Dedicated audio card Vs sound from video card...

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kookoo102

Limp Gawd
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Mar 4, 2009
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Currently I am using my gtx 480 via HDMI which also passes 5.1 to my surround receiver. Would there be any benifit using my sound plaster x-fi to transfer audio via optical cable?
Or just keep it as it is? I would like to keep it simple, not install another card with drivers and all the apps that come with it if there is no measurable difference in quality and performance hit on the computer.
Any thoughts?
Thank you in advance.
 
If either card transfers in Bit Perfect SPDIF, they should sound identical. In theory all you are doing is transfering 1's and 0's... you just need to ensure they get there in a timely and precise manner.
 
That's what I was figuring on that area... It is a digital signal. Just wanted to confirm. To me I don't see it being a big stress on any "newer" video cards to process / pass digital audio.. Anyone have anything to confirm / deny that?
 
Does the 480 encode 5.1 PCM in realtime? If it doesn't, the main benefit of the x-fi would be DD Live and DTS Connect. If the 480 does do realtime 5.1 encoding, there isn't hardly any reason to use the x-fi.

One reason to leave the x-fi in would be to use CMSS 3D when playing with headphones.
 
Hmm... I don't believe the 480/ 670 (in the mail) support and decoding at all. I only play games with this computer. Movies are watched on my boxee box. I don't think I have to worry about DD/ DTS... And I don't use headphones... So far no reason for x-fi.
Good points to look over.
 
Also. Depending on the quality of your speakers... you'll be hard pressed to notice a difference. Unless you have the ear for that sort of thing.
 
HDMI is the way to go. The only way you'll get multichannel over coax or optical is with DDL or DTS:Connect, both of which are lossy compression methods. The GTX 480 will bitstream 5.1 over HDMI.
 
kookoo102 said:
Hmm... I don't believe the 480/ 670 (in the mail) support and decoding at all. I only play games with this computer. Movies are watched on my boxee box. I don't think I have to worry about DD/ DTS... And I don't use headphones... So far no reason for x-fi.
Good points to look over.
Click to expand...

DD Live and DTS Connect are for games, not for movies. They allow the 5.1 audio from the game to be encoded and sent over spdif. The more recent graphics cards can do the same thing with PCM audio, but can go up to 7.1 channels. Without the ability to encode multichannel PCM, DD, or DTS in realtime, your game audio will only be stereo.

I suspect the 670 can encode multichannel PCM in realtime because of its age, but it hasn't ever been something I have needed to look up. I just plain don't know what the 480 can do.

I don't believe there is any solution right now for encoding the HD audio formats in realtime.
 
Forceman said:
HDMI is the way to go. The only way you'll get multichannel over coax or optical is with DDL or DTS:Connect, both of which are lossy compression methods. The GTX 480 will bitstream 5.1 over HDMI.
Click to expand...

DDL or DTS:Connect aren't really that bad. I used them for quite a while and the improvement on my HTPC when I got a new card to do realtime multichannel PCM encoding, wasn't especially remarkable (though it did let me get rid of the soundcard). The acoustics of most rooms probably have a bigger impact on audio quality than PCM vs DTS/DD
 
Verify it's outputting 5.1 like with something like this and you're good. Depending on video card it may automatically downsample to stereo until you tell it you're using 5.1, even if you select "SPDIF Direct".
 
Thank you for all the input, the GTX 480 does decode multichannel, not down sample to stereo ( my receiver shows it)
I'm going to stick with my video card doing all the audio. If I was hooking up to normal computer speakers, I will use the x-fi... For surround receivers, video card via HDMI is the way to go.
 
if its all in the digital domain then it should be the same

if it passes thru the DAC's its a diff story...Digital to Analog Converters makes the dif 100%
 
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