rec.autos.simulators

I've been looking at a new cpu / mobo combo lately and found the Asus
8V deluxe quite to my liking (the socket 939 model). I was wondering
if the onboard sound provided by that motherboard is any good in terms
of cpu usage or wether I should stick to the Audigy 2 ZS I am using
now?

All the best & thanks in advance,

uwe

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You may find it's better than the Audigy 2 in most categories (including CPU
usage) though it doesn't support real-time Dolby Digital 5.1 output like its
predecessor - the nForce2 SoundStorm.

I always thought that any soundcard that had a digital out (coax or toslink)
could output 5.1 Dolby Digital from games, not fully understanding that the
best you can get out of most soundcards is only PCM Stereo out of their
digital outs.

The SoundStorm amazed me because it could carry out Dolby Digital ENCODING,
whereby it took 5.1 sound that a game created (that on most soundcards -
even the top of the range Creative Labs cards - would be output from the
various analog outputs), and encoded it into dolby digital to then output
via the digital output (coax or toslink). The INTEL HDA (high definition
audio) can also do this.

Youd then obviously need a dolby digital decoder (home theatre amp/receiver
etc) to create the sound from that digital feed (im running a Denon 2805
here)

The problem with DDE (dolby digital encoding) is that it isnt a lossless
compression technique. Sound quality can be affected (although how much
depends on a number of factors -  quality of original samples for example).

Almost all soundcards that have Digital outputs (coax or toslink) will
output Dolby Digital/DTS from DVDs, or other media that has already got an
encoded digital stream available. Games dont - even a game like Doom3 which
is heavily touted for its 5.1 doesnt output a digital 5.1 stream. It
generates 5.1 that your audio device can output via its 6 or 8 analog
outputs. The SoundStorm audio kit could then carry out DDE on that and you
could run just one cable to your home theatre amp to do the business rather
than 6 or 8 RCA cables that an Audigy card would require. Intels HDA can
also carry out DDE (although its called Dolby Digital Live on that system).

So, in summary (thank god!):

- Almost all cards can output Dolby/DTS digital from DVDs that contain
digitally encoded soundtracks output from digital outs (coax or toslink - if
they have them)

- All multichannel cards can output ANALOG signals from games, with some
games being capable of multichannel analog audio out.

- All multichannel cards with digital outputs can output 2 CHANNEL STEREO
PCM through the digital output - this is the only audio you will get from a
digital out for DOOM3 for example if you hook up an Audigy card to a home
theatre amp via digital TOSLINK or COAX.

- SoundStorm and Intel HDA can carry out Dolby Digital Encoding to take
multichannel analog audio and encode it into Dolby Digital so that you can
take 5.1 digitally from the digital out to a seperate home theatre amp to
decode.

- Most multichannel sound cards can carry out Dolby Digital Decoding,
whereby they decode the digital stream from a DVD (for example) themselves
and convert it to 6 or 8 analog outputs (quite why youd do that if you have
a decent home theatre amp is another matter).

As for the latest Asus boards, its an 8 channel analog capable system, but
is based on pretty old AC97 codecs (bugs me that nvidia didnt include an
update for soundstorm in the nforce4 chipset). Im getting one myself soon,
so ill keep you posted.

pez

Different model as I say but the drivers may share some code..

uwe

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Yeah, given that Uwe is a staunch Win98 supporter, the Audigy may be a
better choice in term of drivers but it certainly isn't in Win2K/XP.  The
Audigy 2 still has problems with GPL on WinXP in some systems.

GPL works ok when sound acceleration is set to "basic", but with the
default SB drivers I still get the "sewing machine" engine sound in
N2003 & friends, so I've decided to use the kxproject drivers.

Now those drivers give me really low-volume (next to inaudible) engine
sound in RBR, but I can live with that for now as I am mostly racing
GTR at the moment, anyway.

I suspect it's also to do with the el-cheapo ECS KS75A LAN mobo I'm
using, and this one will fly out of the window next week when I'll
upgrade my *** rig to a asus a8v deluxe / athlon64 3200 system
(again, for GTR ;-). A friend of mine had similar problems with the
audigy which went away when he tossed the ECS mobo in favor of asrock
hardware.

Well, not out of the window exactly, but into my linux machine.

Cheers & thanks for all your thoughts & comments,

uwe

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I've had my Asus A8V Deluxe about two weeks now, (with an Athlon 64, XP3200+
CPU) and have logged in a couple dozen "short" N2003 races, and a couple
longer ones (1 to 2 hrs), and during the last long race--while I maintained
car engine sound--I lost all speech from the pit boss, spotter and track
officials.  Haven't figured out the reason yet since it just happened, so
don't know if it was MB related or not, but I suspect it may have had
something to do with the onboard sound.

Has anyone else heard of this occurring with the Asus A8V and N2003?

Good luck,

uwe

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Good luck,

uwe

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I've had sever long races since my last sound problem and it hasn't
reoccurred (knock on wood) so maybe it was an isolated problem and not
something you will encounter.

I just stumbled across this site and it has a lot of good info on our MB. I
thought I would pass it along.  You might want to check it out.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=332591

   ya know, I've seen that behavior in Papy sims in the past.  I can't
remember which ones,  probably N99 and N3.  We'd run fairly long offline
races and sometimes the extra sounds would just quit.  Usually a reboot
would fix it...but it sounds like it's an unusual problem that has been
around for a long long time.

dh

I tested the two systems using 3DMark03, no sound and 24 sounds, with the
graphics board set to 6xFSAA and 16xAF (the settings I usually have it on).
The good news is that the ALC850 ran perfectly, giving lovely surround sound
in NR2003. The bad news is that frame rates with 24 sounds were 15% down on
the same figure using my Audigy 2ZS. For that reason, I've gone back to the
Audigy as I don't plan to give up using all my sims at max settings.

I wish there was a 939 board out there with onboard 5.1 sound that had no
worse a hit than a 2ZS. Maybe there is and I just don't know about it ;)

Hope this helps.

Regards