Sound card or onboard. Please help.

[hafaphoto]

Just a quick question for you folks. I have an Abit Nf7-S, and am wondering if a sound card would help me out with games compaired to the onboard sound. I have no complaints with the onboard sound, I was just wondering if a sound card might free up a little bit of CPU power. If it will help, what would be a good $80 or less card?

Thanks for any and all help!

E :beer:

[TalRW]

From what I hear the CPU use is very little. Secondly the Nforce 2 boards like the NF7-S have very high quality sound so maybe just invest that money in something else and keep your current sound setup.

[hafaphoto]

That is just what I wanted to hear! I think I will just get some more ram, then build one of those 64 bit suckers next year.

Thanks,

E

[ghost0012]

Thats funny I have an nf7-s v2 mobo and i think my sound is ****...

In newer games w/ better sound like wc3, after awhile my sound starts sounding really nasty, what u guys think it wrong? I was thinking of getting a sound card then I read this... maybe something is wrong w/ mine?

[ColtIce]

Thats funny I have an nf7-s v2 mobo and i think my sound is ****...

In newer games w/ better sound like wc3, after awhile my sound starts sounding really nasty, what u guys think it wrong? I was thinking of getting a sound card then I read this... maybe something is wrong w/ mine?

slap a heatsink on the southbridge if there isn't one already and make sure you have the latest drivers.

[ghost0012]

I can't find the latest drivers anywhere... anyone have a link?

[ghost0012]

Ack, i got it, nvm, I was having problems with the abit page not all of it was loading didnt see drivers

[ColtIce]

goto nvidias site.the have the nforce drivers there

[BowerR64]

Weird how the new drivers are setup on the NF7-S they have reconfigured the drivers to use the input and the mic as a center channel and sub output. Ill never use it like that but its cool they thought of this idea.

I can see this being a cool feature in the future if you can select what jacks on the card do what. Be cool to see a regular card have multiple inputs for recording or assign to headphones out.

[omega3112]

the newer intel boards have auto-sensing so you don't have to select anything because it selects everything automatically :)

[Gnerma]

I can see this being a cool feature in the future if you can select what jacks on the card do what. Be cool to see a regular card have multiple inputs for recording or assign to headphones out.
Various random sound cards have this functionality. One that comes to mind is the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz' multijack (year 2000 tech).

From what I hear the CPU use is very little. Secondly the Nforce 2 boards like the NF7-S have very high quality sound...
You're right that when using the nvidia APU (which the NF7-S has) FPS won't suffer like it does when using the typical software onboard audio (some numbers here (http://www.3dss.com/reviews/nForce/nForce-p9.html)). However, just like most software onboard sound the NF7-S uses the Realtek ALC650 DAC. This means that using the analog outputs on the board will give you overall the same quality you'd get from typical onboard sound. In direct comparisons with Creative cards, I notice a difference in explosions and loud gunfire. When faced with abrasive sounds such as these the ALC650 can add an unpleasent metallic color. Don't listen to me though, if you don't hear it, don't worry about it. In fact if you're happy with the sound quality don't concern yourself with buying an add in sound card. Save for a PCIe one for the new rig instead :cool: