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Do sound cards work in the pci slot?
- Thread starter ejdge
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Also note you don't have any PCI slots. You have PCI Express (PCI-e) slots. They are not compatible with each other.
I have ordered this Soundblaster PCIe X-Fi card.
It will only work in Windows, but that was my intent: getting 5.1 sound in gaming
Mac OS X will just "ignore" it, as it has no driver support. But, maybe... hopefully... one day... Soundblaster could make OS X drivers....
It will only work in Windows, but that was my intent: getting 5.1 sound in gaming
Mac OS X will just "ignore" it, as it has no driver support. But, maybe... hopefully... one day... Soundblaster could make OS X drivers....
I have ordered this Soundblaster PCIe X-Fi card.
It will only work in Windows, but that was my intent: getting 5.1 sound in gaming
Mac OS X will just "ignore" it, as it has no driver support. But, maybe... hopefully... one day... Soundblaster could make OS X drivers....
Creative tried that once, I hope for all our sakes they don't try again. Personally I'm hoping M-Audio comes out with a PCIe card because I had fairly good luck with the Revolution 7.1 in my old G5.
Mac OS X will just "ignore" it, as it has no driver support. But, maybe... hopefully... one day... Soundblaster could make OS X drivers....
Don't hold your breath.
Reviving this one.
Finally got my Soundblaster X-Fi PCI-e card for in my Mac Pro '08... and it was worth the wait!
Mac OS X ignores it, but both my XP Pro SP3 and Vista Ultimate 64 bits SP1 work gr8 with it.
Finally got my beloved 5.1 sound back in the games.
Finally got my Soundblaster X-Fi PCI-e card for in my Mac Pro '08... and it was worth the wait!
Mac OS X ignores it, but both my XP Pro SP3 and Vista Ultimate 64 bits SP1 work gr8 with it.
Finally got my beloved 5.1 sound back in the games.
Mac OS X will just "ignore" it, as it has no driver support. But, maybe... hopefully... one day... Soundblaster could make OS X drivers....
Yea and maybe Microsoft will by Apple...
just a thought.... but can't the mac pro output 5.1 anyways via toslink out? though i don't own a mac pro, i plan to get one and i was going to hook up my home theater receiver to the mac via optical cable. will this work or will it just output 2 channel audio through all of the speakers?
So if DVD's do it but games don't, why does this person want to install a different sound card into his mac pro? I'm no audiophile but how does the factory sound compare to some soundblaster cards?
Comparison
I'm not aware of any tests but I'm guessing that the optical out on the sound card is likely to be very good. Would like to hear from any sound professionals to see what they use?
I'm not aware of any tests but I'm guessing that the optical out on the sound card is likely to be very good. Would like to hear from any sound professionals to see what they use?
so if you plug a toslink cable from the optical out to a 5.1 receiver you will get 5.1 surround sound from both pre-encoded and non-encoded audio?
Well its a digital connection, so its essentially very very good. Just for kicks i played music video the line out, and then the same song through optical, optical sounded way better!
No, for non-encoded audio it will send just the L and R channel as thats all the data thats in the file, but some amps can create synthetic 5.1, or just play the 2 channels through all 5 speakers.
Yeah, just for clarification:
I have used the toslink optical audio from my old G5 to my Logitech Z-680 (which is currently occupied via toslink by a Mac mini which is hooked up to my TV, and the 6 Channel direct now to the X-Fi in my Mac Pro...), but only DVD Player.app and VLC.app could do something with 5.1 surround using toslink.
Some games using experimental OpenAL for (like Doom 3 and UT 2004) audio made an effort to get surround support, but it hasn't worked for me.
On the PC OTOH the decoding is done by the X-Fi card, and the amplifier simply directs the audio to the correct speakers. That is why 5.1 gaming on Windows is so good.
There are Mac audio cards (like the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 and 7.1) around that can be hooked up to your 5.1 speaker set via the same 3 analogue cables, but hardly any apps or games use the onboard decoding...
I have used the toslink optical audio from my old G5 to my Logitech Z-680 (which is currently occupied via toslink by a Mac mini which is hooked up to my TV, and the 6 Channel direct now to the X-Fi in my Mac Pro...), but only DVD Player.app and VLC.app could do something with 5.1 surround using toslink.
Some games using experimental OpenAL for (like Doom 3 and UT 2004) audio made an effort to get surround support, but it hasn't worked for me.
On the PC OTOH the decoding is done by the X-Fi card, and the amplifier simply directs the audio to the correct speakers. That is why 5.1 gaming on Windows is so good.
There are Mac audio cards (like the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 and 7.1) around that can be hooked up to your 5.1 speaker set via the same 3 analogue cables, but hardly any apps or games use the onboard decoding...
Well any quicktime application can also pass 5.1 data. You just have to set things up just right.