Op
Tweaktown is een review verschenen van verschillende geluidskaarten en onboard-oplossingen. Naast een erg positieve review van de Nforce Soundstorm werd ook het volgende gezegd.
When nVidia released the mighty onboard SoundStorm APU (Audio Processing Unit) back with their nForce chipset for the Athlon XP platform, gamers and general PC enthusiasts around the world were thrilled and thought they were in for a change for the years ahead as far as cinematic quality computer audio goes. It seems like they were wrong though as nVidia basically confirmed at QuakeCon that the hardware powered SoundStorm APU which is the only sound solution capable of encoding Dolby Digital (or AC-3) on the fly would not be part of the upcoming nForce4 chipset. When nVidia let this news out to gamers in the crowd, it was clear that the group was thoroughly disappointed.
Not only was the nVidia SoundStorm APU the only sound solution capable of encoding Dolby Digital on the fly (which produces true and accurate 5.1 surround sound via either optical or digital coaxial cable to a set of computer speakers supporting these connections or to an external amplifier), it was also hardware accelerated meaning it does not chew up precise CPU cycles like other inferior onboard solutions which in turn reduces frames per second and do not have the ability to send separate digital signals to anymore than two channels. You’ll get 5.1 sound using three analog cables but this type of setup is nowhere near as impressive or realistic as what the SoundStorm produces.
De volgende generatie Nforce zal dus teleurstellend genoeg geen Soundstorm meer hebben! Ik heb het snel gecontroleerd en
The Tech Report bevestigde deze uitspraak.
De reden die op Tweaktown wordt aangehaald is het volgende:
Why is this happening? The answer seems clear to us. Consumer demand – No company is going to produce something which is more expensive to mass manufacturer unless there is consumer demand for it, especially with the Chinese culture - which is only fair enough. And why is there no consumer demand? There is nowhere near enough mainstream coverage as to the benefits of impressive sound solutions such as nVidia SoundStorm. Most consumers seem happy with their “5.1 sound” but they are not experiencing the ultimate sound performance possible as demonstrated by SoundStorm. It’s going to be up to websites such as TweakTown, magazines around the world and consumers to make the change – there will need to be a clear and obvious push for better standards in computer audio for anything to happen.
If there is no push, the vast majority of companies will continue to produce the cheapest audio solutions they can to maximize profits but once the consumer awareness of the type of high quality sound solutions available increases, computer users will not mind spending some extra dollars on their new motherboard knowing full well they can expect to experience proper and true digital surround sound. All Microsoft Xbox games have full Dolby Digital support with the “Xbox Advanced AV Pack” since it uses the SoundStorm for processing so why shouldn’t we just expect the same standards for computer gaming?
Er schijnt dus niet genoeg vraag te zijn van de mainstreammarkt en daarom heeft Nvidia besloten om Soundstorm 'dood' te laten gaan.
Wat denken anderen hier over? En is de kans aanwezig dat bv een bedrijf als Creative in het gat zal springen dat hier ontstaat. Ik had zelf namelijk de Nforce 3 overgeslagen om de simpele reden dat er geen Soundstorm op zat.
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