Impact of soundcard on gaming?

A

Asestar

This might be slight ot.
Does having a cheap sound card have any impact on fps in a game?
I mean, I'm using Soundblaster Live digital OEM. Which often give me crashes
and instability issues.
So i'm wondering if I buy a new soundcard, would that improve my game
speeds? Which soundcard is 'fastest', as in using least cpu and system
resources?

My current system is very modest.. Duron1600 @ 1800, 512mb pc133 ram, Kt7A,
Radeon9600se, winxp, 160Gb 7200rpm. I play mostly older rpg's on this
system. Morrowind, deus-ex, simcity, sacred and so on..
 
D

Darthy

This might be slight ot.
Does having a cheap sound card have any impact on fps in a game?
I mean, I'm using Soundblaster Live digital OEM. Which often give me crashes
and instability issues.
So i'm wondering if I buy a new soundcard, would that improve my game
speeds? Which soundcard is 'fastest', as in using least cpu and system
resources?

My current system is very modest.. Duron1600 @ 1800, 512mb pc133 ram, Kt7A,
Radeon9600se, winxp, 160Gb 7200rpm. I play mostly older rpg's on this
system. Morrowind, deus-ex, simcity, sacred and so on..
Click to expand...

SBLive, while old - was a top of the line card. Most good audio cards
and Nforce boards are very good about not effecting overall system
performance.

Sounds like a driver problem... Win98?

Keep in mind, the audio card ISSUE was more important in the OLD days
(Sub 1Ghz) when having the sound meant that playing Quake3 would lost
about 10~15 fps... when your system is maxing it out at 20~40fps,
thats a big HIT.

Nowadays, todays video cards can give you 200~400fps in Quake3...



- - - - -
Remember: In the USA - it is dangeroud to draw or write about Heir Bush in a negative way. The police or SS are called, people threaten to kill you. (What country is this again?)

- 15yr old boy in Washington was disciplined for drawing such images.
- White House blows cover of an undercover agent because her husband said there were no WMD (before the USA started the war) - her job was finding terrorist. (This makes sense?)
God bless the land of the free. Where you can burn the Constitution... Ashcroft does it every day.
 
O

Odie

I got rid of my live card by updating to a new nforce mobo with soundstorm
audio onboard.
Absolutely love it. No more Live stability issues, much better in game
performance, more vacant PCI slots, and way better sound quality.
 
V

VJF

Odie said:
I got rid of my live card by updating to a new nforce mobo with soundstorm
audio onboard.
Absolutely love it. No more Live stability issues, much better in game
performance, more vacant PCI slots, and way better sound quality.
Click to expand...


Onboard sound cards utilize your cpu to function. PCI sound cards , for
the most part, dont. They have their own sound processors on the card
and dont adversely effect your cpu.

When you have a choice, go for a pci sound card like the creative sound
blaster audigy2 zs.


This is especially noticeable with a low end cpu like the duron.
 
K

Ken Maltby

VJF said:
Onboard sound cards utilize your cpu to function. PCI sound cards , for
the most part, dont. They have their own sound processors on the card
and dont adversely effect your cpu.

When you have a choice, go for a pci sound card like the creative sound
blaster audigy2 zs.


This is especially noticeable with a low end cpu like the duron.
Click to expand...

Tom's Hardware did a comparison/test of a number of sound cards
and included a couple of MB chips. The results were not tied to the
type of card or chipset. The Nforce Soundstorm chipset was the winner.
The SoundBlaster Live didn't fair very well, as I remember it. The
normal AC97 chips were near or at the bottom of the list.

You should be able to look it up at www.tomshardware.com

Luck;
Ken
 
M

MadurA

Tom's Hardware did a comparison/test of a number of sound cards
and included a couple of MB chips. The results were not tied to the
type of card or chipset. The Nforce Soundstorm chipset was the winner.
The SoundBlaster Live didn't fair very well, as I remember it. The
normal AC97 chips were near or at the bottom of the list.

You should be able to look it up at www.tomshardware.com

Luck;
Ken
Click to expand...

That article would be here >
http://www17.tomshardware.com/game/20030405/index.html

Hope this helps
MadurA
 
R

Rick

I would tend to believe Odie's statement:

The new SB cards don't have any memory to speak of and all of the processed
data has to pass in and out of the PCI bus bogging it down. This is what (I
think) makes current PCI cards slower than an Nforce. Also, just because an
Nforce has the sound processing imbedded into a single IC does not mean it
has less firmware, just more integrated (which is better).

bye, Rick

An unfortunate sign of the times, still remember my OEM SB AWE 32 with two
SIMM slots for soundbank storage. 24MB :) Too bad the jacks went bad on it.
 
V

VJF

The original poster does not have a nforce mobo therefore my comments
were on target relating to his current system.

He didnt say he was buying a mobo, he said he was buying a sound card.
 
V

VJF

and the audigy 2 zs does have on card processing which relieves the cpu
from extra cycles the onboard cards forcethe cpu to make.
 
A

Asestar

Thanks VJF.
I do not plan to buy new mobo (which involves new RAM) yet.
I think about Audigy, is it all audigy series which have on-card apu's or
just this Audigy2 zs?
 
