R600 sound card's identity exposed

your TV can output to high quality speakers... you know? mine does, very easy, when I change inputs on the TV, sounds changes nicely and comes blasting through 4 speakers
or you connect the HDMI to your video/audio tuner which connects your different inputs (DVD/XBOX360/WII/PS2/XBOX/HDDVD/PS3) to a TV and 5.1 DTS surround setup

Aah ok.

It's pretty stupid to spend $$$ on getting sound over HDMI, to end up with lousy TV-speakers. Who uses those anyway?

HDMI, deliver sound and video over one cable to your HDMI capable TV

I don't get it. Can someone explain me the benefit of including a cheapo soundcard on a videocard, which has the same quality of most onboard stuff?

no other €500 video card has come with soundcard onboard, see it as a bonus realtek HD chip is more than good enough to drive the higher end 5.1 surround sets and what not; I'm also sure driver support for realtek will be better than most other brands too.

I was talking about the R600.

right here you did

I never said anything about creative or a soundcard costing 500$

So... you are going to put the most powerhungry, hottest graphics card into your HTPC for the sound, if ATI puts a X-Fi DSP on it? There are half a dozen very good sound cards in addition to Creative's out there better suited for HTPC life anyway, not including better suited GPUs. Both of which together cost much less than an R600.

you can have that on a $500 soundcard

I am thinking of HTPC usage, where I demand soundquality like a better stereo system for MP3s and top notch 5.1 in movies.

Why would I want to cripple an expensive speaker setup with the soundcard like most people with a HTPC have? We aren't talking about those 50$ DVD player people.


I DEMAND Auzentech and M-Audio level from a solution mounted to a possible 500+ $ card.

So you would rather prefer ATI sided with Creative Labs for an X-Fi solution?

You'd actually wish that kind of driver headache/problems on people? What is the point of X-Fi vs a Reltek's HD Azalia option when only an audiophile or someone with great speakers can notice the difference? Hardware sound acceleration isn't an option anymore with Vista, at least currently. And Realtek by far has a much better driver situation than Creative anyway. Using an X-Fi ISP would most likely have raised the end MSRP even higher.

yes and no, VGA isn't supposed to be soundcard, including realtek onboard is quite a convenience if you're building HTPC machine.

not quite bad isnt enough for something you bundle with a highend product


Just as the onbord audio on the i680 chipset should have been a next gen soundstorm to justify the price.

Realtek HD audio not quite bad; you'd be hard pressed to hear the difference.

or in other words, it's ****

GREAT JOB ATI