Is Maximus VII Formula SupremeFX Any Good?

[Sturmgewehr_44]

A few weeks ago I bought and installed a Maximus VII Formula and 4790k. A big part of the ROG marketing is the audio, which apparently is supposed to be pretty good. Apparently this iteration has a "separate" part of the PCB dedicated to audio. I do not know how much this differentiates SupremeFX Formula 2014 from lower end Asus motherboard audio, but I do know that SupremeFX does use rebranded Realtek software.

Does anyone have any experience with SupremeFX in general? I am interested in the Formula implementation, but will also like to know how well a lower-end ROG board's onboard sound is.

Maximus VII Formula: http/www.asus.com/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VII_FORMULA/

 

[ssddx]

supremeFX (and similar isolated-pcb designs by other vendors) can be classified as "high end motherboard audio". in general this means that typically you will not hear as much if any distortion such as may be heard on low end onboard audio solutions which are not shielded or use seperate pcb space for audio. generally the risk of having odd sound distortion is less on these higher end onboard audio solutions as well, though not unheard of. you can consider high end motherboard audio to be about the same quality as $30-35 soundcards generally.

i do not have supremeFX myself since my $350 asus motherboard is x58 and from 2010 but the onboard audio was sufficient when i used it. since then though i've not used onboard due to upgrading to a home theater system (all sound is output now via hdmi on my gpu).

afaik the supreme fx software includes quite a decent selection of options including virtual surround. provided you do not hear any buzzing, popping or electrical noise i'd say the onboard audio is fine for most users needs. for an audiophile though i'd always recommend a separate card. i'd always recommend even a cheap soundcard like a xonar dg over high end onboard sound as well even though they are technically about the same sound quality level.

short version: if you do not hear any audio distortion, use it, its fine.

 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

supremeFX (and similar isolated-pcb designs by other vendors) can be classified as "high end motherboard audio". in general this means that typically you will not hear as much if any distortion such as may be heard on low end onboard audio solutions which are not shielded or use seperate pcb space for audio. generally the risk of having odd sound distortion is less on these higher end onboard audio solutions as well, though not unheard of. you can consider high end motherboard audio to be about the same quality as $30-35 soundcards generally.

i do not have supremeFX myself since my $350 asus motherboard is x58 and from 2010 but the onboard audio was sufficient when i used it. since then though i've not used onboard due to upgrading to a home theater system (all sound is output now via hdmi on my gpu).

afaik the supreme fx software includes quite a decent selection of options including virtual surround. provided you do not hear any buzzing, popping or electrical noise i'd say the onboard audio is fine for most users needs. for an audiophile though i'd always recommend a separate card. i'd always recommend even a cheap soundcard like a xonar dg over high end onboard sound as well even though they are technically about the same sound quality level.

short version: if you do not hear any audio distortion, use it, its fine.

JJ said that the Formula VII's implementation of SupremeFX was equivalent to a $70 dollar audio solution, like a Xonar DGX. Could this be true?

I cannot find any articles or studies comparing onboard audio, SupremeFX in particular. I have heard that it has a weak amplifier, is just a Realtek rebrand, etc.

There is not much evidence pointing either way. I wish I could find someone who has an ROG board - just to know if the audio is truly as marketed.