M-Audio Revolution 5.1?

[poorimpulsectrl]

M-Audio claims that the 5.1 improves gaming performance / cpu utilization over the 7.1. Anyone got it or a review of the card to test this statement?

This card looks like the one I've been holding out for, just want to see know how it performs in games before buying. The added headphone jack is sweet too.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

Looks very interesting. Of course, we are looking for it to at least approach the original audigy in CPU utilization, but I'd settle for Fortissimo level acceleration personally. Also, if it's cheaper, it looks to be a good budget card for HT applications as well as games.

here are the questions:

A) HOW did they add acceleration? New chip from VIA? Or is it just because they cut off two channels?

B) Is it just like the 7.1 but minus 2 channels, or are there other things missing?

C) Has the driver package improved any?

C'mon reviewers, I can't find anything on Google...

 

[moeamaya]

bump on this. Have been wanting to post the same question since I got my Pro Media 2.1s and Grado SR60s. Any info would be great.

 

[xonik]

A) HOW did they add acceleration?

Don't know, the audio controller doesn't advertise any hardware acceleration of game audio algorithms.

New chip from VIA?

Yes, it's the Envy24GT instead of the Envy24HT used on the Revolution 7.1.

http://www.viatech.com/en/multimedia/envy24gt.jsp

Or is it just because they cut off two channels?

No.

B) Is it just like the 7.1 but minus 2 channels, or are there other things missing?

The Revolution 7.1 featured a stereo DAC for front left and right channels, and an additional 6-channel DAC to handle the remaining channels. This time, the Revolution 5.1 uses a newer 6-channel DAC and nothing else. Also, the ADCs of the two cards are different.

C) Has the driver package improved any?

To my knowledge, no.

 

[xonik]

To all of y'all who wanted more first-hand information about the card...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=425994

 

[IdiotInCharge]

Thanks Xonik for the good information and links. Finally found some stuff when I found out which chip was used on the thing; such a dissapointment that they haven't managed to put ANY audio acceleration on the Envy chips yet. With all current generation and near future generation games the CPU seems to be the main limiter, except at the highest of resolutions and image quality settings; I'll keep my A2ZS and it's frames for now.

 

[poorimpulsectrl]

To all of y'all who wanted more first-hand information about the card...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=425994

correct me if I'm wrong, but gaming performance is not discussed in that thread?

I guess that's what I'm most curious about. I'd like something to deliver positional audio equal to or better than creative's best offerings with m-audio's music & movie sound quality. hopefully this card will do that, but I see mentioned here that the different chip doesn't really offer any new optimizations over the EnvyHT.

 

[IdiotInCharge]

correct me if I'm wrong, but gaming performance is not discussed in that thread?

I guess that's what I'm most curious about. I'd like something to deliver positional audio equal to or better than creative's best offerings with m-audio's music & movie sound quality. hopefully this card will do that, but I see mentioned here that the different chip doesn't really offer any new optimizations over the EnvyHT.

That's all needs be discussed: it's the same architecture APU wise as the 7.1, and thus offers no advantages to CPU usage. So it's basically a cheaper 5.1 version, yay, we needed that.

However, there is quite a bit of talk about the creation of new drivers and basic hardware bound fixes being integrated into the 5.1; here's hoping they at least improve driver compatability, stability and performance. That alone would help.