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Performance Hit for using on board sound card

M

madmickey

Member
Has anybody looked at the performance hit ( % of CPU utilized) of using an onboard sound card like in Soyo Dragon or Asus a7v-266-e in game play versus running a SB live 5.1. There is one good effect of on-board sound card and lan cards you do not have to use any PCI slots better stability. This is especially true of Dragon plus.
 
onboard sound is quite painful in cpu cycles, I prefer a separate card for quality and versatility alone. The p4x266 review a little while ago has all the numbers, and when using 6 channels onboard, its a very high%, not worth it at all.
 
those mb u stated above use the cmi 8738. they are a lowcost audio addon that works decently well. u will get less cpu utilization than ac97 sound, but more than the live. these are the chipsets used in those low budget 20 dollar or so sound cards.
 
the hercules is moderate for cpu cycles, but it has a great quality sound. I don't think there are any issues with the cards at all, which is how it should be.
 
Just had a few thoughts brought on by the CPU utilization thing. Why don't the big sound card manufacturers (ESS, Creative, etc) concentrate on giving their SPU's (Sound processing unit😀) more sheer power? Give the sound industry the equivalent of Hardware T&L.
Heck, they could even add some cheap memory to the sound card to store sound data locally, instead of going over the system bus to access it. Just a few passing ideas....🙂
 
Would make sound cards as pricey as video cards, nevertheless I would definitely be interested in such a card.




<< Just had a few thoughts brought on by the CPU utilization thing. Why don't the big sound card manufacturers (ESS, Creative, etc) concentrate on giving their SPU's (Sound processing unit😀) more sheer power? Give the sound industry the equivalent of Hardware T&L.
Heck, they could even add some cheap memory to the sound card to store sound data locally, instead of going over the system bus to access it. Just a few passing ideas....🙂 >>

 
One of the best SoundCrads you can hget at the moment is the Audigy. I found a comparison between SB Live & SB Audigy. The Audigy really rocks. it has a much lower CPU util than the Live Series & also has better effects.

I'll search the link & post it.
 
Obviously, not all on-board sound is the same. I have a Dragon + (upgrade from a KT133 and a Live!) and was about to put the Live! back in before updating the 8738 driver, smoothed out the audio in games tremendously. No experience with the Audigy, but I don't think the Live! is any better than the CMI 8738 on the Dragon +. If money is no object, buy all means get an Audigy, otherwise I'd put the $$ toward a better video card.
 
I looked at cost in CPU lost versus extra stability and increased overclockability of using onboard sound. You don't have to worry about PCI divided.
 
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