Anybody else use only the onboard audio? [Archive]

LOOP

03-25-2006, 07:37 PM

For the last 4 years, I been using only the onboard audio on my computer builds and been liking it. The soundstorm system I had sounded as good as any soundcard I ever tryed, and my current computer system does just as well, if not better, with the onboard audio. It uses less system resources when playing audio too, then most soundcards.

I wanted to ask in this thread, does anyone else just use their onboard audio for playing games / music / listening to videos / or whatever else they need sound for?

Worldstar

03-25-2006, 07:58 PM

I use an Audigy 2 sound card. Never tryed comparing it to the onboard audio.

ducarti

03-26-2006, 03:15 AM

Onboard sound for me.

Listening to cd-music is what I mainly use it for, and it works fine for that purpose.

SqueekyClean

03-26-2006, 04:23 AM

I wouldn't touch onboard audio. I play too many games and I like high quality sound which you only get from a good sound card. There is nothing like hearing every gun shot and explosion with movie theater quality when playing a game!

liqnit

03-26-2006, 05:13 AM

i use onboard sound and since the ALC850 is doing ok for i don't see the point of
getting a SOundCard

humanzoo

03-26-2006, 04:15 PM

i use onboard sound and since the ALC850 is doing ok for i don't see the point of
getting a SOundCard

I got the same onboard sound as you. I have a MSI Neo 2 Platinum motherboard. Use to be the best socket 939 motherboard at the time that it came out, but isn't anymore. However, the sound on it is still very nice. The Realtek ALC850 is a 7.1 channel onboard sound chip. I play a lot of games and when I go to my friend's house who uses a sound card, I swear the games sound better on my own system.

Jakal

03-26-2006, 06:35 PM

I use onboard sound, but all I have are headphones. If it's theatre and quality sound reproduction you want, a good sound card is the way to go. It reduces system resources, and gives a higher quality. You're wasting money if you've got great speakers and onboard sound, though. If you're going to invest in one the other should follow.

That'd be like putting a race car engine in your car and not swapping out the exhaust. You're limiting one with the other component.

izzie

03-26-2006, 08:37 PM

It reduces system resources

One of the selling points of Soundstorm was lower system resources. I doubt a sound card will lower system resources more then a good onboard audio chip.

Uc-ker

03-26-2006, 10:19 PM

One of the selling points of Soundstorm was lower system resources. I doubt a sound card will lower system resources more then a good onboard audio chip.

There is a difference in opinion between a couple people on whether the onboard sound or sound card requires less system resources. Wish I could see some benchmarks between onboard sound vs. sound card. Prove it one way or the other.

Jakal

03-27-2006, 01:52 AM

Angela Miller

03-27-2006, 03:53 PM

I use onboard sound on my computer. I have another sound card my friend gave me but I cannot get the proper driver for it.

Worldstar

03-27-2006, 09:16 PM

I wish I could find the circuitry schematic, but I can't and it's late.

Basically, using onboard sound creates more data for the northbridge and cpu to process. An onboard sound card reduces this by processing all the sound information then sending the data out with less interference to the other chips.

You'll notice slightly higher framerates. Nothing huge maybe 5fps more, and the sound quality will be better with a good card.

I use a sound card here and games run smoothly with it. No delays or lag when using a sound card.

Jakal

03-27-2006, 10:29 PM

lol @ my typing

I meant that using a PCI or actual sound card you reduce the amount of processes that the cpu and northbridge have to handle.

discharge

03-27-2006, 11:57 PM

Onboard audio because I'm too cheap to go out and buy a sound card :)

DarkSynergy

03-28-2006, 01:28 AM

I use an Audigy2 ZS only because I got a good deal on it. To be honest, I cannot tell a differance between my on board and my Audigy card but then again, your sound card is only as good as your speakers and I am certainly not using top of the line speakers. Actually, I have 4.1 Altecs that I bought my second year of college.....5 years ago! So yeah, the debate continues but an audiophile I am not.

madstork91

03-28-2006, 11:52 AM

I have an x-Fi and if rocks my fooking socks off.

anibalX

03-28-2006, 12:04 PM

my asus had the SoundMax onboard audio.. but i changed it by a Creative Sound Blaster Live.. yeah, i know it isn't a big change.. but Has a bit diference in quality

xstatic

03-28-2006, 06:17 PM

my asus had the SoundMax onboard audio.. but i changed it by a Creative Sound Blaster Live.. yeah, i know it isn't a big change.. but Has a bit diference in quality

The quality should of went down and not up? The Creative Sound Blaster Live is really outdated and almost any onboard audio should perform better then it. Are you sure that you configured the onboard audio correctly on your motherboard when you tested it?

