Asus P5W-DH I975X use onboard sound?

dazsly · 4 Oct 2006 at 14:59

Hi there, Im looking to upgrade to this mb very soon and would like to know if the onboard sound is any good? I mean to run oblivion and other games or will I lose performance over seperate sound cards.

I have a Audigy 1 sound card should I use this or the onboard newer sound chips?.

Many thanks

Durzel · 4 Oct 2006 at 15:11

You'll lose performance but it should be negligible. As for quality, I've heard contrasting viewpoints about the sound quality of onboard sound vs Audigy cards.

Whilst I can't really give you much help either way (Im using my Audigy 2 ZS in my P5W64) what I would say is that when you consider the size of the cards, the number of components, capacitors, resistors, etc on them - against a single chip on a motherboard, there has to be some tradeoff in quality/performance.

dazsly · 4 Oct 2006 at 15:15

Durzel said:
You'll lose performance but it should be negligible. As for quality, I've heard contrasting viewpoints about the sound quality of onboard sound vs Audigy cards.

Whilst I can't really give you much help either way (Im using my Audigy 2 ZS in my P5W64) what I would say is that when you consider the size of the cards, the number of components, capacitors, resistors, etc on them - against a single chip on a motherboard, there has to be some tradeoff in quality/performance.

Thanks mate Im looking for a similar system to your sig, apart from a 6600 conroe and stock speeds, what fps should I expect in games like oblivion and ms flight sim x??

Thanks

Durzel · 4 Oct 2006 at 15:55

Can't really tell you I'm afraid... I haven't reinstalled Windows yet

I'm hoping to do it tonight.

wizardmaxx · 4 Oct 2006 at 16:00

All depends on the speakers u going to use.

dazsly · 4 Oct 2006 at 16:30

wizardmaxx said:
All depends on the speakers u going to use.

just a 4.1 setup

wizardmaxx · 4 Oct 2006 at 16:35

What i mean is that to benefit from a really good soundcard you need to pair it with a descent set of speakers (or surround). Its a bit pointless spending £20 - £30 on an audigy and hooking them up to a set of £5 speakers. From the sounds of it you should have a reasonably good set there, so Audigy is definately an option to consider, unless u got money to blow, then its a no brainer of course.

kitten · 4 Oct 2006 at 16:42

dazsly said:
just a 4.1 setup

I think Wizardmaxx cmiiw meant the quality of speaker.

If u have cheapo speakers you will not hear the difference between good and better sound devices.

Onboard sound from the latest chips is good enough for gaming. imho sounds in games are not closely listened to (not like music and film dialogue/sounds) they are responded to, spending too long appreciating how perfect your game sound is will likely result in player character death

If you want to watch DVD and you get absorbed into your movies or you use your computer as a HiFi for CD or DVD quality audio (not as an mp3 player, mp3=compressed sound with much detail missing) then good speakers and a dedicated card would be the better choice.

/EDIT you got in there before me Wizardmaxx

MoRT489 · 4 Oct 2006 at 20:52

kitten said:
Onboard sound from the latest chips is good enough for gaming. imho sounds in games are not closely listened to (not like music and film dialogue/sounds) they are responded to, spending too long appreciating how perfect your game sound is will likely result in player character death

Having bad sound in game results in player death, gotta hear those footsteps coming

kitten · 4 Oct 2006 at 21:35

creed said:
Having bad sound in game results in player death, gotta hear those footsteps coming

So true, so true.. has to be directional too, no good spinning round to blow a head off and getting it in the back :eek:

Rex-Kramer · 4 Oct 2006 at 22:19

Tbh i found the sound **** poor on this board. I play a lot of battlefield and it really wasnt up to it. Also found the VOIP to be pretty bad too. :rolleyes:

Just my opinion so i got an X-FI, difference is staggering :cool:

[HoL]Cobra · 5 Oct 2006 at 10:27

Aye, The X-Fi owns

I tried using onboard sound with the P5W DH, and it worked ok.
But in Battlefield 2, the sounds either repeated, or I could not hear anything digital, like the soldiers or the commanders orders.
Even after setting the game sound to software/hardware.
That was also, after many attempts to get the drivers to work, if I recall (memory's going, due to age), I had a nightmare trying to find a certain driver, as the drivers on the CD (and downloaded) refused to install untill I had some other driver, i think from microsoft.
So put my old audigy in, untill I purchased the X-Fi.

tipsy · 8 Oct 2006 at 10:18

I decided to use the onboard sound & well in some games its slows them down, I aminly use a headset anyway & I'm not to bothered about speakers. I thought um a good cheap headset & went and bought a set of plantronics dsp500's usb & they are quite good