Nforce 4 soundstorm makeing a comeback?

[Sxotty]

If this is true it practically brings tears to my eyes I was thinking that maybe ATI would make a soundstormesque motherboard since they got the XBOX 2 contract, and perhaps they still will perhaps this is goading nv into not giving it up so easy.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=17058

This chipset will support a maximum of 32 PCI-E lanes says Theo, has suggested 1x16 X PCI-E slot, one 1 x 8X for SLI card and four times one lane for peripheral devices. This definitely confirms our previous claim that Nforce 4 will be a platform which will let you plug two Geforce 6 series PCI-E cards into a machine and end up with a much cheaper MP machine than those based on Intel's "Tumwater" chipset...

The Nforce 4, CK8-04 will support eight S-ATA drives and six P-ATA drives and for additional connectivity you will have no less then 10 USB 2.0 ports.

As for sound freaks, this chipset will feature SP-10, Soundstorm 2 audio that will be Dolby Digital 5.1 compliant and it will be able to do EX effects at 20 GFlops processing power. Soundstorm 2 supports 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 speaker configurations.

It sounds good doesn't it? But it will arrive towards the very end of this year. µ

Now I realize they are full of lies and deceit often enough, but still if Soundstorm is back I shall be excited and I guarantee that I will upgrade shortly thereafter it has been a main reason I haven't felt the initiative to do so.

 

[Nite_Hawk]

Hi,

well, the current rumors are that nvidia is going to be making soundstorm soundcards so that they can reduce the cost of thier chipsets. Granted, everyone is wondering where the heck the card is as it has been quite a while since the rumors surfaced. Perhaps they chnaged their minds?

Nite_Hawk

 

[MuFu]

Ahhh, Theo and his big mouth.

 

[Quitch]

Until SoundStorm is linked to a *decent* audio codec, I don't see why everyone gets so excited. Nearly CPU free, crap sound. Oh wow!

 

[martrox]

Until SoundStorm is linked to a *decent* audio codec, I don't see why everyone gets so excited. Nearly CPU free, crap sound. Oh wow!

Unless you use the digital out.......

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Until SoundStorm is linked to a *decent* audio codec, I don't see why everyone gets so excited. Nearly CPU free, crap sound. Oh wow!

Anything half decent is better than dealing with Creative's hardware and drivers.

 

[Nappe1]

as I said in other thread, I just updated my system and I am VERY impressed about AD1888 integrated audio on my A7V880 motherboard. So far, I haven't found a reason to install my Philips Seismic Edge back, which isn't a back card either.

 

[T2k]

Until SoundStorm is linked to a *decent* audio codec, I don't see why everyone gets so excited. Nearly CPU free, crap sound. Oh wow!

Unless you use the digital out.......

Yeah, as I always did on my ex mobo (Abit NF7-S)...

 

[elroy]

Hi,

well, the current rumors are that nvidia is going to be making soundstorm soundcards so that they can reduce the cost of thier chipsets. Granted, everyone is wondering where the heck the card is as it has been quite a while since the rumors surfaced. Perhaps they chnaged their minds?

Nite_Hawk

Rumour was they were waiting for PCI-Express.

 

[Guden Oden]

Anything half decent is better than dealing with Creative's hardware and drivers.

I'm very happy with my Audigy2 ZS thankyouverymuch...

Creative is the only consumer audio manufacturer that allows midi soundbanks of arbitrary size btw, or indeed lets the user change soundbank period to my knowledge. That's the one reason I didn't quite fancy the original soundstorm as much as I would otherwise. Half a meg of midi instruments as is the standard most of the time does NOT give a particulary impressive listening environment...

 

[JCLW]

The new intel Azalia looks nice - and it supports Dolby ICE as well.

 

[T2k]

Until SoundStorm is linked to a *decent* audio codec, I don't see why everyone gets so excited. Nearly CPU free, crap sound. Oh wow!

Anything half decent is better than dealing with Creative's hardware and drivers.

True, true, true.

 

[gokickrocks]

Until SoundStorm is linked to a *decent* audio codec, I don't see why everyone gets so excited. Nearly CPU free, crap sound. Oh wow!

seems im not the only one that thinks this

 

[Schadenfroh]

wish they would hurry up with the nforce4,

if i were them i would make the soundstorm into a seperate sound card. i dont need it, i already invested in my audigy2 zs after i got tired of that realtek codec on my "soundstorm" a7n8x deluxe. not saying that it sucks, but they really need to work on their EAX implementation, the audigy sounds and performs much better.

i need to upgrade and i would like to go directly to nforce4 and nv40. im still running a nforce2 ultra 400 with athlon xp 3200 and a geforce4 TI4200 128mb

 

[JCLW]

The new ATi RS400 PCI-E series chipsets (for both intel and AMD) are supposed to have Azalia audio as well. I guess they share the same southbridge so they'll share the same audio.

edit:
ATi SB400 Southbridge
Parallel ATA Channels: 2 (4 devices)
Serial ATA Channels: 4 (4 devices)
Raid Support: 0,1, 0+1
USB 2.0 Support: 8 ports
PCI Express Support: 4 PCI-E x1
Audio: 8ch. Azalia & 6 ch. AC'97

 

[Nite_Hawk]

I'd be happy with a card that could do realtime dolby digital encoding so that I can use the coax input on my surround system and have my receiver's crossover work (it doesn't work when using 6-ch direct inputs).

Granted atm I don't think the digital stuff works on the soundstorm in linux, so It's not that big of a deal either way.

Nite_Hawk

 

[T2k]

I'd be happy with a card that could do realtime dolby digital encoding so that I can use the coax input on my surround system and have my receiver's crossover work (it doesn't work when using 6-ch direct inputs).

Granted atm I don't think the digital stuff works on the soundstorm in linux, so It's not that big of a deal either way.

Nite_Hawk

? IIRC my ex-NF7-S was perfectly working under RHEL and I never used anything else than its optical output...

 

[zurich]

I thought there weren't any SoundStorm add-in cards due to PCI bandwidth concerns?

 

[Snyder]

I thought there weren't any SoundStorm add-in cards due to PCI bandwidth concerns?

And that's a point i could never understand. Why should there be any PCI bandwitdth concerns?! We're talking sound here, not graphics. a single 44khz 16Bit channel takes 88,2kB/s.
Every multichannel PCI soundcard already has to get its data over PCI. Soundstorm just encodes this data on the fly into a single AC3 stream. I don't see where it needs more PCI bandwidth?

 

[Quitch]

Until SoundStorm is linked to a *decent* audio codec, I don't see why everyone gets so excited. Nearly CPU free, crap sound. Oh wow!

Unless you use the digital out.......

Doesn't an external digital converter cost a fair bit though?