Uc-ker

03-29-2006, 08:57 PM

I wish I could find the circuitry schematic, but I can't and it's late.

Basically, using onboard sound creates more data for the northbridge and cpu to process. An onboard sound card reduces this by processing all the sound information then sending the data out with less interference to the other chips.

You'll notice slightly higher framerates. Nothing huge maybe 5fps more, and the sound quality will be better with a good card.

I posted a message a few days ago, and asked if anyone had benchmarks that actually would prove whether a sound card or audio chip was faster.

Therefore I got to ask, do you have any benchmarks to backup your above figures of 5 fps faster rate?

adabo24

03-29-2006, 10:48 PM

Audigy 2 is what I use for sound.

I only have 2 desktop speakers and 1 subwoofer. Not using its full capabilities in the least. Though it does run pretty fast and I notice absolutely no slow down in games.

supramax

03-30-2006, 02:41 AM

Onboard sound. One of the reasons I like building my own computer, I make sure I get a motherboard with decent onboard sound.

Fr00zen

03-30-2006, 03:36 AM

My opinion is that onboard audio is fine for everything you possibly need sound for, with one exception, that exception is games. Therefore if you want to listen to cd music, or watch a video, or anything else then onboard audio is fine. But for games, you need the decreased resources and faster response you will get when using a sound card.

DarkSynergy

03-30-2006, 12:57 PM

Now I havent ran any benches but I can't tell a differance when playing with onboard sound versus a sound card. I hate that argument as 99% of the time, the differance is unnoticable. Perhaps when you bench, but I just turn it all off in the BIOS. I am currently sending audio out to a set of OLD polk audio desktop speakers that came with my wife's HP Celeron 850 MHz back in the day so needless to say, it's a waste of hardware.

Ben

03-30-2006, 03:34 PM

DarkSynergy

03-30-2006, 04:08 PM

Of course unless your concerned with a little thing called quality, then you'll know that onboard sound sucks balls.

I agree with that to an extent. As stated by many others before, quality is only as good as the weakest link and in most cases, its the good old speakers. I am perfectly happy with my on-board sound but then again, I am perfectly happy with sucking balls.

sbrehm72255

03-30-2006, 06:46 PM

discharge

03-30-2006, 07:08 PM

Onboard sound works fine for me, but then again I'm half deaf from working on turbine engined helicopters in the Army for 20 years. So as long as I can hear it go boom when I frag something, it's all good...................;)

You're in the army and you don't get enough killing already?

sbrehm72255

03-30-2006, 07:15 PM

You're in the army and you don't get enough killing already?
Been retired for sometime now........:eek: Living off a small retirement and disability...........:cool: After 2 helicopter crashes and a few small wars, the only killing happens on the computer, but that's not saying that I'd mind going back on active duty if I were called upon...........:cool:

adabo24

03-30-2006, 09:33 PM

Onboard sound works fine for me, but then again I'm half deaf from working on turbine engined helicopters in the Army for 20 years. So as long as I can hear it go boom when I frag something, it's all good...................;)

Onboard sound also. I'm not deaf, but I don't mind it. I'm mostly too busy fragging in a game to worry about sound quality.

MaRm

03-30-2006, 10:21 PM

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic audio card is what I'm using. Worth the slightly over hundred bucks that I paid for it.

gliffy

03-31-2006, 12:00 AM

Only the junky onboard audio here. Can't complain, it was free :)

adabo24

03-31-2006, 03:57 AM

Only the junky onboard audio here. Can't complain, it was free :)

Never free. The manufacturer ups the price on the motherboard to add in the cost of the audio chip. Plus you pay for all the audio cables they throw in the box.

MaRm

03-31-2006, 04:18 PM

Never free. The manufacturer ups the price on the motherboard to add in the cost of the audio chip. Plus you pay for all the audio cables they throw in the box.

