Most of Gigabyte's Intel Z690 Motherboards Only Features Two Audio Jacks

[Chrispy_]

I guess the X-Fi cards, despite having good hardware, were some of the worst supported. They only ever released a beta driver for Windows 7 and it was quite glitchy.
I do miss their press events though, as they were usually really good...

Creative's dire support of the X-Fi cards was the last time I touched a Creative product. That travesty was inexcusable and the problems with drivers started long before Windows 7.

My X-Fi didn't have a 64-bit drivers for a whole year. I had to use onboard audio, and as weeks turned into months without a driver I gave up on it altogether and sold the X-Fi. I was not shocked to see that the eventual beta driver was a shitshow of epic proportions anyway and glad I bailed on Creative when I did.

 

[TheUn4seen]

Networking and audio on USB kind of reminds me of the early 1990s when even your keyboard controller was sitting on an expansion card. No, thanks. Maybe it's just me, though.

To me integrtated Wi-Fi feels like a waste. Of space, because antenna connectors take a lot of it on the back panel, resources - even unused card uses power and system resources, not to mention paying for something I'm never going to use. External audio can be free of computer's horrible EMI, that's why no integrated audio can come close to USB interfaces, even cheap ones.
Separating devices into discrete parts has many advantages, there is an old saying in the country I was born in which roughly translates to "if it does everything, it does nothing well".

 

[AusWolf]

To me integrtated Wi-Fi feels like a waste. Of space, because antenna connectors take a lot of it on the back panel, resources - even unused card uses power and system resources, not to mention paying for something I'm never going to use. Audio on USB can be free of computer's horrible EMI, that's why no integrated audio can come close to USB interfaces, even cheap ones.
Separating devices into discrete parts has many advantages, there is an old saying in the country I was born in which roughly translates to "if it does everything, it does nothing well".

It's hard to design a motherboard with everyone in mind.

As for me, I need integrated Wi-Fi as I can't drill holes into the walls of my rented apartment to pull cables through, and I'd rather not use a crappy USB dongle if possible.

Same with audio. Quality motherboards nowadays offer EMI shielding and decent enough audio codecs for everyday use. You need expensive sound gear to hear the difference anyway, which I don't have.

I know that saying, which I mostly agree with (I still use an MP3 player and a compact camera up to this day), but premium motherboards have come a long way in the last 10-15 years.

 

[TheUn4seen]

It's hard to design a motherboard with everyone in mind.

As for me, I need integrated Wi-Fi as I can't drill holes into the walls of my rented apartment to pull cables through, and I'd rather not use a crappy USB dongle if possible.

Same with audio. Quality motherboards nowadays offer EMI shielding and decent enough audio codecs for everyday use. You need expensive sound gear to hear the difference anyway, which I don't have.

I know that saying, which I mostly agree with (I still use an MP3 player and a compact camera up to this day), but premium motherboards have come a long way in the last 10-15 years.

Manufacturers try to please the most consumers, in turn consumers have to choose products not from "the best" but from "the least bad". What a horrible, overpopulated and overdiversified world to live in. In all honesty though, I m happy I don't care about consumer stuff anymore, I just accepted the fact that I have to spend additional money and time to get this rubbish to a passable state and move on.

 

[TheLostSwede]

It's still a corporation selling products on the western market, so they work on the same principles.

You clearly have no idea how things work in Taiwan or at Taiwanese companies, so no, it's not the "same principle" as things don't work like how you think they do.
The boss decides and then everyone do as they're told. Focus groups, market research etc. is just not a thing. Sales might ask some of the distributors what they think and feed that back during a meeting, but that's usually about as much feedback as there is. Brainstorming in Taiwan is a room full of people agreeing with the boss, telling the boss how great his or her ideas are. This is why so few companies in Taiwan listen to feedback from end users as well, or even media for that matter. Over the years that I worked as a tech journalist, I managed to convince one company to implement a single feature. Everyone else just nodded, said thank you and forgot about it, until a competitor did it or at least did something similar.

