I do not know if the EAX drivers make use of the multi-cores, but there's no slowdown or any hiccups seen with EAX on, in the games that I have played. Guess, the multicore processors can handle the software processing. (The G73 comes with 4 cores and 8 threads.)

The only way to know if the motherboard support EAX is to look at the specs. Again, I'm not sure if the software drivers can be installed over ANY integrated solutions, for example like the Realtek processors used in the G73.

If it's a software emulation, I think one should later be able to "wrap" the drivers around any audio processors, with some tweaking. (Something like (but not exactly the same way as) the Yamaha's software midi sythesizers.)

For my new rig I didn't bother to get a SB and decided to spend more cash on extra ram 😁
I typically only use a dedicated soundcard on post-Athlon XP boards if getting the onboard thingy to work properly is too much of a hassle to me.

The reason I like new systems having old tech is by having the option to use it!
Heck, when I bought a motherboard for my temporary new budget rig I specifically got a s939 mobo that had a floppy connector. This computer is now my work computer and offline database and as I use it also to winimage floppies (including 2.88 ones) I need onboard floppy as, afaik, there are no USB 2.88 floppy drives, nor a way (currently anyway) to connect a standard floppydrive to USB.

My newest rig (AM3 PhII x4) also has a floppy connector, though admittedly I don't have a floppy drive installed in it...but at least I can if I want to 😁

RogueTrip2012 wrote:

Usually onboard Analog output is subpar and the only reason to usually buy a add-on soundcard.

I came into this thread to say the same thing. Onboard audio may be decent, but its sound quality has never beaten the best PCI/PCIe audio cards. 'Probably not a big deal for gamers, but it is if you want to record analog audio.

Malik wrote:

If it's a software emulation, I think one should later be able to "wrap" the drivers around any audio processors, with some tweaking. (Something like (but not exactly the same way as) the Yamaha's software midi sythesizers.)

The Creative MB stuff is fully software. It's basically the same as their cheap budget sound cards like X-Fi Xtreme Audio, Audigy SE and Live 24-bit (etc). The primary advantage to those cards would be that they offer more signal isolation for the audio circuitry than hardware on the motherboard so maybe you get better analog quality. And I say maybe because sound cards can still get noise from other cards.

Don't think of these HD audio codecs as audio processors. They really don't do much more than act as a DAC/ADC. Almost all of their other features are fully software-driven. Most of the extras are actually performed by stock Windows functions when you're using Vista/7 (the loudness equalization, room calibration, etc, etc).