware acceleration for Microsoft DirectSound ® and DirectSound3D ® Positional Audio
• Sensaura™ 3-D, 2- or 4-channel audio
• EAX™ 1.0 enhanced environmental audio standard
• Unlimited-voice wavetable synthesis with effects including DLS support
• Acoustic echo cancellation hardware acceleration for NetMeeting™
• 10-band graphic equalization
• High quality hardware sample rate conversion (90+ dB dynamic range)
• PC/PCI, DDMA, and CrystalClear Legacy Support (CCLS ® )
• PCI 2.1 compliant PCI interface
• Full-duplex, 128-stream DMA interface with hardware scatter/gather support
• PCI power management (D0 through D3cold ), APM 1.2, and ACPI 1.0
• Power Management Event (PME#) generation within D0-D3 cold
• Dual AC ‘97 2.1 codec interface
• Asynchronous digital serial interface (ZV Port)
• S/PDIF digital input and output support for PCM and AC3 encoded 5.1 channel formats
• DirectInput ™ joystick and MPU-401 MIDI in/out
• 3.3 V / 2.5 V power supply (5 V tolerant I/O)
• PC 98 and PC 99 compliant

vs. Onboard

• CMI9761A Audio Codec
• Xear3D CRL3D DS3D EAX2.0 A3D1.0 Audio Engine

[Wreath]

Thanks for the detailed response, Dethwing. I just installed the onboard sound and now that you mention it, music does sound a little flatter than my three year old Game Theater. Your right, I can afford to get a Audigy and am now seriously considering getting one. One last question: what IS the difference between Audigy 1 and 2 (besides about $15)?

[dethwing6]

Creative claims Audigy 1 is 24-bit, but if I remember correctly, it does SOME of the internal calculations at 24-bit and then downsamples to 16-bit. Audigy 2 processes and outputs at 24-bit all the way through. Audigy 2 has 5.1 surround, some models of Audigy 1(I think the gamer and mp3+) don't have a center/sub channel, and the Audigy 2 ZS has 7.1 surround. That's the reason I bought the Audigy 2 ZS. It has 7.1(room for future updgrades), and my old one(Audigy 1 mp3+) won't even fully utilize my new 5.1 speakers.

Other differences I can think of: better sound quality and less CPU optimization; I think there's a couple newer surround sound encodings that the Audigy 2 can do that Audigy 1 can't(I'll look that up when I get home tomorrow); and best of all, it's a shiny new toy you can show off, can't do that with an Audigy 1.

[Wreath]

If you have a Circuit City store that is nearby, stop in and see if they have a Soundblaster Audigy 2 PCI card left in stock. I just picked on up in a local Circuit City for $50 + tax. They are on clearance. At $50 locally, how can this be a bad thing?

Chris

$50??!! Where are you, Mexico? Audigy 2 is listed on the Circuit City web site as $99. Its also the best mainstream card available right now so why would it be on clearance? You must mean the Audigy 1.

[MadWolfZX]

$50??!! Where are you, Mexico? Audigy 2 is listed on the Circuit City web site as $99. Its also the best mainstream card available right now so why would it be on clearance? You must mean the Audigy 1.

The Audigy 2 ZS is the current model. The Audigy 2 is mostly the same card, with minor differences such as 6.1 surround instead of 7.1, etc.. The Audigy 2 was on clearance, beside the Audigy 2 ZS. I live in the state of Virginia. Hardly Mexico.

That's why I suggested you check out your local CC(if you have one) to see if they have the same clearance special. Brand new, retail version and no shipping(local!).

-Chris

[IAmGhostDog]

@NewEgg
Audigy2 $70.00
Audigy2 ZS $80.00 minus $20.00 rebate = $60.00
Nice deal.

[Wreath]

The Audigy 2 ZS is the current model. The Audigy 2 is mostly the same card, with minor differences such as 6.1 surround instead of 7.1, etc.. The Audigy 2 was on clearance, beside the Audigy 2 ZS. I live in the state of Virginia. Hardly Mexico.

That's why I suggested you check out your local CC(if you have one) to see if they have the same clearance special. Brand new, retail version and no shipping(local!).

-Chris

Gotchya. I just so happens that I do have a Circuit City about a mile away. I'll check it out soon thanks to your suggestion.

[oralpain]

I have a VNF3-250, the onboard sound is not all that good. Useable, but wont compete with a good sound card.

[jhatfie]

The onboard sound on the VNF3-250 is very acceptable for an onboard solution. More so if you install the latest drivers and use the nforce utilty to adjust the sound to your liking. It is quite decent for gaming and music. Now is it as good as the Audigy2? No, of course not, but I suggest you at least give it a try and if it does not suit your tastes, then fork out the $$ and go Audigy2.

[Wreath]

The onboard sound on the VNF3-250 is very acceptable for an onboard solution. More so if you install the latest drivers and use the nforce utilty to adjust the sound to your liking. It is quite decent for gaming and music. Now is it as good as the Audigy2? No, of course not, but I suggest you at least give it a try and if it does not suit your tastes, then fork out the $$ and go Audigy2.

I agree that the onboard sound is not that bad for games. In fact, I noticed that I was getting more balanced volume levels and less popping/static in games than my Game Theater, which only supports EAX 1.0 by the way.

Music is another story however. I noticed that it sounded flatter with less depth that the Game Theater. When Using 4+ speakers at a time, I would get a weird clipping/warbling effect which was intolerable. All in all, it was much worse than the Game Theater for music.

Bottom line is that the improvement in sound quality and the reduced CPU hit justify spending $60 on the Audigy 2 ZS for me.

By the way, about how much of a CPU performance hit is there while using EAX with onboard compared to an Audigy 2?