Yes, of course people have different needs, that's why corporations decided that enough people want Wi-Fi to waste space on it. Hence why I have to rip this junk out, sell it on eBay recouping a few pennies but have to use USB hubs.

You can't rip it out any more, as CNVi modules aren't really something you can add to boards that lack them, since the connector isn't there.
In as much as you and I and most likely a lot of people here at TPU prefer to use wired networking, it's simply not always possible to do so and the PCIe or CNVi modules are a lot better than the USB equivalent product, so I have no issue that this is becoming a standard feature.

Creative's dire support of the X-Fi cards was the last time I touched a Creative product. That travesty was inexcusable and the problems with drivers started long before Windows 7.

My X-Fi didn't have a 64-bit drivers for a whole year. I had to use onboard audio, and as weeks turned into months without a driver I gave up on it altogether and sold the X-Fi. I was not shocked to see that the eventual beta driver was a shitshow of epic proportions anyway and glad I bailed on Creative when I did.

Yeah, that was my last Creative product as well. My first was a Soundblaster 2.0 ISA card.

 

[Mussels]

To me integrtated Wi-Fi feels like a waste. Of space, because antenna connectors take a lot of it on the back panel, resources - even unused card uses power and system resources, not to mention paying for something I'm never going to use. External audio can be free of computer's horrible EMI, that's why no integrated audio can come close to USB interfaces, even cheap ones.
Separating devices into discrete parts has many advantages, there is an old saying in the country I was born in which roughly translates to "if it does everything, it does nothing well".

"Jack of all trades, master of none" would be the english equivalent

 

[bobbyrooney]

if they cut corners on the audio, i wonder what other corners were cut on the mainboard? i mean, i dont really care about onboard audio. havent used it in 30 years. wont start now. sound blasterx g6 usb has been really good to me for the past few years. i wish motherboards didnt waste money on implementing generic audio when they could cut the cost out and pass the savings to customers.

 

[AusWolf]

if they cut corners on the audio, i wonder what other corners were cut on the mainboard? i mean, i dont really care about onboard audio. havent used it in 30 years. wont start now. sound blasterx g6 usb has been really good to me for the past few years. i wish motherboards didnt waste money on implementing generic audio when they could cut the cost out and pass the savings to customers.

That's one point of view, but like it was discussed before, not everybody uses external audio, and not everybody connects to the internet via cable. You can't design a product with only one type of person in mind.

 

[TheLostSwede]

if they cut corners on the audio, i wonder what other corners were cut on the mainboard? i mean, i dont really care about onboard audio. havent used it in 30 years. wont start now. sound blasterx g6 usb has been really good to me for the past few years. i wish motherboards didnt waste money on implementing generic audio when they could cut the cost out and pass the savings to customers.

It's not exactly a cut corner, as they're not using a cheap solution by the looks of, they just decided to cut back on the physical audio jacks, which is just plain odd. Still haven't had a proper explanation as to why they chose to go down this router.

 

[Chrispy_]

We're not entirely sure what's going on here and will check with Gigabyte once someone is awake that we can talk to about it

Did you even get a chance to speak to someone from Gigabyte?
Just curious what's sparked the change; I hope the PC industry isn't going to try and copy Apple and kill the 3.5mm jack. You can prise my ancient HD580s from my cold, dead hands.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

It's not exactly a cut corner, as they're not using a cheap solution by the looks of, they just decided to cut back on the physical audio jacks, which is just plain odd. Still haven't had a proper explanation as to why they chose to go down this router.

I agree, it makes no sense to include a full surround capable codec if you're going to only use pieces of it. May as well rip it out completely.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Did you even get a chance to speak to someone from Gigabyte?
Just curious what's sparked the change; I hope the PC industry isn't going to try and copy Apple and kill the 3.5mm jack. You can prise my ancient HD580s from my cold, dead hands.

Yeah, unofficially. Didn't get a proper reason beyond customer feedback...

