EVGA Showcases New Nu Audio Pro Card

I use onboard sound. Is something like this fairly straight forward? Any bloated software to use? Seems like external is the preference though. Honestly wouldn't mind keeping airflow around the GPU less cluttered myself, although having it all in the case would certainly be nice. Any simple way to use this or similar with both my headset and speakers? I switch between the two frequently. Problem is, I have a Hyper X Cloud and some Creative Speakers. Neither are top of the line. Probably would be wasted on high end audio equipment anyways. Cloud is going strong, but I may replace it in two years so this would be partially for future headsets / speaker/monitors in mind.

EVGA is usually good at keeping the bloat down in their software, even if their software is often buggy or just unintuitive. A lot of external solutions don't need drivers at all, so if you want to avoid any kind of software that is the route to go.
 
EVGA is usually good at keeping the bloat down in their software, even if their software is often buggy or just unintuitive. A lot of external solutions don't need drivers at all, so if you want to avoid any kind of software that is the route to go.

I keep the Mayflower Arc Mk2 as an example here. Audio output, mic input, lots of power, all clean, no drivers. I have an O2 / ODAC with the same DAC and headphone amp stage, and there's nothing here to complain about for any consumer headphones. My highest impedance set is my H600s, and the O2 can push them uncomfortably loud at 12 o'clock.
 
I always wondered, what setting do you choose in audio when gaming with a good sound card / headset

I’m using sound blaster z with seinheiser game zero headset.


Which audio setting should we be picking? Depends on game?

I play PUBG/CS:GO/Modern Warfare/Overwatch/Apex Legends
 
I game with headphones and leave Windows/drivers set to 2 channel stereo, and set the audio in game to 3D (if available) or 2chn headphones otherwise.
 
I liked the idea of the internal card for a few reasons:

1) My desk is already cluttered
2) I have a ton of USB devices already hooked up and don't want/need to add more
3) The RGB is kind of neat IMO

I've never had the issues with interference that some people have been concerned about, I feel like that concern might be overblown in practice?

I would say not overblown. It really depends on the system reproducing the sound. Ive tried dozens of combinations in PA and home theater setups and inside the PC almost always contains some noise. Again, these systems are much more powerful and sensitive than average user pc setups. The best inside the case card to date I tried was the Bluegears B-Inspirer. I loved that card, both of mine failed though. :cry:

It's not about the USB part, it's about getting the DACs and the rest of the analog stage away from the inside of the computer.

My belief as well. When I install systems the DAC and cables are run no where near power cables or electrical components to create noise as well. TOSLINK out is really the only way I'll use a PCI or onboard sound card. That said, never tried the EVGA Nu, seems like I need to for comparison.
 

  • Requires expensive equipment to notice a dramatic impact over good motherboard audio
  • Minimal impact with stereo headphones and low-end stereo speakers

The HD 598 headphones sell for $260 at the time of writing, while the DT 1990 Pros cost about $530. I found myself enjoying the DT 1990 Pro more with onboard audio than I did the HD 598 with the Nu Audio Pro.

Captain obvious strikes Toms Hardware again. Gee you enjoyed an almost $300 more headphone, the 598 and DT1990 are not remotely comparable for a source test.
 
I grabbed this card (nu pro, not surround) and like it quite a bit. No longer relying on steelseries software for their gamedac was a huge plus. Went to a dedicated set of headphones (beyerdynamics 990 600ohm) and it sound better to me. The drivers and software seems solid so far
 
So is that card shielded? Because maybe I'm wrong but you have that right next to your water pump... wouldn't that be interference creating?
 
So is that card shielded? Because maybe I'm wrong but you have that right next to your water pump... wouldn't that be interference creating?
Yes, it is shielded. This particular position is temporary - I'm building a new system in a CaseLabs TH10 Magnum case and will be moving the watercooling stuff away from the sound card. That being said, I don't notice any signal distortion or inteference as it is.
 
Captain obvious strikes Toms Hardware again. Gee you enjoyed an almost $300 more headphone, the 598 and DT1990 are not remotely comparable for a source test.

My 177X GO's have never been fed PC audio -- almost exclusively through a Topping DX7, first with the unbalanced cable, and now with a custom 4-pin XLR cable.

With respect to the Tom's reviewer, about the only thing that review can show is that it 'works'. My 300Ω HD600's could sound alright out of better motherboard implementations too, but that doesn't mean that they didn't benefit from more, cleaner power.
 
With respect to the Tom's reviewer, about the only thing that review can show is that it 'works'.

Yeah I understand where you're coming from. I know they are limited in budget of test setup, need to rush out the article and its based on the worst possible metric - someones unmeasurable opinion. But reviews for high end items are reviewed by people who generally look at details. Telling me cheap systems are flat and expensive systems are dynamic is not interest provoking. I can look past comparing a 50Ω can versus a 450Ω equally as very few know about that detail.

To not be a sourpuss - I do value reviews like this as it gives me a baseline of what to expect. I'll order one and give it a go once they have been wild a while for drivers to mature/firmware to soak.
 
Driving a set of Sennheiser HD6XXs from Massdrop.