B

Buffalo

How much do your games speed up when you have the sound disabled?
If not much, than a newer soundcard won't make any difference.
If it speeds up a lot, than a new soundcard may make a difference.
The other suggestions on which sound cards to buy were very good.
 
B

Ben Pope

Asestar said:
This might be slight ot.
Does having a cheap sound card have any impact on fps in a game?
I mean, I'm using Soundblaster Live digital OEM. Which often give me
crashes and instability issues.
Click to expand...

Well, if you ignore the stability issues... There won't be that much
difference between the SB Live and any other PCI sound card.
So i'm wondering if I buy a new soundcard, would that improve my game
speeds? Which soundcard is 'fastest', as in using least cpu and system
resources?
Click to expand...

It does depend, but you won't get much lower than your SB Live.
My current system is very modest.. Duron1600 @ 1800, 512mb pc133 ram,
Kt7A, Radeon9600se, winxp, 160Gb 7200rpm. I play mostly older rpg's on
this system. Morrowind, deus-ex, simcity, sacred and so on..
Click to expand...


Stick with your current sound card (unless you are particularly unhappy with
it) - spend the money on a better CPU.

You've been recommended an Audigy ZS, which is around £80 where I shop - for
that money you could drop in a mobile Barton 2500+ and still have change.
It would certainly make more of a difference in FPS than any sound card :)

Ben
 
B

Ben Pope

Asestar said:
This might be slight ot.
Does having a cheap sound card have any impact on fps in a game?
I mean, I'm using Soundblaster Live digital OEM. Which often give me
crashes and instability issues.
Click to expand...

Try disabling the Sound Blaster 2 Legacy support... That always caused me
all sorts of nightmares when I had an SB Live - anything from long load
times in Windows to instability in or out of games.

And I think it has just been mentioned, but if you disable your sound card
(and run games without sound at all) you will see the absolute maximum
performance gain possible from a new sound card. It will of course, be more
than you will see in real life as you are now not dealing with sound at all,
and the CPU is relieved of that duty. I doubt you will see much
difference - I seem to recall benching Quake3 with and without sound on an
old SB Live and the difference was minimal at best.

Ben
 
V

VJF

Asestar said:
Thanks VJF.
I do not plan to buy new mobo (which involves new RAM) yet.
I think about Audigy, is it all audigy series which have on-card apu's or
just this Audigy2 zs?
Click to expand...
Here is the price of the card I spoke about.
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/ProdMM-SS-CRE.hmx?updepts=MM-SS&DNAME=Sound+Cards
CREATIVE LABS SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY2 ZS PCI Details $85.00


and


http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=29-102-162&DEPA=1
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS PCI Sound Card, Model "SB0350"
-RETAIL
Price: $88.00




and here is the Creative Soundblaster page with specs and descriptions
on their cards:

http://us.creative.com/products/category.asp?category=1
 
M

melodium

Asestar said:
This might be slight ot.
Does having a cheap sound card have any impact on fps in a game?
I mean, I'm using Soundblaster Live digital OEM. Which often give me crashes
and instability issues.
So i'm wondering if I buy a new soundcard, would that improve my game
speeds? Which soundcard is 'fastest', as in using least cpu and system
resources?

My current system is very modest.. Duron1600 @ 1800, 512mb pc133 ram, Kt7A,
Radeon9600se, winxp, 160Gb 7200rpm. I play mostly older rpg's on this
system. Morrowind, deus-ex, simcity, sacred and so on..
Click to expand...

Read this thread with great interest and also Toms Hardware's
Sound and gaming benchmarks and decided to give it a try -
I have a P4P800-E-Deluxe with Realtek ALC850 and tho i wondered
if this chipset is better (performance wise) than the 650, I did
get slightly better framerates after installing the AudigyLS that
i've had sitting there since buying this system. Another 10fps in
quake3 - Alas Farcry started to have issues with EAX enabled -
a screeching sound, then nothing, while playing - turning on
compatible mode delayed the sounds - Painkiller and UT04
paused while starting levels much more than they did before
as well - OUT the audigy came !
 
M

McGrandpa

melodium said:
Read this thread with great interest and also Toms Hardware's
Sound and gaming benchmarks and decided to give it a try -
I have a P4P800-E-Deluxe with Realtek ALC850 and tho i wondered
if this chipset is better (performance wise) than the 650, I did
get slightly better framerates after installing the AudigyLS that
i've had sitting there since buying this system. Another 10fps in
quake3 - Alas Farcry started to have issues with EAX enabled -
a screeching sound, then nothing, while playing - turning on
compatible mode delayed the sounds - Painkiller and UT04
paused while starting levels much more than they did before
as well - OUT the audigy came !
Click to expand...

Try the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz?
McG.
 
S

Shaun

Onboard sound cards utilize your cpu to function. PCI sound cards , for
the most part, dont. They have their own sound processors on the card
and dont adversely effect your cpu.

When you have a choice, go for a pci sound card like the creative sound
blaster audigy2 zs.
Click to expand...

The onboard nVidia nforce MCP sound chip is a full blown DSP, handling all
sound operations. It just so happens that it's on the motherboard. It uses
as much CPU as things like Audigy, which is hardly any at all. All other
onboard solutions hit the CPU though, that I'm aware of.

You can also buy some really bad software based PCI sound cards.
 
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