Can we expected to see new gen of sound card in 2008 ?

[Albuquerque]

Integrated sound ftw, at least until something really cool comes along.

+1 -- I've got the Via Envy24 built into my motherboard, how cool is that? Even with a pair of 24-bit 96khz DACs behind the analog ports, along with optical in/out and coaxial in/out. There's no replacement for this kind of onboard audio; I already dread having to buy a new systemboard next year for my bi-annual whole-system update.

But hell, even the onboard audio on my little Dell Inspiron is very good. Any more, so long as the motherboard designer provides enough filtering to keep system noise out, onboard audio is "good enough" for probably 95% of us out there.

 

[Blazkowicz]

and when you have crappy integrated sound you can just use some five year old card. my PC is outdated and broken but I'll keep that audigy 1 no matter what, it's exponentially better than old realtek or other junk (and still has that midi/joystick port in case).
weirdest computer buy too, I was intending to buy it for 5 or 10 euros but I saw the guy and he actually gave it me away.

 

[Rodéric]

ASUS Xonar D2/X ?
(C-Media Oxygen HD CMI8788)
http://www.vr-zone.com/index.php?i=4860

 

[digitalwanderer]

Integrated sound is teh debil.

 

[_xxx_]

I actually expect sound cards to soon disappear completely except in the professional appliances like for music recording and such. I also can see no use whatsoever for a more powerful sound card in today's PC's, even X-Fi is way over the top power-wise.

 

[Davros]

your not complaining about a card being too powerfull are you?

 

[Albuquerque]

I suppose it's somewhat like having a big pile of Cell SPE's with nothing to feed them - yeah, more power = more bettAr for your e-penis. But in reality, you just spent that money for a gazillion transistors, of which you're able to get a quarter of them working for you.

If there was a way to leverage that power, it might be a different story. But nobody is developing any games with 440 simultaneous 3D-placed 24-bit 192khz channels (or, whatever the hardware support is in the newest X-Fi's). So it's really just going to waste

I absolutely LOVE that Asus card though; I'll give serious consideration to plopping that puppy in my new rig next year. Yum!

 

[Sxotty]

I absolutely LOVE that Asus card though; I'll give serious consideration to plopping that puppy in my new rig next year. Yum!

I just like it b/c it is another one that supports dolby digital.

 

[Albuquerque]

Hopefully by then it's cheaper; I'm not sure it's entirely worth the ~$180 pricetag it's currently fetching. Well, versus the $180 I could spend in some other area, like a much better set of speakers versus the Z530's I have now

 

[Malo]

ASUS Xonar D2/X ?
(C-Media Oxygen HD CMI8788)
http://www.vr-zone.com/index.php?i=4860

Their description suggests it doesn't even support Native OpenAL like the X-Fi's and Audigy's. Just Generic Hardware support like most onboard devices (via DirectSound 3D)

 

[ShaidarHaran]

and when you have crappy integrated sound you can just use some five year old card.

Exactly. I've got a 915 board with who knows what kind of crap integrated audio. Decided to throw in an SB Live and use it instead.