CrapolaJola

For those of you who don't keep up with hardware, M-Audio is a company that produces audio equipment for professional use, but decided to enter the PC market as well. Their first card, the Revolution 7.1, had amazing sound quality, but it didn't perform all that well in games and its support for certain features like EAX was lacking. This new card is aimed at giving gamers a soundcard that performs well, has the same great sound, and better supports some of the soudn technologies. If you're a gamer and looking for a new soundcard I'd highly reccomend this, as I guarentee it'll recieve the same great reviews such as the Revolution 7.1. For more information check out the Revolution 5.1 page at M-Audio.

Necrosis

Newegg has this card for $69.00...looks promising.

El Kapitano

Let's hope someone comes up with a real alternative to creative offerings soon.

The soundcard scene looks quite stale at the moment.

AlternateVirus

Is this really new? I saw this at newegg 2-3 weeks ago.

Necrosis

Well not exactly new..I'm just wondering how much better it is for gaming than the 7.1. Hopefully someone will do a review on it soon, or I just might have to do it myself!!!!

kelston

I don't see how this is better for gamers since the Revo 7.1 lists the same feature set.

From the 5.1 detals page:

"game support with Sensaura, EAX, DirectSound and A3D "

From the 7.1 details page:

"game support with Sensaura, EAX, DirectSound and A3D "

The only differences I see is:

- 7.1 only supports 24/192 playback on 2 channels the 5.1 supports it on "up to 6 channels".
- 5.1 has 109 SNR while 7.1 tops out at 107, though that's arguably a useless statistic

Neither of which would improve game performance since both still use Sensaura to get EAX/A3D/DirectSound support and we all know what Creative did to Sensaura a few months back.

wolfran

I also think that this is just a cut-down version of the Revo 7.1. Otherwise they would've made another high end 7.1 again instead of 5.1 but I could be wrong. I'll wait for the review.

kelston

I wonder why no one tries to stop Creative when they do stuff like buy out and shut down Aureal and Sensaura.

Or have the exclusive rights to the DVDA format and will force people to get a license if they want to distribute a DVDA player.

Isn't this the kind of stuff that got Microsoft sued?

Vampyromaniac

go fo it bro

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swimtech

No one better for the job I can think of...

Better, cheaper - here's hoping!

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It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

BWX

Isn't this the card that doesn't support hardware 3D audio? It's all in software which = CPU usage. More than Soundstorm, more than Fortissimo III, more than Audigy...

I read a review that said it sucked for gaming.

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Necrosis

No exactly the 7.1 is the card that has the "minor" issues /w games. I'm curious how they improved this card over the previous model for gaming.

Vampyromaniac

hope it's not just because faster CPU's came out since the 7.1 ... jk

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BWX

"For testing this kind of cards we developed a special benchmark suite RightMark 3DSound which makes easier testing 3D sound quality and CPU load in different modes of operation of sound cards. The DSP installed doesn't support DirectSound in hardware, and all 3D functions are supported on the drivers level (based on Sensaura)."

That was for the 7.1- http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/...-revolution71/


"M-Audio designed the Revolution 5.1 with EAX, OpenAL, A3D, DirectSound and Sensaura are built in, allowing 3D audio positioning and realistic environmental simulation. Revolution 5.1 also features low CPU usage." http://informationweek.desktoppipeline.com/26805820


I still don't know if it uses DSP's that will give it as good CPU usage as Audigy or Fortissimo III- But if it does that's good, at least there is another choice.. Too bad the FortIII isn't still being made though- Much cheaper card for gaming. I love mine.. Hopefully it will be a good card and the price will come down a little.

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Necrosis

The requirements are about the same. Strange...

BWX

Hey cool, it has a separate headphone jack for headphones like my Fort-III- I can't wait to see some REAL benchmarks against the Audigy2, Fort-III, and Soundstorm just for comparison..



I'd say for a gamer the Audigy2 is still a better card just because of the native EAX- I might buy one just because all the good games coming out support eax- and it will sound better on an Audigy.. Although I bet my Fort-III sounds just as good if not better than any Audigy in D3, but in FarCry I bet an Audigy might sound better.. This M-Audio might be a great alternative though, hopefully more reviews with good solid benchmarks will be coming out soon.

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Vampyromaniac

hey BWX, have you ever run the Sound tests on 3DMark03? I'm curious how your Fortissimo did

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BWX

Yup I have, but not in a while-- I could run it and tell you what I get- When I get around to it I'll post the results here...

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Vampyromaniac

BWX

Here it is-

Didn't tweak for highest score I could get, but gives a pretty good idea.

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Vampyromaniac

cool . . . so a 19% drop with 24 sounds, and 24% drop with 60
after I upgrade my CPU, I'll post mine to compare
wonder how an Audigy or Audigy2 does

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Judas

Remember guys... due to lack of a driver fix.... the Fortissimo 3 and Digifire along with Theater XP 7.1 (all hercules 7.1 sound cards)... have a driver issue with 3Dmark03's sound test.... anyone running and paying good attention to the sound can clearly hear issues with the sounds. Also, Running other verious test using UT2003/04 and anything else... will clearly show you differenct results.... BTW..... BWX... you get a massive drop in fps going from no sound to 24 sounds...

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SaberZ

I thought the Santa Cruz was quite a good alternative to the creative cards for awhile, I loved mine, wish the Catalina's were as good as the Santa Cruz'.

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SaberZ-
-Vostro 1500 w/Windows 7 x64
-Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz (Penryn)
-320GB WD Scorpio 7200 RPM HDD
-4GB Patriot DDR2 800 (2x2GB)
-Nvidia 8600M GT 256

BWX

Yeah, I don't remember it being that much, I am using the beta 4,9's and Dx9.0c- Maybe that has something to do with it? Anyway- in real games, the sound is great and the CPU utilization is low. Lower than the Soundstorm and lower than the Audigy in soem games, higher in others..

All in all it's a good card. If it was still widely available I think people would still be snatching them up..

Ask anyone that actually has one- like you also know, it is a great card with solid drivers- even though they haven't been updated in years.... lol-- I guess they don't need to be though- because it still keeps plugging away..

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HawK

lol 4 regular's here 'that I know of' have the Fort.III,
and believe none of them would even think of replacing it for a Audigy, any Audigy

Judas

i moved from my digifire (similare to the fortissimo 3) to an audigy 2 ZS.... not only did i paytwice to 3 times as much for the creative card.. i got about 1/2 to 1/3 the quality/preformance/overall of a card..... 2 weeks.. and i was running my tried/tested/true hercules card...

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BWX

Yeah, that's why I haven't bought one, I figured I probably wouldn't like the way it sounds and the horrible drivers would piss me off --and I would be stuck trying to sell it--


People have no idea how awesome the old Fort III/ Digifire/ really sounds.. Many will never know I guess... Since they are not even being made or sold anywhere that I know of..

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Judas

wonder how much i might get for my digifire?..... even has a similare "Platium" front 5 1/2 drive bay thing

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MSX

... my friend has a Vortex 2 that will never leave out of his PC upgrades.

Which shows you how the soundcard market hasn’t really gone anywhere since 99(some would say its gone backwards). Which is partially why the fort3/digifire are still top cards.

M-Audio is at least an option for those who hate creative but want new cards.

BWX

Yeah it seems like a great card-- I want to go find some benchmarks (real benchmarks) that test CPU usage compared to Audigy in games..

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