Go see the article on tomshardware with the audio chip comparison, then tell me you would rather play games on a chip with no dsp for audio effects acceleration.

www.tomshardware.com/game/20030405/sound_for_games-03.html

And going back to software sound routines is like saying lets stop using onboard pixel and vertex shaders and go back to CPU based 3d video.
It's daft.

Leave cheap chips like this where they belong.

nvidia sucks

Obviously the [b]theor/b] of hardware acceleration is a good thing.

But as noted by Damage, if the hardware acceleration doesn't do the work you need done, then it's a liability, not an advantage.

To put it another way, if you needed some work done on your house, and you hired someone to do it, but they left all the old materials in your front yard, didn't do any painting, and left half the nails sticking out, would that be better than doing it yourself?

The VIA soundchips are crap, at least they did compare them to their nearest equivalent, the OH SO HI QUALITY cmedia.
They are just straight audio in/out chips with NO dsp whatsoever.
The Creative and Nvidia chips are magnitudes more versatile.
For example how do you use soundfonts on the VIA chips? buy some software which wastes the CPU to do the task.
How about advanced 3d effects? use the CPU, forget these soundchips, they need to make like they have with the S3 Graphics chips and soup them up.
As they are they are just CHEAP soundchips.

The nVidia APU is a much bigger threat to Creative than anything VIA has ever come up with thus far.

This will start with the new Doom III engine which is completely software based (does not use hardware acceleration), and we feel most other game developers will follow this trend as it enables much greater control of the gaming sounds than relying on a third party API

Can someone explain this? I thought hardware acceleration was a good thing....

#16, I dont use the checkbox because when im watching cable on my comp(which is one of the reasons i bought a AIW) the sound is grossly out of sync, sometimes dragging behind the picture by two or three seconds ( i say sometimes because it's usually only about a second behind, which is still unacceptable). a crash course in AIW/soundcard relations from some of teh people on here and from my audiophile friend have shown me what i need. the revolution doesnt provide it, the terratec 6fire does, but in too big of a package (this is going in a shuttle) and the only card that LOOKS like it could fill my needs is teh audiotrak prodigy 7.1, which i dont even think is Envy based. I'd love to get my hands on a Terratec Space 7.1, which fills the bill nicely, but their US distributor doesnt carry it. SO, ill be forced to use an Audigy 2, even though i've experienced the clarity and joy of using the Envy. poor distribution, IMO.

Its nice to see that Via is making gains in the on-board sound arena, but they are still lacking one major (IMHO) thing. The very powerful and awesome feature that the NV Soundstorm has -- real time Dolby digital encoding. Nothing VIA is doing, no matter how hard they try, can ever dream of matching the fidelity that a true Dolby Digital stream can give you.

note to Via: I've left you for Nvidia over a year ago. sya.

Thanks,

--I

addendum to lower post...ENOUGH internal inputs. it seems the prodigy 192 has one digital connection for CD to card connections. i need a second for my AIW.

that's nice and all, but considering I can't get a sound card based off of the Envy and with internal inputs short of buying the 250 dollar 6fire, well, that makes Creative a winner in my book. I'd love for someone to chime in with some card that proves me wrong.

First: A quote:

VIA's view is that hardware acceleration is a legacy feature that can have a negative impact on sound quality. Today's high performance systems with multi-gigahertz processors have plenty of extra cycles to process audio with no noticeable effect on gameplay i.e. framerates. We also definitely see that game developers are moving away from hardware acceleration. This will start with the new Doom III engine which is completely software based (does not use hardware acceleration), and we feel most other game developers will follow this trend as it enables much greater control of the gaming sounds than relying on a third party API.

Second, a quibble with the Via guy:

'Jedi Knight Renegade'? Jedi Outcast, maybe? 'Renegade' is C&C: Renegade, I suppose, but there's no movie there. Not a big deal, but something to correct in the notes.

http://www.mini-itx.com/news/cebit2003-3/

Must have accessible outputs somewhere other than the back. Front of the case is fine (either use a 3.5 or give me some extras), but I'm really spoiled by having my GTXP's breakout box at arm's length. When I start thinking about a major overhaul in a year, we'll see how things look.

Hmmm.. .interesting. All I'm thinking about is my friends super low end mega integrated P4 system having mucho choppy sound on BF1942.

*Hugs his Aureal Vortex2*

Diss - I still haven't found out why 3Dmark03's 64 voice test was running, but on a fresh install of Windows, it does not. I'd chalk it up to a configuration bug and 3Dmark03 not being able to really determine if X voices are actually in use.

Zenith - Name one thing that won't run without hardware DirectSound... I'll save you some time, there aren't any. It looks like hardware DirectSound is going the way of fixed function transform and lighting... A good idea, but superceded by the capabilities of later hardware. Reflect on UT2K3 running faster with software sound than hardware.

WTF? No Directsound channels? What a jip.

"...The block diagram (bottom of this page) for the Envy24PT..."

The above link on page 1 appears to be dead.