PCI Express Audio

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Vryce

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 13, 2006
Messages
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At this point I'm actually surprised when I can't find a PCIe version of any add-on card. I have 1 PCI slot and 1 PCIe available (Asus P5N32-E SLI with 2 8800GTX). I fell in love with the ATI TV Wonder I got as a present a few years ago. I would also like to add a X-Fi card to my setup.

From what I've seen, I can't do both. I've seen 1 TV Tuner and 0 hardware audio cards in PCIe form. Anyone heard of either of these coming down the pipe? The USB TV Tuners look just fine, so I could go with a X-Fi and a USB Tuner solution. More or less I'm just curious as to when to expect PCIe versions and, if not, why.
 
There are some out there but they are very high end studio cards (cost thousands).

As for consumer level cards.... Join the club. Nothing as of yet and no word on when they come.
 
Actually, the ASUS XONAR is supposed to be in both PCI-E and PCI flavors. The card is based on the 8788 chipset. I am not sure when they are supposed to be released though. There was also rumor about the "X-fi2" is supposed to be PCI-E. Accroding to the CL groupies though this card can will have anything they can think up that day:rolleyes: This card at this point is nothing but Vapor....or rumors.
 
That rumour is actually looking pretty solid. The X-Fi 2 will most likely be offered for PCIe as well as PCI.

Unannounced products can't be vapor, so I can't say that word is fitting.
 
Where did the idea come from? Some fan pulled it out of the air. We have Audigy and Audiyg 2 so I guess we have X-fi and X-fi 2? I guess you could say that but I haven't seen any reports WAIT, actually there is a set of modded X-fi2 Drivers right?
 
Audioguy said:
Where did the idea come from? Some fan pulled it out of the air. We have Audigy and Audiyg 2 so I guess we have X-fi and X-fi 2? I guess you could say that but I haven't seen any reports WAIT, actually there is a set of modded X-fi2 Drivers right?
Click to expand...

Marketing wise it would be smart for Creative to rearrange the components on their X-Fi boards, revamp the drivers a bit, add a new gimmick, throw it all on a PCIe interface and call it X-Fi 2. It's pretty much what they did between Audigy and Audigy 2.
 
Yeah they are do for a new product soon. Now I don't think the Prelude and the X-fi 2 will be competition for each other. I think they will be very,very different cards. It will be nice to see the X-fi 2 aswell. IT is time they start making some PCI-E cards...
 
Well, on one hand, making a soundcard PCIe is next to useless, since they don't require the extra bandwidth. That said, we are having more and more PCIe slots, so it would probably be a good thing to eventually switch over. I see companies looking at this issue and just saying "meh, we'll do it another time... it's no big deal".
 
There's another reason, though... I don't know if you noticed, but the PCI slots on today's motherboards are getting more inaccessible every day.

Even with ONE PCIe Graphics card installed, using more than one PCI slot on my Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe is damn near impossible due to clearance issues.

I have an X-FI Elite Pro plugged into the lower one. I wanted to use an Intel Pro/1000 in the other PCI slot, but it just wasn't going to clear.

If you have an SLI setup installed, forget it alltogether.


Cyrilix said:
Well, on one hand, making a soundcard PCIe is next to useless, since they don't require the extra bandwidth. That said, we are having more and more PCIe slots, so it would probably be a good thing to eventually switch over. I see companies looking at this issue and just saying "meh, we'll do it another time... it's no big deal".
Click to expand...
 
TechLarry said:
There's another reason, though... I don't know if you noticed, but the PCI slots on today's motherboards are getting more inaccessible every day.

Even with ONE PCIe Graphics card installed, using more than one PCI slot on my Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe is damn near impossible due to clearance issues.

I have an X-FI Elite Pro plugged into the lower one. I wanted to use an Intel Pro/1000 in the other PCI slot, but it just wasn't going to clear.

If you have an SLI setup installed, forget it alltogether.
Click to expand...

Yep, which is the reason we are waiting for PCIE Sound cards or PCIE PPU's... one of them has to give, at least.
 
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