Audio causing lag during gaming - need advice

[und3rscor3]

Hello. I recently installed a game on my computer, and soon discovered that certain sound effects in the game cause very disruptive lag. The cause of the lag seems to be that my on-board sound device can't process the audio quickly enough. I now want to buy better sound processing hardware. I've been looking at a few sound cards on Tiger Direct, but I know nothing about them. I was wondering if anyone could give me advice about what to look for in a sound card. I would prefer not to spend more than $50 if possible. I have been satisfied with the sound quality of my on-board sound device, so if I buy a sound card, I am more concerned that the processing speed is fast, and not so concerned that the sound quality is an improvement over my on-board hardware. Also, I only have PCI slots free. My only PCI-e slot is occupied by my video card.

Info about my computer:
Model: Dell Dimension E521 desktop
OS: Windows XP Home Edition 32 bit
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual core processor 3600+, 1.90 GHz
RAM: 2.5 gb DDR2

 

[fralexandr]

sorry i didn't respond sooner, but i thought someone else with more knowledge would help out .

have you tried adjusting audio quality?
what game are you talking about?
i remember that in counterstrike source or some steam/valve game on my dell inspiron 6000 that reducing audio quality from high to medium improved playability of the game

i was under the impression that onboard and many dedicated sound cards used the cpu to process audio (from sound card/cpu utilization charts).
the only sound card i know of that supposedly offloads sound processing from the cpu is the x-fi series (not including the xtreme audio and i'm not so sure about the xtreme gamer) or maybe an x-fi derivative (i think auzentech had permission from creative to use the x-fi in their auzentech explosion or something?)

so i suppose some options for you would be to:
A) OC your processor (not sure if plausible as you're using a prebuilt computer w/ 264w PSU? and limited cooling)
B) reduce some game settings (audio quality being the most relevant, although CPU stuff like physics quality, number of displayed objects, etc might help; easy to do fixes, doesn't cost money)
C) try an x-fi (non xtreme audio) out such as the one in the link below (hey, if it doesn't solve the game performance issue, at least you get a good sound card; most beneficial if you have some nice speakers and some extra money lying around)
D) none of the above/some of the above/all of the above/other ()

never bought from them, but they have ok resellerratings
x-fi xtrememusic $30
http://www.ascendtech.us/itemdesc.asp?ic=SCCRSBXFISB0670
pretty good price on it i'm going to go post it in hot deals

 

[und3rscor3]

Thanks for posting. That sound card link you posted actually looks pretty good, and within my price range.

The game is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. My computer's performance has been very satisfactory, except in very specific in-game situations. Whenever I get near a four-legged animal in the game, I experience severe lag/stuttering. It turns out this is a known issue. The sound effects of four separate feet hitting the ground repeatedly is known to cause lag because some computers cannot process the sound effects quickly enough. So the cause of this issue is not that the sound quality is overwhelming for the computer, but sound quantity is too much I guess.

Sure enough, I was able to solve the performance issue by disabling impact sound effects in the options. However, this presents a problem, because "impact sound effects" include things like the sound effect a sword makes when you hit something, your own foot steps, etc. and so disabling them greatly reduces my gaming experience.

I don't know how to overclock, and I'm not really comfortable with overclocking. It seems a bit odd that a sound card, a piece of hardware that is devoted to audio, would put the audio load on the processor :hmm: Are you sure this is the case? Because if a sound card won't solve my problem, then I feel I am in a bit of a bind. I really want to play Oblivion

 

[fralexandr]

it seems likely that it could be a driver issue with your particular onboard sound assuming your e521 uses the sigmatel STAC 9227,
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-groups/gaming/f/3344/p/17902876/18025862.aspx#18025862
from that thread it seems like the sigmatel STAC 9227 might be the culprit, they fixed the issue by disabling sound hardware acceleration (making the game sound considerably worse)

you could try updating the drivers (if there are any newer drivers)

if the new drivers don't fix it, it seems likely that getting the x-fi would fix the stutter
also, it just so happens that oblivion was one of the games i played both on onboard audio and on the x-fi, and it sounded subjectively more epic on the x-fi

some fyi kind of stuff
======
an oldish anandtech review of sound cards
http://www.anandtech.com/show/1776/10

a minor discussion on sound cards and performance
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=125512

 

[und3rscor3]

Yes, my on-board sound hardware is a Sigmatel. I'll try updating the Sigmatel driver if there is an update. Though if a sound card really makes a game sound noticeably better, I think I want to get one whether a driver update helps or not!

I've been looking at this Asus Xonar DS sound card myself, which has gotten multiple good reviews but is $20 more than the X-Fi. But I can't tell much difference between it and the X-Fi card you posted. I'm just hesitant to pull the trigger on that X-Fi because it's from 2005. Decisions, decisions...

 

[fralexandr]

for gaming, i think creative kinda has a monopoly. they heavily restrict EAX which is found in many games. (Environmental Audio Extensions) to their own cards. Most sound cards will support up to EAX 2.0, but EAX 3+ are almost exclusively only found on creative cards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_audio_extensions

that said, the Asus Xonar is a nice sound card.

=====
apparently the xonar's can emulate EAX 5.0 pretty well
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500/6
the xonar dx (more feature laden version of ds?) > x-fi xtrememusic

also apparently new games are moving away from EAX, and using dolby stuffs
i guess the eax stuff isn't that important anymore

also, i suppose this would more appropriately be in PC gaming hah! maybe