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AC97 and dolby 5.1

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Posted by: rookie1010

Hi
I was wondering if AC97 was the same as dolby digital 5.1
and are they both not "3 D sound"

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Posted by: HippyWarlock

3D sound can be acheived by many means - even 2 speakers.

5.1 is 'surround' sound - 4 speakers and a bass bin.

Intel introduced the AC97 standard in 1996. It was an attempt (poor one) to reduce costs by assigning the DSP portion of the sound to the CPU.

You can get 6 channel sound from AC97 but you need 3 AD1885 CODECs combined to produce 6 channel O/Put.

In a nutshell "NO" they are not the same beast.

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Posted by: rookie1010

i am impressed with your knowledge.
[I]i doff my hat[/I]

so the AC97 assigns its DSP stuff to the CPU, which one, something residing in the northbridge or the main cpu. if it does assign its stuff to the main cpu, then surely performance is gonna take a hit.

why do you say AC97 was a poor attempt, is it because AC97 voice quality is nothing compared to dolby 5.1. AC97 is also a 5.1 system right?

does it use wave synthesis or a look up table?

my mobo is a gigabyte 81875 ultra with integrated ac97, do you think is has 3 of Analog devices AD1885 CODECs.

i was planning to get an Audigy 2, do you think that i should go for one. At the moment i am living on my onboard sound card(AC97)

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Posted by: Mattsubc

i just got an audigy 2 and i was using AC97 before. i would highly recommend it, i got a big performance boost in games as the audio is no longer processed by the CPU. using crappy computer speakers you probably wont notice a difference in sound quality, but if you have some quality speakers then it sounds way nicer! :D

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Posted by: rookie1010

which cpu is processing the data.
using a headset would i feel the difference

can you guys suggest some speakers?

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Posted by: ekĘsine

logitech z640

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Posted by: tylertherobot

AC '97 is on almost all of the motherbaords onboard sound cards now, or rather is the onboard sound card.

It's not band considering on what you use your computer for, on 2.1 sound I doubt you'll be able to tell the difference unless you turn your computer up really loud.

But then if you get an Audigy 2, you'll be blown away at the bass quality mainly, it doesn't break up like the bass often did for me in AC '97.

To be honest if you're only running a 5.1 speaker set or less and need a better sound card - don't get the Audigy 2 - that's kind of pointless, get the Audigy :)

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Posted by: rookie1010

if the audigy supports 5.1 then what does the audigy 2 do then?

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Posted by: tylertherobot

Audigy 2 supports 6.1 or 7.1 sound. But it also supports 5.1, 4.1, 2.1, all that stuff....you just have the capability to have 6.1 or 7.1 sound

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