Question regarding onboard sound

[uli80]

In the Via KT333 motherboard round up I noticed there' s a loss in performance of more then 20% when using the onboard sound chip.
In case I would stick in my good old soundblaster live card there, what kind of drop in performance should I expect ?

 

[Buz2b]

There should not be a 20% loss in performance with onboard sound. How did you measure/test this? The difference in performance should be almost unnoticable; if at all.

 

[VSEKH]

You should not lose any performance. The quality of the sound mightl not be as good as the Soundblaster live. But, you will not lose performance in your games or music that you play.

 

[nemo160]

i'd reccomend a non creative card
i have an sblive 5.1 that has some issues with my 8k3a+, mainly it stutters when i open the cd drives and i'm running music in the background
hercules fortissimo II is nice and its cheap (about $40), i plan to get one soon, just flat broke right now

 

[uli80]

Please take a look at VIA KT333 motherboard round-up onboard audio performance. From the second graphic there I'm assuming the more than 20% loss when using onboard audio. Or did I get this totally wrong ?

 

[Vette73]

Thats how much power the computer uses to make sound. If you look they are all very close. So unless you play games without sound, on chip will not make a bigdiference.

I like the C-Media 5.1 Sound myself. Mine came built in with my Shuttle AK35GTR

 

[Buz2b]

Fixed Link

The important number to look at in that review is the CPU Utilization. It is from about 1.12 to 8.06 percent. A minor amount that is of no concern. I'll agree that what they found out is suprising, but there is no "smoking gun". As was mentioned, if you are real concerned you can always pick up an inexpensive PCI sound card. I wouldn't worry about it though; 1-8% is not going to effect you in any noticalbe fashion.

 

[tenoc]

Read this!

There is a substantial hike in framerate (20% or more) running games with no sound.

Of course, that wouldn't be much fun!