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How many CPU cycles does onboard sound use?

J

jameswhite1979

Senior member
Guys,

Flame me if I am way off, but I am wandered (convincing myself) if I should buy a dedicated sound card. Current I have a n650i MoBo which has a 7.1 onboard HD-audio RealTek.

So does this eat up any CPU cycles or generally processor power? If I have say a creative X-Fi will this free up the CPU and increase performance in games (I always run in 5.1 if the game supports that with my setup?

I do not listen to audio with the system its for games only.

TIA, J
 
Might I ask what the point of buying a dedicated sound card is for a gamer? Any game you want to increase fps in is more than likely limited by the video card than the cpu.
 
Well there is the bonus that not all games support the surround offered by onboard HD-audio and with a dedicated more modes should be supported, but thats a side issue. I have a general interest in how much overhead 5.1/7.1 etc takes on a CPU? I have my CPU and Video card so this would be in addition so its worth an ask..
 
It does use up a small amount of CPU cycles. But for what a X-Fi card costs you could have gotten a significantly better video card, CPU, or more memory which would all have a much greater impact than a sound card upgrade.

 
Have to agree with Blue and Blade, the performance difference for your CPU would be tiny, better off buying another video card and sli/cfing them if you really want more performance. Dual cores are almost never the bottleneck with modern games, at least not yet with the clock speeds you have.
 
OK makes sense not relating to music recording or playback so more around games what are the benefits for a high end dedicated sound card if any?

(Agree about second card in SLI I bought the system for it, the second one that I bought did not work 🙁 returned got lost in the post so no refund or card! I have appealed and they are investigating now)
 
You can't get eax support above 2 w/o a creative card. I think there is better preservation of the signal with an additional card. Plus they typically offer easier ways to do surround. So the quality is better, and more robust codecs?
 
I am running a little AMD X2 3600, Linux Mint Daryna

Opera running, one tab on this page
Ripping an audio stream
Listening to the same classical stream
Montoring CPU usage

Core1 is running between 6-9% busy and core2 is at 2%. I'd say that listing to music can not take more than 4% CPU max, at least in Linux.
 
Personally I can't tell the difference in sound with nice speakers/headphones between my integrated and a $200 card I saw on display somewhere. In any case the performance gains for a gamer are almost non-existent compared to going SLI or CF or a stronger card.
 
In games, onboard sound is less problematic than Creative's cards, which is pretty pathetic. Or maybe it's just EAX that's bugged to hell.

Games will primarily be using OpenAL from now on anyway.
 
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