That's the exact same pair of headphones I have. How have they held up with those cards in the last few months? Just got an email that the they are on sale for $250 USD again and I'm half tempted to pick them up.
But I've got a Gigabyte Aorus X570 Master which already has supposedly good audio at least as far as motherboards go so I'm trying to figure out just how much of an improvement $339 CAD (plus tax, shipping and customs fees) is going to get me.
 
That's the exact same pair of headphones I have. How have they held up with those cards in the last few months? Just got an email that the they are on sale for $250 USD again and I'm half tempted to pick them up.
But I've got a Gigabyte Aorus X570 Master which already has supposedly good audio at least as far as motherboards go so I'm trying to figure out just how much of an improvement $339 CAD (plus tax, shipping and customs fees) is going to get me.
They're excellent. I'm extremely pleased with my audio setup. Music is fantastic and the clarity and sound stage using good 3D audio in games like Battlefield really does offer a competitive advantage.
 
  • Like
Reactions: erek
like this
But I've got a Gigabyte Aorus X570 Master which already has supposedly good audio at least as far as motherboards go so I'm trying to figure out just how much of an improvement $339 CAD (plus tax, shipping and customs fees) is going to get me.
Probably... Okay.

Not that you would need the EVGA card to do better. Plenty of less costly solutions there.

Motherboard audio is mostly just keeping the noise down and providing enough power, which the decent implementations all mostly do.
 
They're excellent. I'm extremely pleased with my audio setup. Music is fantastic and the clarity and sound stage using good 3D audio in games like Battlefield really does offer a competitive advantage.

Initially my biggest complaint with them was there's hardly any bass to them. Even after tinkering around with Realtek equalizer settings and whatnot, everything else sounds great but hardly any low end.
Since I started using them, a loud family moved in upstairs and I'm findingout just how big of a detriment open-backed headphones are when there's excessive ambient sound.
 
I use the MoBo audio block output, run it to an AVR (Yamaha RX-V463) 5.1 setup. Sounds very good to me so what is the advantage (if any) of these internal sound cards? In the past I used a Creative card but that was before MoBos had 5.1

IMO these internal soundcards are no longer needed for most users
 
Last edited:
I use the MoBo audio block output, run it to an AVR (Yamaha RX-V463) 5.1 setup. Sounds very good to me so what is the advantage (if any) of these internal sound cards? In the past I used a Creative card but that was before MoBos had 5.1
No idea what you mean by mobo block output... or, specifically what you mean.
 
Initially my biggest complaint with them was there's hardly any bass to them. Even after tinkering around with Realtek equalizer settings and whatnot, everything else sounds great but hardly any low end.
Since I started using them, a loud family moved in upstairs and I'm findingout just how big of a detriment open-backed headphones are when there's excessive ambient sound.
I have a fairly quiet environment so open backed headphones aren't a problem here. Bass is somewhat subjective, but personally I've never felt these lacked low-end. Again, this is somewhat subjective :)
 
Inside a PC is not where you want your audio hardware to reside.
I've been using internal soundcards for years and never had a problem. had an Audigy 4 pro i used to record DJ mixes and no prob's whatsoever w/ noise and now have Audigy RX which is basically a pci-e version of the same card w/out the breakout box and Creative still markets it for recording. now if you're talking about just a chip built in to the motherboard that's a whole different ballgame.

Any suggestions?

Soundblaster Audigy RX you can pick one up brand new for around $60 and is the exact same card they use to sell for $400 as their top of the line recording card the Audigy 4 pro. Has an E-MU chip on it. (with an '06 date on it, but who cares if it aint broke, don't fix it.)
**stay away from audgy fx tho it uses a realtek chip (same as onboard sound uses)(not even sure why that card exists, unless you got hit with a lightning surge and blew your onboard?)
RX basically consumer version of this (mastering grade :)) (and yes creative owns E-MU, it's like their cadillac line vs chevy being soundblaster)
emu1212.png


I use the MoBo audio block output, run it to an AVR (Yamaha RX-V463) 5.1 setup. Sounds very good to me so what is the advantage (if any) of these internal sound cards? In the past I used a Creative card but that was before MoBos had 5.1

IMO these internal soundcards are no longer needed for most users
Dude onboard sound just can't compare to a decent soundcard. Now you can't go getting a bottom of the line soundcard, but if you get something decent, you will be able to tell right away. It's more than just how many channels it is.

So a while back i built a little backup pc with some old parts and ended up with an Asrock mobo that they were all trying to say how good the audio was and how they used audio grade capacitors and bla bla bla. and when i was testing it i had it hooked up to my main monitor and audio setup and man with EXACT same setup it just sounded thin and lifeless and had no punch to it. A good soundcard does make a big difference, at least if you have a decent system it does, but if you just have a couple of little $10 speakers that came with your moms dell guess it may not be worth it? But I'm a music lover and can't even watch those cam movies that someone recorded in a movie theater because the sound is so trash. So just my 2c
 
Last edited:
But I'm a music lover

I think you meant Audiophile [ discriminating audio connoisseur ], not music lover. I'm a musician but I never did develop an audiophile's ear. Knew a guy who had a Yamaha EQ years ago that had a sub control for each slider As I turned it I could hear no change at all but he immediately could hear it (he was able to tell me every time I turned the knob without his looking at it).

For those with a highly developed ear for sound I'd say sure, a sound card of high quality likely makes quite a difference to them but for the rest of us? No.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top