k7n2g - soundstorm?

Does the k7n2g possess the nForce2 APU?
Is it a good OC?

from what I know, you have to get the K7n2g-ILSR to have 'official' SoundStorm. But I'm pretty sure SoundStorm is just a marketing buzzword. I think the plain K7n2g just doesn't have built in video, and that's the only differance.

As for OC, I got my ILSR to 202mhz FSB with cold winter weather. Runs 190mhz most of the time. It's actually a terrible board for OC- it can run a very high bus but it has extreme problems with booting. The regular K7n2g is supposed to be better, tho.

Only ILSR models have soundstorm all the L models have realtek sound

[T-A]_Super_10 said:

Only ILSR models have soundstorm all the L models have realtek sound

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Hi,

I've read that realtek's or c-media's onboard onboard sound device may degrade CPU performance, whereas Soundstorm has its own Audio processor. Is this really true? In terms of FPS, what's the difference?

I just ran a set of Quake3 timedemos for ya on my ILSR-

with sound on, hi quality- 211.4
with sound on, low quality- 210.6
with sound off- 212.0

probably doesn't help much. the margin of error is greater than the difference in scores.

my last mobo, a KT133A, had the fancy 6ch onboard realtek sound; it didn't hurt performance that I could notice.

Monaco said:

I just ran a set of Quake3 timedemos for ya on my ILSR-

with sound on, hi quality- 211.4
with sound on, low quality- 210.6
with sound off- 212.0

probably doesn't help much. the margin of error is greater than the difference in scores.

my

Click to expand...

Very kind of you. Thanks alot.
Does Quake use EAX? Very interesting.

Very kind of you. Thanks alot.
Does Quake use EAX? Very interesting

Click to expand...

no problem buddy, it only took a few minutes. Plus I like to see how hi my numbers are these days; I remember all too well how they were all in the low 30s when the game came out ;D

don't know if it uses EAX. I think it does, but I can't find proof one way or the other.

wish I had some other, newer games to bench..... heh it's so hard to spend $50 on a game, when I could spend it on hardware instead

Soundstorm is the name of the feature set not the APU from Nvidia. Not a single Motherboard vendor uses this APU from Nvidia. It's a shame really because it's an awesome APU. The Delta-L and the ILSR both use that same crappy realtek chip =(.

When I was choosing a MB, about 2 weeks ago I did a thorough search for it as tomshardware did an excellent review of how much these onboard sound devices "can" rob from CPU performance.

I figure Nvidia must want a fortune for their APU, sad indeed. The realtek sounds good and all, as does the cmedia for all I know but they are worse for you than a Audigy2.

neverman
where did you get your info the Delta-ILSR, it does use soundstorm and use the APU from Nvidia, here is a quote right from MSI:

Audio Processing Unit (APU) encodes audio in Dolby®
Digital 5.1 format for full surround sound effects (MCP2-T only)

The MCP2-T is only avalible on ILSR models

Ok, a little foggy when I was shopping and getting peeved that no one chose that excellent apu. Well I remember now why I got my ILSR, or one of the reasons. Problem is I don't have digital speakers I have the old Klipsch promedia 2.1's so I am going through the crappy Realtek DAC to get my sound. Is that hurting my benchmarks? Probably/Hopefully not. Do most users have digital input speakers for their PC's? I doubt it so they should still be aware of the sound quality issue. /shrug

Here is a pretty good link for a more concise answer. View the diagram a few posts down. related concern

Also, looknig at Nvidia's site now... There are only 3 boards certified to Soundstorm... The Abit, the MSI and another which I forget. When I was shopping there were "none" listed as the MSI was brand new.

When I was shopping this motivated me to find someone, anyone, using the Nforce2 APU. Sweet article from Tom on sound and games If nothing else check out the benchmarks!!!!

And wrongly.... I used this table early on in trying to find MY APU!!!

Early table of Nforce2 boards and their sound chips Very close in time to the article on APU's vs. discrete sound cards.

Well that was a mouthful to say Yep, I was wrong about no one using the APU. Now to figure out why I don't have any soundforce software interface on my ILSR

Don't be fooled... I finally got my RMA'd 9700pro installed and here are the results. Notice the sound performance from this MB!

My ILSR with latest drivers

The sound performance is a bit below what I consider acceptable. I'll be buying an Audigy2 thanks MSI.

I have had the same prob there is a confliction with the audigy cards and 9700/9800 ATI cards. I go from 17500-18000 to 13500-14500 after i install my audigy gamer. There is a driver combination that works that is giving benchmarks where there suppose to be but i had to reformat before i got the driver details. I have off work tuesday so ill post back what the driver combo is that works right that is if i can find the right ones again
PS its all the audigy cards even audigy 2 with ati