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Sound Testing

The difference between 1st/2nd and 2nd/3rd is within the 1% range but we're at nearly a 3% gap when comparing the nF4 Ultra-D to the SLK890Pro.

The differences in Directsound 3D are smaller with everyone coming in within 1.3% of each other. Though the Karajin sound module should produce sound with less noise than a traditional implementation, it still relies on the ALC850 codec so it is not surprising that results are so similar.

Call of Duty has the nF4 Ultra a touch behind the Soltek board with the SLI board bringing up the rear. With EAX2 on the positions change up a bit with the Soltek retaining the lead while the SLI and Ultra boards change positions.

MP3 Encoding

Using LAME version 3.90.3 to encode a 700+ meg wave file takes roughly 15 minutes for all three of the boards. The SLI board is slightly faster to the tune of 3 seconds

Xvid Encoding

A Xvid encode shows more differences than the MP3 test. Over a course of 21 minutes, the nF4 Ultra is a couple seconds faster than the VIA Soltek board but is nearly 30 seconds faster than the Gigabyte SLI board when it comes to this test.