A manufacturer only pays cents on the dollar to add an audio chip or cables in the box. The markup on the final retail price is not that much for onboard audio.

Jakal

03-31-2006, 07:30 PM

Therefore I got to ask, do you have any benchmarks to backup your above figures of 5 fps faster rate?

I'll do some benchmarks when I get a sound card but all I've got is a few forum posts that agree with me.

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/card-benefits-ftopict176319.html

supramax

03-31-2006, 08:04 PM

I can't believe that a sound card is faster for your computer then onboard sound. Isn't onboard sound built directly onto the motherboard's bus. I always thought onboard sound would be faster.

sbrehm72255

03-31-2006, 08:42 PM

Using a sound card takes the load off the CPU that the onboard normally causes. I'm not sure if you'll get 5 FPS, but you'll gain a few anyway.............:)

fullpicture

03-31-2006, 10:12 PM

In the past, I've tryed both an internal sound card and motherboard audio, and I never noticed a difference in speed between the two ;)

skyrise

03-31-2006, 11:09 PM

My audio: Audigy ZS

Reason for the choice: Onboard audio conflicts with my modem when gaming.

fussnfeathers

04-02-2006, 04:08 PM

Yes, using a dedicated sound card will improve your FPS in games, if you use high-quality positional surround sound. If you run two channels for just headphones or 2.1 speakers, no surround or positional, you'll barely notice a difference.

Onboard sound chips use the CPU to process the surround decoding, while PCI based cards have (for the most part) their own dedicated processing chips. This removes the load from the CPU, RAM, and Northbridge, which can result in up to 5 FPS faster in games that use heavy audio encoding.

For the guy that said Soundstorm chips use fewer system resources, that is in comparison to previous onboard sound chips, not in comparison to PCI or other sound cards.

Blumen

04-21-2006, 02:39 AM

ACTUALLY...

Believe it or not, the best possible sound solution that you can get out of a computer-based setup, is through an Nvidia SoundStorm onboard card. The SPDIF Out jack is the way to go. That's the key, because otherwise, it's not that much better than most other onboard sound solutions. If you run an optical audio cable from that to a dedicated stereo reciever (DAC), the sound clarity will be amazing. True surround, no noticeable distortion, much clearer, more defined, the advantages go on and on.

Sure, there are other pci slot sound cards that can also do it, but for some reason, they never sound as good.

DarkSynergy

04-21-2006, 02:42 AM

Purely opinion.....

:D:techgage:

Buck-O

04-21-2006, 08:30 AM

Im currently useing the nF2 SoundStorm. Its suited me well over the years. It certaintly is a nice feature to jsut plug it straight into my reciever witht eh S/PDIF and use the Dolby Digital Live option. Makes it very easy set up for watching movies or other content on my TV.

Though i will say that, sound quality wise, at least for gaming, i get wood every time i play on my buddies computer with his X-Fi Xtreme Music. Then again, the fact that hes driving it all through a $800 pair of Senheisers, and an AirHead does help with the wood factor some. But dear god does it sound sweet.

Buck-O

04-21-2006, 08:35 AM

I can't believe that a sound card is faster for your computer then onboard sound. Isn't onboard sound built directly onto the motherboard's bus. I always thought onboard sound would be faster.

The biggest thing is that alot of onboard sound is most of them dont have dedicated DSP's. Meaning that what the sound processor cant figure out on its own, has to be picked up by the CPU. WHich uses clock cycles, which of course slows down the processing speed of the game your playing.

Where as msot dedicated sound cards have a DSP chip built right on board to handle 98%+ of the total load. Reducing the load onteh CPU to nearly nothing.

The reality is, for any average gamer, the difference is really negligible. And probibly wont be noticable to the standard gamer. Unless hes runing dog ass slow hardware.

Blumen

04-21-2006, 05:54 PM

Purely opinion.....

:D:techgage:

Bring it. :D

DarkSynergy

05-31-2006, 03:40 PM

Brought

Rob Williams

06-01-2006, 12:33 PM

Brought a lot but not enough to get sought for looking like a dot about to rot?

Yeah, I'm just trying to as least make the forum appear active <3