Audio Codec Comparison Table

Audio codec is a small chip measuring 0.25 x 0.25 inches (7 x 7 mm) located on the motherboard in charge of the analog audio functions. Knowing the specs of a codec will permit you to compare the audio quality of different motherboards, allowing you to choose the right product for your needs.
For further details on audio codecs, including an explanation of the specs we are publishing, please read our tutorial “How On-Board Audio Works.”
We will separate the codecs according to the manufacturer.
Analog Devices (ADI/SoundMax)
Analog Devices are also known as ADI or SoundMax, and their codecs use names starting with “AD.” In Figure 1, you can see an example of an Analog Devices codec.

Figure 1: Analog Devices AD1988B codec

Model	Channels	Input Resolution	Output Resolution	Input Max. Sampling Rate
AD1819B	2	16-bit	16-bit	48 kHz
AD1881A	2	16-bit	16-bit	48 kHz
AD1882	5.1	24-bit	24-bit	96 kHz
AD1884	4	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
AD1885	2	16-bit	16-bit	48 kHz
AD1886A	2	16-bit	16-bit	48 kHz
AD1887	2	16-bit	16-bit	48 kHz
AD1888	5.1	16-bit	20-bit	96 kHz
AD1980	5.1	16-bit	20-bit	96 kHz
AD1981A	2	16-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
AD1981B	2	16-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
AD1981BL	2	16-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
AD1981BW	2	16-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
AD1981HD	2	20-bit	24-bit	48 kHz
AD1983	2	20-bit	24-bit	48 kHz
AD1984	4	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
AD1985	5.1	20-bit	20-bit	96 kHz
AD1986	5.1	20-bit	20-bit	96 kHz
AD1986A	5.1	20-bit	20-bit	96 kHz
AD1987	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	96 kHz
AD1988A	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
AD1988B	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz

Model	Output Max. Sampling Rate	Input SNR	Output SNR
AD1819B	48 kHz	87 dB	90 dB
AD1881A	48 kHz	87 dB	90 dB
AD1882	96 kHz	90 dB	95 dB
AD1884	192 kHz	85 dB	90 dB
AD1885	48 kHz	87 dB	90 dB
AD1886A	48 kHz	87 dB	90 dB
AD1887	48 kHz	87 dB	90 dB
AD1888	96 kHz	80 dB	90 dB
AD1980	96 kHz	82 dB	90 dB
AD1981A	48 kHz	85 dB	90 dB
AD1981B	48 kHz	85 dB	90 dB
AD1981BL	48 kHz	83 dB	90 dB
AD1981BW	48 kHz	85 dB	90 dB
AD1981HD	48 kHz	85 dB	80 to 85 dB
AD1983	48 kHz	85 dB	80 to 85 dB
AD1984	192 kHz	90 dB	96 dB
AD1985	96 kHz	85 dB	80 to 90 dB
AD1986	96 kHz	85 dB	80 to 90 dB
AD1986A	96 kHz	85 dB	80 to 90 dB
AD1987	192 kHz	90 dB	95 dB
AD1988A	192 kHz	90 dB	95 dB
AD1988B	192 kHz	92 dB	101 dB

Realtek is probably today’s most popular audio codec manufacturer. Old codecs from Realtek can be found marked as “Avance Logic,” and both old and new codecs use model names starting with “ALC.” In Figure 2, you can see an example of a Realtek codec.

Figure 2: Realtek ALC888S codec

Model	Channels	Input Resolution	Output Resolution	Input Max. Sampling Rate
ALC101	2	16-bit	16-bit	48 kHz
ALC202	2	18-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
ALC203	2	18-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
ALC250	2	18-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
ALC260	2	20-bit	24-bit	96 kHz
ALC262	4	20-bit	24-bit	96 kHz
ALC268	4	20-bit	24-bit	96 kHz
ALC269	4	24-bit	24-bit	96 kHz
ALC650	5.1	18-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
ALC655	5.1	16-bit	16-bit	48 kHz
ALC658	5.1	18-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
ALC662	5.1	20-bit	24-bit	96 kHz
ALC850	7.1	16-bit	16-bit	48 kHz
ALC861	7.1	16-bit	24-bit	96 kHz
ALC861-VD-GR	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	96 kHz
ALC880	7.1	20-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC880D	7.1	20-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC882	7.1+2	20-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC883	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC885	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC887	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC888	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC888S	7.1+2	20-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC888DD	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC888S-VC	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC888-VC2-GR	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC888S-VD	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC889	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC892	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
ALC898	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz

