The Inquirer said:
I'm not sure if I should be happy, or sad. I don't plan on buying an Intel setup any time soon.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20114
Nforce 5 may have sound storm 2
- Thread starter Handruin
- Start date
I'm not sure if I should be happy, or sad. I don't plan on buying an Intel setup any time soon.
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20114
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
There was some discussion on slashdot of using a GPU as a 3D audio processor. Multichannel audio and 3D sound are apparently processor-intensive but of course the "big two" video hardware manufacturers have cards with cycles to spare.
It would supremely annoy me if Soundstorm 2 came packaged directly on a graphics product from nvidia. The article doesn't seem to mention this as a possibilty but it's certainly a possibility.
I'm not sure who would be in the market for a video card with integrated audio, but it doesn't look like we're going to have boards studded with 8x or 16x PCI-E connectors any time soon, so who knows.
It would supremely annoy me if Soundstorm 2 came packaged directly on a graphics product from nvidia. The article doesn't seem to mention this as a possibilty but it's certainly a possibility.
I'm not sure who would be in the market for a video card with integrated audio, but it doesn't look like we're going to have boards studded with 8x or 16x PCI-E connectors any time soon, so who knows.
I wouldn't buy into (literally) having the GPU process the audio. I can't see how they could manage sounds during intense battles of counter-strike, UT 2004, etc. Now that the more popular games seem to be using OGG or MP3 as their choice of audio compression, that seems like a decent hit on your GPU processing during needy game time. I see no problem during basic desktop use for things like DVD's, and basic audio...but games?
It would also annoy me if it came packaged on a graphics card. I don't know if we would see it any time soon, but PCI Express does open up some more opportunities. The on place I may make an exception for the audio being on a graphics card is for PVR. If they included Sound Storm 2 on a Hauppauge card, that would be a nice convenience. It would mean one less card to install in you SFF case. Hopefully they'd offer better integration of audio synchronizing to video, but I'm dreaming.
Having an 8x/16x connections for audio boards seems like overkill for anything short of real time audio processing of 32 channels. Back to the thread we had regarding SLI boards, I don't even know if you can use the second PCI-Express slot for anything other than a video card.
It would also annoy me if it came packaged on a graphics card. I don't know if we would see it any time soon, but PCI Express does open up some more opportunities. The on place I may make an exception for the audio being on a graphics card is for PVR. If they included Sound Storm 2 on a Hauppauge card, that would be a nice convenience. It would mean one less card to install in you SFF case. Hopefully they'd offer better integration of audio synchronizing to video, but I'm dreaming.
Having an 8x/16x connections for audio boards seems like overkill for anything short of real time audio processing of 32 channels. Back to the thread we had regarding SLI boards, I don't even know if you can use the second PCI-Express slot for anything other than a video card.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Seriously, the absolutel LAST thing you want is ANYTHING on a Hauppauge card. My most recent experiences with them show that it would be just as easy to get an ISA card working in a modern PC as a PVR250.
ddrueding
Fixture
[Dream] If only they would just market a motherboard with the features I want integrated - Soundstorm, PCI-E attached GigE and SATA, Socket939, 4 DIMM slots, and a top-end graphics card. I'd even put up with it being an nVidia card for the convienece of having it all on the motherboard. [/dream]
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'll buy whatever I have to buy in order to get soundstorm. As long as it isn't an nvidia graphics card.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Background: Right now I have two of these things I am not using, and a PVR-USB2.
PVR250s are incompatible with an astonishing array of video applications. Which means you pretty much have to build a PC, install the PVR250 and its drivers before anything else, and then hope no other software you need will cripple it (like, say a DVD authoring application like the kind you might want to have in order to burn the nice MPEG files the PVR- cards make).
I have trouble with these things like absolutely no other hardware I have ever used, in getting them to install and operate.
I'm on a first-name basis with two of Hauppauge's phone techs. Talking to them about the problems that exist with these cards is like learning of the rantings of the mad arab Abdul Al'Hazred in the dread book Necronomicon.
The final straw? Finding out that the PVR250 and PVR-USB2 can have issues with AC97 sound implementations. That's right: the standard implementation for onboard sound for about 90% of motherboards made in the last four years or so can keep a PVR250 from working.
Thing is, the guys I've been talking to, and emailing about this stuff, can't give any definitive reason why their hardware won't work on any given system. They die in different places and in different ways depending on the PC and its software environment.
PVR250s are incompatible with an astonishing array of video applications. Which means you pretty much have to build a PC, install the PVR250 and its drivers before anything else, and then hope no other software you need will cripple it (like, say a DVD authoring application like the kind you might want to have in order to burn the nice MPEG files the PVR- cards make).
I have trouble with these things like absolutely no other hardware I have ever used, in getting them to install and operate.
I'm on a first-name basis with two of Hauppauge's phone techs. Talking to them about the problems that exist with these cards is like learning of the rantings of the mad arab Abdul Al'Hazred in the dread book Necronomicon.
The final straw? Finding out that the PVR250 and PVR-USB2 can have issues with AC97 sound implementations. That's right: the standard implementation for onboard sound for about 90% of motherboards made in the last four years or so can keep a PVR250 from working.
Thing is, the guys I've been talking to, and emailing about this stuff, can't give any definitive reason why their hardware won't work on any given system. They die in different places and in different ways depending on the PC and its software environment.