I recently built a new system to keep up with some of the newer games, and I'm having some issues which I suspect may be related to the onboard sound on my motherboard. Here are the basics of the system:
eVga nf4 SLI motherboard (Rebadge of the Jetway reviewed here)
Venice 3200+ @ 2.4Ghz stock voltage/cooling
GEIL golden dragon PC3500 2-3-3-7 1T @ 200MHz
eVGA 7800GT stock speeds, latest WHQL's (81.94?)
Overall the system is rock stable, it will stress test any number of ways and I've experienced no problems in shooters, Quake 4 runs excellent. However, a few games are giving me grief.
Rise of Nations with the latest patch will crash to desktop or have sound chirping and just hang, particularly in multiplayer. This is an old game and shouldn't be that stressful. Eventlog shows nothing after the crash, very irritating.
Age of Empires 3 runs fine, however the sound lags way behind in scenes where the characters are conversing and the subtitles show up, then it waits for about 15 seconds, then the voice comes. (not synched with the caharacters)
Other problems worth noting are that one of the most recent security updates for XP Pro causing the entire system to hang on boot. It will boot in safemode, but not safemode with network support. I'm using the latest NF4 drivers (6.66) and WinXP SP2. 9/30 bios. I can look up which update was the source of the trouble when I get home if anybody's interested.
Back to the subject at hand however, I think the Realtek onboard 8 channel audio is responsible for some of my woes, and even if it's not, I can that annoying detectable buzz when the HD is access through the headphones (I'm using Grado SR-60's so every little annoyance in the onboard sound shines through) in particular when listening to music.
I am looking for a PCI soundcard with very clean DA conversion and good game support. I've read the Audigy 2's (at least some varieties of them) have a lot of problems with some of the latest games (AOE3 in particular) and creative's drivers have always been bloated. Is there a good alternative? Any good deals? Surround sound isn't really that important since I game with headphones and don't use the PC to watch movies.
eVga nf4 SLI motherboard (Rebadge of the Jetway reviewed here)
Venice 3200+ @ 2.4Ghz stock voltage/cooling
GEIL golden dragon PC3500 2-3-3-7 1T @ 200MHz
eVGA 7800GT stock speeds, latest WHQL's (81.94?)
Overall the system is rock stable, it will stress test any number of ways and I've experienced no problems in shooters, Quake 4 runs excellent. However, a few games are giving me grief.
Rise of Nations with the latest patch will crash to desktop or have sound chirping and just hang, particularly in multiplayer. This is an old game and shouldn't be that stressful. Eventlog shows nothing after the crash, very irritating.
Age of Empires 3 runs fine, however the sound lags way behind in scenes where the characters are conversing and the subtitles show up, then it waits for about 15 seconds, then the voice comes. (not synched with the caharacters)
Other problems worth noting are that one of the most recent security updates for XP Pro causing the entire system to hang on boot. It will boot in safemode, but not safemode with network support. I'm using the latest NF4 drivers (6.66) and WinXP SP2. 9/30 bios. I can look up which update was the source of the trouble when I get home if anybody's interested.
Back to the subject at hand however, I think the Realtek onboard 8 channel audio is responsible for some of my woes, and even if it's not, I can that annoying detectable buzz when the HD is access through the headphones (I'm using Grado SR-60's so every little annoyance in the onboard sound shines through) in particular when listening to music.
I am looking for a PCI soundcard with very clean DA conversion and good game support. I've read the Audigy 2's (at least some varieties of them) have a lot of problems with some of the latest games (AOE3 in particular) and creative's drivers have always been bloated. Is there a good alternative? Any good deals? Surround sound isn't really that important since I game with headphones and don't use the PC to watch movies.
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