hardware sound card

[daveqb]

i was curious to have peoples views on how much better a sound card with its own processor is to a software sound card like i have now; putting a drain on my CPU.

i have an Athlon 1700, but like all of us wants the best. Do have a budget, so was looking at the SoundBlaster Live; cheapest card i can see with its own processor.

how mich smoother will, say, games play & just general operation??

note, always have some sort of music going while running apps.


thanx all

 

[cmdrdredd]

It will be much better and you can get the EAX and A3D supported formats as well for your games. You'll also be able to output Dolby Digital 5.1/6.1 with most cards.

The cheapest is the SoundBlaster Live!
The best for the money is the Turtle beach Santa Cruz
The best for a gamer that needs some added ports for Midi etc is the game Theatre Xp from hercules
The top of the line for gamer is the SoundBlaster Audigy (supposedly)

I just got the hercules Game theater Xp and I love it! Absolutely the best I've heard. The sound quality is probably as good as the Audigy. It has gold plated connectors as well. It's hard to say whether it sounds as good as another card because the speakers come into play and other factors. But it's great for the money.

spend about $87 on it and you will get a soundcard with an external box with a 4port USB hub, MIDi in and out, Gameport on the front, front line inputs, Microphone input with fromt gain control, headphone with control on front, 6 channel outputs (analog) Digital outputs in Optical and Coax as well as Digital Input optical and coax, and more.

 

[nortexoid]

you wont' notice a difference at all - at least you shouldn't, otherwise you have some super keen sense of determining framerates with yoru eyes....alien.

anyway, the only real advantage of hardware sound cards is better audio playback and recording sound quality. Sure, they perform better as well, but that performance delta is only really noticeable when utilizing numerous 16+ audio streams which can be performed in hardware instead of software...even still...

if you're only worried about perofrmance, i wouldn't bother upgrading (especially to a live - get a hercules fortissimo II or something)...if you're interesting in additional I/O connectors or better sound quality among features (ie.. hardware equilizers, etc.), then go for an add-in card.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You will notice the difference if say you were to run a 4speaker surround setup. You'd be able to take advandage of the EAX effects like reverberation, echo, and positional audio.

Most software or built in Sound cards don't have much support for 3D audio.

 

[MasterHoss]

I'd recommend either the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or something from the SoundBlaster Audigy family (including the OEM version). Fairly inexpensive and you'll gain a lot from an actual sound card.

However, note that there is NO soundcard that is able to decode Dolby Digital Surround EX (6.1 Dolby surround sound). cmdrdredd must be getting confused with the specifications on the Hercules GameTheaterXP sound card. That particuluar card allows for DD 6.1 output IF you have driver v3.02 or higher WITH Cyberlink's PowerDVD 6.1 Pro which is the industry's only Dolby Digital Surround EX certified softDVD player. (Note that this particuluar version of PowerDVD is useless without the GTXP sound card and the new drivers).

In any case, both the Santa Cruz and Audigy will do Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding through the drivers... slight strain on the CPU but better than just pure software decoding.

 

[cmdrdredd]

how am i confused? It works with 6.1 and that's all I said

so THERE

 

[MasterHoss]

<< You'll also be able to output Dolby Digital 5.1/6.1 with most cards >>





<< how am i confused? It works with 6.1 and that's all I said >>



Well, I just reposted some of your own quotes. So you tell me how you'll be able to output Dolby Digital Surround EX (aka 6.1 Dolby Surround sound) with most cards.

 

[cmdrdredd]

use the optical out to a compatable receiver and use powerDVD.

 

[MasterHoss]

OK... so how would you get 6.1 surround sound using the digital out of a sound card during game play? So again, it is simply not the case that most sound cards are capable of 6.1 surround sound.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I said they can do it...I never said in games only or DVD only etc I simply said that most cards can do a simple 5.1/6.1 I guess I should have been specific.

So I will clarify...the Game Theater Xp can only do 6.1 in 2 ways...1)stream a Dolby Digital or DTS signal through a Digital audio cable to a receiver or decoder for home theater or use the analog outputs on the back of the breakout box with the center rear comming from the headphone output on the front.

other cards can only do a stream of dolby digital or DTS 6.1 if you use PowerDVD and the digital output. I'm not sure about DTS, but I can gurantee it will do Dolby Digital 6.1

 

[cmdrdredd]

and the 5.1/6.1 can not be achieved in games with the digital out. You'd have to plug each speaker to the analog outputs of the soundcard independently

 

[daveqb]

ok, i thought it would help lesson the strain on my CPU & hence make everything that little bit smoother

i just know from watchign the task manager in the system tray that when running sound thru my TV Tuner card (just the radio) that the CPU usage never goes above bout 14% (its got a huge chipset)

but when playing mp3's it spikes up to 42% CPU usages & generally sits higher then with the Tuner card

so thats my reasoning.

but if theres no improvement in overall system performance by off loading the sound burden to a seperate chip, then no need for a Sounblaster Live!

i dont really care bout the sound quality (what i got is fine, better then the small little speakers i have got, plus using headphones alot) as long as it works smooth .....


thanx all

 

[daveqb]

PS cmdrdredd your 3dmark link doesnt work dude......

thanx