Model	Output Max. Sampling Rate	Input SNR	Output SNR
ALC101	48 kHz	70 dB	75 dB
ALC202	96 kHz	85 dB	90 dB
ALC203	96 kHz	90 dB	100 dB
ALC250	96 kHz	92 dB	100 dB
ALC260	192 kHz	90 dB	95 dB
ALC262	192 kHz	90 dB	100 dB
ALC268	192 kHz	90 dB	95 dB
ALC269	192 kHz	98 dB	98 dB
ALC650	96 kHz	85 dB	90 dB
ALC655	48 kHz	86 dB	86 dB
ALC658	96 kHz	92 dB	96 dB
ALC662	96 kHz	90 dB	98 dB
ALC850	48 kHz	86 dB	92 dB
ALC861	96 kHz	82 dB	90 dB
ALC861-VD-GR	96 kHz	85 dB	95 dB
ALC880	192 kHz	85 dB	100 dB
ALC880D	192 kHz	85 dB	100 dB
ALC882	192 kHz	90 dB	101 dB
ALC883	192 kHz	85 dB	95 dB
ALC885	192 kHz	101 dB	106 dB
ALC887	192 kHz	90 dB	97 dB
ALC888	192 kHz	90 dB	97 dB
ALC888S	192 kHz	90 dB	97 dB
ALC888DD	192 kHz	90 dB	97 dB
ALC888S-VC	192 kHz	90 dB	97 dB
ALC888-VC2-GR	192 kHz	90 dB	97 dB
ALC888S-VD	192 kHz	90 dB	97 dB
ALC889	192 kHz	104 dB	108 dB
ALC892	192 kHz	90 dB	97 dB
ALC898	192 kHz	104 dB	110 dB

C-Media used to be very popular, especially on low-end motherboards, and they manufactured both codecs and complete audio controllers. Audio controllers usually need an external codec to do the analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversions, but C-Media’s low-end audio controllers have a codec embedded inside the chip, which is why we will include them in the table below. Because of that, we included a column called “type” to let you know if the chip is just a codec requiring an external controller (e.g., connected to the south bridge chip) or if it is a complete controller with an embedded codec (usually connected to the PCI bus). Chips from C-Media use names starting with the letters “CMI,” as you can see on the example shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: C-Media CMI9739A codec

Model	Type	Channels	Input Resolution	Output Resolution
CMI8738-LX, CMI8738MX	Controller	5.1	16-bit	16-bit
CMI8738-SX	Controller	4	16-bit	16-bit
CMI8768	Controller	7.1	16-bit	24-bit
CMI9738	Codec	4	20-bit	20-bit
CMI9739	Codec	5.1	20-bit	20-bit
CMI9761	Codec	5.1	20-bit	24-bit

Model	Input Max. Sampling Rate	Output Max. Sampling Rate	Input SNR	Output SNR
CMI8738-LX, CMI8738MX	48 kHz	48 kHz	80 db	80 db
CMI8738-SX	48 kHz	48 kHz	80 db	80 db
CMI8768	48 kHz	96 kHz	86 db	101 db
CMI9738	48 kHz	48 kHz	72 db	82 db
CMI9739	48 kHz	48 kHz	NA	NA
CMI9761	48 kHz	96 kHz	90 db	92 db

VIA manufactures both codecs and complete audio controllers. Their controllers (Envy24 series and Tremor) require an external codec, and usually, the motherboard manufacturer that chooses to use a VIA external controller also picks a VIA codec. Since VIA audio controllers got some popularity in the past, we are including their main specs on a separate table. VIA uses names starting with “VT” for their codecs.

