• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

R600 to have built-in dedicated sound card!

Richdog

Richdog

Richdog

Caporegime
Joined
8 Sep 2005
Posts
27,716
Location
Utopia
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38714

R600's secret weapon revealed

A sound card, HDMI compliant

By Charlie Demerjian: Wednesday 04 April 2007, 10:42

R600 HAS A secret weapon, an internal sound card. This is the one thing that Nvidia's G8x can't match, other than HDCP on dual-link HDMI.
The ATI sound implementation is not GPGPU code. It is dedicated silicon, probably brought on by the Vista DRM infection and MS twisting arms to force it on people.

In any case, R600 will be compliant with the Vista requirements and can send sound directly over a HDCP/HDMI link. We are told this is a full HD sound setup, not a cheesy 2.1 channel thing.

In contrast, NV G8x parts can't do this. They have to run an external cable from the sound chip to the GPU. This may not sound like much but it blows out several kinds of auto configuration and worse yet violates Vista logo requirements http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winlogo/HWrequirements.mspx. One has to wonder if this is why NV can't seem to make a functional Vista driver six months in.

The problem with Vista is that the DRM infection mandates that you do not share S/PDIF output over unencrypted links. R600 does this by combining audio and video streams, then pumping them out over HDCP infected links. This is user antagonistic DRM, but it complies with MS logo requirements, and they don't care about user experiences any more than the content mafiaa.

Add in that the R600 can do dual-link HDCP and you are going to be swimming in bandwidth, more than enough to pipe sound down.

Nvidia's G8x on the other hand can't do dual link HDCP at all, so if you have a 30-inch monitor, you will get a black screen. At that point, sound is the least of your problems.

Basically it looks like the sound card in R600 is going to be the killer app for home theatre type apps. G8x simply can not do what is needed here, buggy drivers or not. While the DRM infection stinks, at least R600 will be able to comply. µ
Click to expand...

Anyone else think that's quite cool? Not sure if it will support EAX2 etc though, and we have yet to see hardware accelerated performance of it. Still, neat for those who have crappy motherboard sound and want something extra to go with their new GPU without having to buy a seperate card. :)

EDIT - http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38738

R600 sound card's identity exposed

We found the drivers

By Charlie Demerjian: Thursday 05 April 2007, 11:28

REMEMBER THE ATI sound card we told you about yesterday?
The real question is what is it? The short answer? Realtek. See here for more. Thanks to a very sharp-eyed reader for this tip. Nice catch. µ
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Bah!

Is those words they use "home theatre" and "auto configurations" that kill my games!
 
Last edited:
All its doing is increasing costs and possible size of card, I'll stick with my X-Fi tbh, even on good motherboards the intergrated sound will proberbly just be as good.
 
I think this is for sending audio over the HDMI link, so there is no need to post 'im going to keep my *insert soundcard*' posts. :)
 
Lol, yep same here, just got an X-Fi Gamers edition so would like to get my moneys worth out of it really after upgrading from a 4 year old SB Audigy 1.
 
It's all to do with DRM rubbish. There is far too much of this DRM eating away at our right's to do what we want with stuff we have legally purchased.
 
lay-z-boy said:
I think this is for sending audio over the HDMI link, so there is no need to post 'im going to keep my *insert soundcard*' posts. :)
Click to expand...

Well if its just for that.. its not a propor sound card. If it supports normal 3.5mm jacks and 5.1, then.. i'll stick to my X-Fi :)
 
I saw the thread title, and thought "oh no, someone's going to be quoting The Inquirer" and sure enough, once I'd gotton into the thread, they had. :p

Quite often TI is very, very wrong, so just take it with a pinch of salt that there will be onboard sound.

To be honest I'd rather have a dedicated graphics card and a dedicated sound card as seperate items, reduces stress/usage on either one.

As someone said, I'll stick with my Audigy 2...decent card. :)

InvG
 
InvaderGIR said:
To be honest I'd rather have a dedicated graphics card and a dedicated sound card as seperate items, reduces stress/usage on either one.

As someone said, I'll stick with my Audigy 2...decent card. :)

InvG
Click to expand...
It's not just about having a sound card bolted onto the graphics card, it's about providing sound over a HDCP/HDMI link that's compliant with Vista's DRM, something your soundcard cannot provide.
 
BubbySoup said:
It's not just about having a sound card bolted onto the graphics card, it's about providing sound over a HDCP/HDMI link that's compliant with Vista's DRM, something your soundcard cannot provide.
Click to expand...


Me no nothing on HDMI, but don't the TV's etc. have video in via HDMI and them like a composite audio in?

InvG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom