ATI 4000 series luanch detail reveal

[Roboxrr4]

I just found this on engadget

ATI Radeon 4800 series launch details revealed - Engadget

[KalC]

"Makedon" sounds like a dinosaur

Good stuff though, lets wait and see for the benchmarks

[Virtual Monkey]

Includes 7.1 sound? Is there actually any demand for that?

[KalC]

Includes 7.1 sound? Is there actually any demand for that?

Wouldnt think so..surely just a gimmick

[staffsMike]

For a media card it's a very nice feature.. 5.1 would be enough for me but 7.1 is fine lol

[KalC]

In your media center at home 5.1 should be more than enough

[UseItNow]

Incidently, how is the audio taken/fed through?

Is it processed through your soundcard or via the graphics cards (if it has any onboard processing that is) and would that as result downgrade the quality alot compared to a dedicated soundcard such as the Auzentech's?

[aidanjt]

It's processed by the soundcard, passed through to the GPU via the HDMI header, and fed out the DVI port to the HDMI cable. Although the soundcard needs to have said header for it to work, many don't, most motherboards do however. Although it's mostly for AC3/DTS data streams, and the processing of them in a home theater setup is usually done on the 5.1's decoder DSP. Usually it's easier just patching the soundcard into the decoder directly via S/PDIF.

[Blackmage]

In your media center at home 5.1 should be more than enough

5.1 is outdated tech, I think it's called THX Master Audio. Which is 7.1 Lossless and you can send it via HDMI

[shaithis]

5.1, 7.1 etc are not standards and have no names. They are basically just used to denote how many discrete channels of sound are being used.

Before HDMI and the new standards, there was basically Dolby Digital 5.1 (THX) and DTS. Both of these can only be passed by optical/tos link or multiple analog cables (1 cable for each channel). 7.1 on the old standards was always a fudge, those channels were matrixed out of the other channels, just like how Dolby Pro Logic matrix the rear and centre channels from the purely stereo (2 channel) signal it uses.

Now we have a ton of new standards, including full discrete 7.1 but these new standards (particularly the uncompressed ones) require the bandwidth HDMI brings with it to be used.

[aidanjt]

*cough*multiplexing*cough*

[ikix]

when does everyone think nVidia will release their stuff

[staffsMike]

when does everyone think nVidia will release their stuff

HEXUS.net - Headline :: NVIDIA, AMD to launch next-gen GPUs next month : Page - 1/1

same sort of time according to this.