Figure 4: VIA Envy24PT controller (on the right) using a VIA VT1618 codec (on the left)

Model	Channels	Input Resolution	Output Resolution	Input  Max. Sampling Rate
VT1612A	2	20-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
VT1613	2	18-bit	18-bit	48 kHz
VT1616	5.1	20-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
VT1617	5.1	20-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
VT1618	7.1	20-bit	20-bit	48 kHz
VT1702S	4	24-bit	24-bit	192 KHz
VT1705	5.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 KHz
VT1705CE	5.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 KHz
VT1708	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
VT1708A	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
VT1708B	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
VT1708S	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 KHz
VT1718S	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
VT1802P	4	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
VT1812S	4	24-bit	24-bit	192 kHz
VT1818S	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 KHz
VT1819S	7.1	24-bit	24-bit	192 KHz
VT1828S	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 KHz
VT2020	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 KHz
VT2021	7.1+2	24-bit	24-bit	192 KHz

Model	Output Max. Sampling Rate	Input SNR	Output SNR
VT1612A	48 kHz	93 dB	88 dB
VT1613	96 kHz	85 dB	82 dB
VT1616	48 kHz	85 dB	85 dB
VT1617	96 kHz	85 dB	95 dB
VT1618	96 kHz	86 dB	83 dB
VT1702S	192 KHz	98 dB	100 dB
VT1705	192 KHz	93 dB	100 dB
VT1705CE	192 KHz	93 dB	100 dB
VT1708	192 kHz	97 dB	93 dB
VT1708A	192 kHz	97 dB	93 dB
VT1708B	192 kHz	98 dB	95 dB
VT1708S	192 KHz	90 dB	100 dB
VT1718S	192 kHz	90 dB	100 dB
VT1802P	192 kHz	98 dB	100 dB
VT1812S	192 kHz	98 dB	100 dB
VT1818S	192 KHz	98 dB	100 dB
VT1819S	192 KHz	98 dB	100 dB
VT1828S	192 KHz	100 dB	110 dB
VT2020	192 KHz	NA	110 dB
VT2021	192 KHz	100 dB	110 dB

Model	Channels	Input Resolution	Output Resolution
Envy24	7.1	24-bit	24-bit
Envy24HT	7.1	24-bit	24-bit
Envy24HT-S	7.1	16-bit (AC97)24-bit (I2S)	16-bit (AC97)24-bit (I2S)
Envy24GT	5.1	16-bit (AC97)24-bit (I2S)	16-bit (AC97)24-bit (I2S)
Envy24MT	2	24-bit	24-bit
Envy24PT	7.1	16-bit (AC97)24-bit (I2S)	16-bit (AC97)24-bit (I2S)
Tremor	5.1	16-bit (AC97)24-bit (I2S)	16-bit (AC97)24-bit (I2S)

Model	Input  Max. Sampling Rate	Output Max. Sampling Rate
Envy24	96 kHz	96 kHz
Envy24HT	192 kHz	192 kHz
Envy24HT-S	48 kHz (AC97)192 kHz (I2S)	48 kHz (AC97)192 kHz (I2S)
Envy24GT	96 kHz	96 kHz
Envy24MT	192 kHz	192 kHz
Envy24PT	48 kHz (AC97)192 kHz (I2S)	48 kHz (AC97)192 kHz (I2S)
Tremor	48 kHz (AC97)192 kHz (I2S)	48 kHz (AC97)192 kHz (I2S)

There are some other audio codec manufacturers, but codecs from them are rarely seen on motherboards. A good example is Cirrus Logic, a company that manufactures very high-end codecs used mainly by home theater receivers. One of their codecs, CS4382, was used on a few very high-end motherboards from MSI (K8N Diamond Plus and K9N Diamond Plus, for example), providing a state-of-the-art audio quality for these products (signal-to-noise ratio of 114 dB). In the past, they also provided low-end audio codecs and controllers using the brand “Crystal.” Cirrus Logic and Crystal products start with the letters “CS.”

Figure 5: Cirrus Logic CS4382 codec and Creative Labs controller on an MSI K9N Diamond Plus motherboard

Another popular controller/codec manufacturer from the past was ESS, which had chips starting with the letters “ES.”
Another brand that you can see around is IDT.