I agree, it makes no sense to include a full surround capable codec if you're going to only use pieces of it. May as well rip it out completely.

The bizarre thing is that these new USB based audio solutions that almost everyone seems to be using on their higher-end boards should offer better audio quality, but apparently Gigabyte decided that you have to use the case headset option to make use of it.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Creative's dire support of the X-Fi cards was the last time I touched a Creative product.

Then you have lost out on a great many excellent SoundBlaster cards. And for the record, Creative released a final set of drivers for the X-Fi range for Windows 10/11 not too long ago. They've been tested and work perfectly.

My X-Fi didn't have a 64-bit drivers for a whole year. I had to use onboard audio, and as weeks turned into months without a driver I gave up on it altogether and sold the X-Fi. I was not shocked to see that the eventual beta driver was a shitshow of epic proportions anyway and glad I bailed on Creative when I did.

Then you didn't look very hard. DanielK's driver packs have been available on an ongoing basis for just about 15 years. If you didn't find and use THOSE excellent drivers then that's on you, not Creative and not DanielK.

Why does everyone think that Creative will support products forever?

 

[Mussels]

Then you have lost out on a great many excellent SoundBlaster cards. And for the record, Creative released a final set of drivers for the X-Fi range for Windows 10/11 not to long ago. They've been tested and work perfectly.


You didn't look very hard then. DanielK's driver packs have been available on an ongoing basis for just about 15 years. If you didn't find and use THOSE excellent drivers then that's on you, not Creative and not DanielK.

Why does everyone think that Creative will support products forever?

people are still salty about when hardware audio died and became software audio, creative was slow to change drivers then... was that XP? or 7?

 

[lexluthermiester]

people are still salty about when hardware audio died and became software audio

True, I'm still a bit salty about that myself, but the blame for that problem rests solely with microsoft. Creative and other sound device manufacturers had no say in the matter.

creative was slow to change drivers then...

It was an odd time for everyone who made sound generating parts.

was that XP? or 7?

Windows Vista if you're talking about hardware acceleration for audio being removed from Windows. However, Creative now uses a hybrid hardware/software rendering scheme, which offers a comparable experience to the old hardware based acceleration.

 

[Mussels]

True, I'm still a bit salty about that myself, but the blame for that problem rests solely with microsoft. Creative and other sound device manufacturers had no say in the matter.

It was an odd time for everyone who made sound generating parts.

Windows Vista if you're talking about hardware acceleration for audio being removed from Windows. However, Creative now uses a hybrid hardware/software rendering scheme, which offers a comparable experience to the old hardware based acceleration.

Crap i forgot vista existed for a bit there, now it's back

Yeah, people got upset at the lack of driver support then, and never got over it

They did slowly add support, but at the time it was a messy BSOD ridden era of confusion

 

[lexluthermiester]

Crap i forgot vista existed for a bit there, now it's back

Yeah, people got upset at the lack of driver support then, and never got over it

They did slowly add support, but at the time it was a messy BSOD ridden era of confusion

Agreed. That point in time was a pain in the jimmies for a lot of people, users & devs alike, and is what kept most on XP.

 

[Chrispy_]

Then you didn't look very hard. DanielK's driver packs have been available on an ongoing basis for just about 15 years. If you didn't find and use THOSE excellent drivers then that's on you, not Creative and not DanielK.

You do realise how stupid that sounds, right?

I was complaining about the lack of driver support from Creative, and your counter-argument is that it's okay because DanielK wrote drivers when Creative failed to do so?

Why does everyone think that Creative will support products forever?

Also, the X-Fi was the current-gen when all this happened. Don't try and straw-man that, it makes you look bad.

 

[lexluthermiester]

You do realize how stupid that sounds, right?

I was complaining about the lack of driver support from Creative, and your counter-argument is that it's okay because DanielK wrote drivers when Creative failed to do so?

First, spell-check is your friend. Second, DanielK's driver packs are Creative's own drivers with a custom configuration. So no, it is not "stupid".

