Sound Blaster Live 5.1 & Onboard ADI 1980 Question?

Question

as far as i know, soundblaster 5.1 (live) is obsolete because creative is not making any new drivers for it, i want to know which sound platform eats up more resources, is it souldblaster 5.1 or onboard ADI 1980?, which one is better on games, I am using Creative Labs Inspire 5300 5.1 Speaker System, i am thinking of coming down to Altec Lansings 2.1 MX5021 model since 5.1 has too much of wires and 5.1 sound doesn't make much difference for me now.

Answer 1

Onboard soundcards use slightly more CPU power than discrete cards like the Live 5.1. The Soundblaster 5.1 will use slightly more of your CPU power during gameplay if you enable some of the more advanced features like EAX (i think the Live 5.1 only supports Eax 1.0 though).

It is likely that you are not getting the best 5.1 sound because the card is not so great. When i moved up from my SB Live 5.1 to the Creative Audigy 2, I could hear a remarkable difference in sound using the same speakers.

As far as games go why not experiment with the two cards a bit and see which works best, though my money is on the creative in terms of sound quality. in terms of CPU usage it might use a percent or 2 more cpu power than the onboard card depending on the features of the game and the drivers you are using.

If 5.1 isn't a factor, then that onboard card will do just fine. if it were up to me,based on the information you've given, i would stick with the Live card and Creative speakers and move up to a better card some time in the future, or at least try a different driver for my card like the kxdriver.

http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/intro.php

Answer 2

It quite all relies on the audio system that you just hook as much as it and the records you're gambling on it. The Realtek is most likely able of making use of an entire set of five.one million+ audio system so it most likely will sound bigger for films you probably have an entire five.one million procedure due to the fact that the iPod is handiest able of two.zero audio via its mini stereo jack or potentially extra via a dock connector adapter. You can be gambling prime first-class lossless audio at the pc. If you realize what the time period lossless is youi'll ought to convert it into Apple's propriety losless layout and that quite is not going to make any first-class change. If you don't have any suggestion what that time period method do not fear approximately it the MP3's your most likely gambling will most likely sound the identical. In the tip although in case you plug the identical set of audio system into the Computer as you do the iPod it will have to sound practically precisely the identical.