onboard audio vs audio card

[greenbag]

just wondering if asus p5ld2 onboard audio good enough for capturing, or would audio card be better.

just starting to get my feet wet (:

cheers.

[redwudz]

Most newer motherboards have very good on-board audio. Better than most separate audio cards of a few years ago. What are you using to capture with? I'm assuming you have a capture card that uses the audio inputs on the computer for the audio part of your capture?

I would try the on-board audio, and if it doesn't give you the quality you want from a good audio source, look into a separate audio card. But I think it will be fine with the on-board.

[lordsmurf]

Timing is your problem, and IRQ sharing, and some other issues. Onboard sound often causes errors with capture cards. Get a good dedicated card.

I would have to disagree about the card's age being important. My SoundBlaster and Turtle Beach cards from 4-5 years ago are still superior to the crap shoved onto a motherboard.

[guns1inger]

I have never had good experiences with on-board sound for video or audio capture. I have an older model Sound Blaster that works very nicely and has travelled with me through three upgrades. On-bpard sound is one of the first things I turn off on a new motherboard.

[Bjs]

lordsmurf is correct when it come's down to addon card's .

You also need to consider the number of slot's on the mother board as well .

Onboard / agp slot / pci1 share resource's ... if one is used , dont go adding to these other slot's .

If you are left with only pci2 and pci3 , you can use either ... but if capture card is present ... you cannot add any more card's .
Pci2 and pci3 share resource's once more .

Those with pci4 and pci5 have full sized motherboard's , use either , but not both ... once more , they share resource's .

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I have seen pc's where slot's where all filled , and they wonder why the pc was stuffing about ... it was overloaded .

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Modern onboard audio should not present any issue's , but do remember ...

Do not pass audio to capture device ... it will cause more problem's ... pass audio dirrectly to audio in only .

[greenbag]

Thanx for input - more to consider than I thought. Just wasn't sure if onboard input was limited in any way (quality wise).

Will try the onboard first. If not good enough, I'll use the soundblaster from my P2.

cheers (:

[hab138]

Hi there I am (still) doing 8mm captures and rendering to dvd.
I have the same question of onboard vs add on card.
Any suggestions as to what to get? I don't play games.. so I was going for the lowest aka cheapest end soundblaster i could find.

As well, how much cpu can one expect to save from using an add on sound card when rendering?
I am running an amd 2400+ on a asus a7n8x-x with an ATI AIW 9000pro 64MB version, 1GB of memory, 200GB maxtor and 250 GB maxtor both eide (yes it's old, but i have no budget for a new pc this year) the asus board has a realtek alc650 card, and i haven't noticed any cracks or pops from the stuff i've captured and burned, however, i haven't compared to a capture using a sound card. Will an external sound card such as a cheapo soundblaster audigy give me better quality than the onboard?

I'd like to get the best quality capture i can as the captures would include family events such as births and birthdays etc.


thanks in advance for the help/comments/advice.

[Nelson37]

The only correct answer is that IT DEPENDS. Some motherboard audio is better than many sound cards. Some sound cards are better than most motherboard audio. Without any specifics in hand, the question is impossible to answer.

Then there is the issue of clock synchronization resulting in dropped frames, this is totally independent of sound quality. Complete crapshoot, dependent on the interaction of motherboard and card. De-synch less likely with on-board.

One definite is that it is extremely unlikely that the audio drivers for onboard sound would conflict in any way with any other drivers for mobo hardware, or that the audio circuits would cause a hardware conflict with other mobo-based hardware. This cannot be said for a seperate card.

My soundblaster card worked fine on 2 or three boards, caused issues on one, and completely screwed up captures on another. On-board audio somewhat similar results, though last 2 or three boards no issues, quality at least as good, less expense, and on latest board has digital inputs. No sense buying something twice if you already have it and there is no advantage to be gained.

As for connection method, this varies with the type of capture hardware used. For my ATI, running audio through the capture card first has generally, but not always, been best.

[Scorpion King]

One definite is that it is extremely unlikely that the audio drivers for onboard sound would conflict in any way with any other drivers for mobo hardware, or that the audio circuits would cause a hardware conflict with other mobo-based hardware. This cannot be said for a seperate card.

agree.....

One should know which resources are being shared with the audio, either onboard or addon, because this will probably be the source of many of the problems some people seem to have.

Quality wise? Many motherboards has some pretty nice onboard audio now days. That wasn't the case even just a few years ago. In the old days most onboard audio was pretty crappy.....IMO