Also, the X-Fi was the current-gen when all this happened. Don't try and straw-man that, it makes you look bad.

You mean when Vista was released and EVERYONE was having driver problems? Yeah. And? The XP drivers were and still are perfect for the XFi. Vista was not Creative's problem, it was microsoft's.

Keep your silly insults to yourself and stop reacting with your pride. But I digress, we're off-topic.

 

[AusWolf]

First, spell-check is your friend. Second, DanielK's driver packs are Creative's own drivers with a custom configuration. So no, it is not "stupid".

Realise and realize are both correct. One is British, the other is American English.

Not to take part of the battle, but I have to say that someone's custom drivers aren't really a valid argument against a lack of official driver support. Equally, a lot of people used Omega drivers for ATi graphics cards as a lightweight (and sometimes faster) equivalent to ATi's own Catalyst packages. Still, I wouldn't include Omega in ATi's list of merits.

 

[Chrispy_]

First, spell-check is your friend.

How are you ignorant of the English spelling? 1.5bn people speak English, of which only around 400M use the US spelling.
Why are you being pedantic about spelling now, anyway? What does that bring to the thread, exactly?

You mean when Vista was released and EVERYONE was having driver problems? Yeah. And?

Creative were the last of the major audio companies to get drivers out, by several months. It's not as if the November RTM launch was a surprise - many others managed to sort their drivers during the beta and release candidates. Creative failed to do this themselves, and then missed the hard launch of a new OS by about 5 months on top of that.

DanielK's drivers provided basic compatibility, but he was not affiliated with Creative, and you cannot credit Creative for his work. To make that clear, the downloads page has "This software/driver pack is unofficial, not supported by Creative Labs. Use it at your own risk." at the top of every post.

He only started releasing his drivers in the first place because Creative failed so hard to deliver anything at all during the beta and release candidate. The fact his drivers existed at all is evidence that there was a need to do so - adding further proof that Creative were not providing satisfactory support of their own products.

 

[lexluthermiester]

How are you ignorant of the English spelling? 1.5bn people speak English, of which only around 400M use the US spelling.
Why are you being pedantic about spelling now, anyway? What does that bring to the thread, exactly?

Keep your silly insults to yourself and stop reacting with your pride.

Yup.

Also

we're off-topic.

So yeah..

 

[Chrispy_]

Yup.

Also

So yeah..

Childish. The topic is the decline of analogue audio in the PC space and you seem to be in denial, unable to accept that it started way back in Windows Vista's day. Straw-manning, pedantry, denial - that's all you've brought to this so far. How do I not yet have you on my ignore list? That's an easy fix.

 

[95Viper]

The topic is "Most of Gigabyte's Intel Z690 Motherboards Only Features Two Audio Jacks"
So, get back on topic. If you wish to discuss another topic... start a thread in the appropriate forum.

Stop the bickering and insults:
Posting in a thread

Be polite and Constructive, if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything at all.
This includes trolling, continuous use of bad language (ie. cussing), flaming, baiting, retaliatory comments, system feature abuse, and insulting others.
Do not get involved in any off-topic banter or arguments. Please report them and avoid instead.

And,

Reporting and complaining
All posts and private messages have a "report post" button on the bottom of the post, click it when you feel something is inappropriate. Do not use your report as a "wild card invitation" to go back and add to the drama and therefore become part of the problem.

 

[Alamoghost]

I have a Gigabyte Z790 Master MB and yes it only has 2 IO for audio (Mic, line out) and a SPDF out.


Hello, I have a Gigabyte Z790 Master MB and love it! However, it only has mic and line IO as well as a SPDF out. I was frustrated at first because I still have a 7.1 Soundblaster speaker setup that I wanted to use. So, for a fix and better audio than what the MB produces anyhow...I bought and installed a Creative Sound BlasterX AE 5 Plus Sound Card. Cost was about $110 and yes there are Windows 11 drivers for it and installed easily. Does it work well? The answer is yes and I highly recommend!