Need a gaming soundcard with optical out

Muso

Muso

Muso

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Joined
15 Mar 2006
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243
Hey

Basically I have a super duper soundcard which is for pro audio but sucks at playing games. I'm looking to get a gaming soundcard ideally with a toslink out on it, my initial idea was to get a creative one as these are usually best for gaming but what scares me is the 3 in one multijack thing. I mean its not a standard connector I really need a toslink. Say I can get a converter for the 3.5mm multijack to toslink is there going to be any problems?

Also is Xfi that much better than Audigy 4? in terms of gaming.
 
Do you want to be able to output multichannel audio in 5.1 via the optical or do you want to have an optical connection for transmitting already encoded data from DVD's etc and have the usual analogue connections for non encoded 5.1 data (i.e. a games surround audio) ?
 
Hi thanks for the speedy reply

I only use 2 monitors or a pair of headphones so surround really isn't important. I don't plan to use any of the other connections on the soundcard as everything will be going through the pro soundcard I'm using. So in essence the gaming card will just be going via digital out to the Pro card.

Cheers
 
Can you use co-ax instead of optical? If so you only need a 3.5mm -> Phono adapter to use with something like the X-Fi Xtreme Music. If you definitely need optical you need to start looking at the ones with front panels I think.
 
Muso said:
Hey

Basically I have a super duper soundcard which is for pro audio but sucks at playing games. I'm looking to get a gaming soundcard ideally with a toslink out on it, my initial idea was to get a creative one as these are usually best for gaming but what scares me is the 3 in one multijack thing. I mean its not a standard connector I really need a toslink. Say I can get a converter for the 3.5mm multijack to toslink is there going to be any problems?

Also is Xfi that much better than Audigy 4? in terms of gaming.
Click to expand...

the XFI fatl1ty has toslink in and out on the breakout box.
 
After browsing the creative forum it seems that the 3.55 jack to toslink will not work :(

I don't really wanna pay all that cash when I'm just after a basic gaming card with optical out. I'm looking at 70 quid tops. the only card I've found has been a big pile of poo, some card called a trust, terratec do one but I used them before and theyre quite bad.
 
If you dont need on the fly dolby encoding then I fully agree with Phil, creative is still the best way to go (by far) Im still considering chopping in my X-Mystique for an X-Fi and going back to analogue....

Its great for music, but thats it, it has so many bugs in games etc that just arnt being fixed and i dont think ever will be...

Theres no way im plumping up £150 for the new Auzentech card when it comes out, regardless of how good its specs are ;)
 
Caged said:
How can a soundcard suck at playing games? What are the issues you're experiencing at the moment?
Click to expand...

It can suck in quite a few ways, no EAX/Surround support, low quality output, no hardware acceleration or poor hardware acceleration that relies too heavily on the CPU in turn cutting your framerates, list goes on.
 
He's running stereo anyway, not surround. And poor hardware acceleration will maybe hit you for a few FPS, which isn't enough to worry about. I don't think a "pro" soundcard would have issues with low quality output either.
 
specifically EAX 2.0 only but more importantly whenever a large amount of EAX voices are being used at once i get a horrible static noise, i can only fix this by lowering my hardware acceleration to one notch from bottom (it was TERRIBLE in oblivion and pretty bad in some others like hitman 2 and unreal tournament 2004 to name a few) by doing that you loose proper surround EAX (or i did in oblivion and hitman 2) ppl have experienced this and its never been fixed at the driver level.

Im pretty sure its a C-Media driver issue.

But thats how a card can suck for games ;)

The actual EAX 2.0 implementation is emulated too so its not the same as a creative user would experience, and i have to say creatives surround efforts are far better.

If you have a game like HL2 that uses its own engine then theres no problem, but most use EAX...
 
Caged said:
How can a soundcard suck at playing games? What are the issues you're experiencing at the moment?
Click to expand...

From that I'm assuming you've never compared an X-Fi/Audigy 2+ card to a standard 'non-Creative' card when gaming, even in stereo. Proper EAX really does make a difference, even if some of the other stuff they try and market is a load of crap/not noticable.
 
The Pro soundcard is RME Hammerfall 9632, it sucks at playing games i.e choppy audio, sound will not work at all with some games. This card is simply not designed to play games.
 
I've just bought an X-fi Gamer (not Fatal1ty), and am using it's optical out socket. I have an optical cable that fits either toslink or minijack and it works great, so I don't see why the Toslink to minijack convertor wouldn't work with a toslink cable. The adaptor just passes the light signal to the differently shaped connector, that's all. This solution certainly works for me.

Si.
 
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