Sound card hogs the CPU?

[brennan]

So I upgrade to a C566 and OC it to 808, add an IBM 75gxp 30-gig, and I already had 256 megs of RAM. I reinstall Win98 on the new IBM, and it's FAST - boots Windows in like 25-30 seconds. In Windows, it's just way snappier than it was with my C366@550 and Maxtor 10gig.

I install my drivers, and everything is still wonderful. The last drivers I install are the sound card drivers - I have a Soundblaster Live Value. On rebooting, it seems slower, and it's absolutely slower with my network logon (takes longer to recognize keystrokes - there's a delay before I can type or click where there wasn't before).

Someone on a SBLive newsgroup suggested that modern sound cards (e.g. SBLive, Aureal, etc.) drain between 15-20% of system performance. I don't know whether I'd go that high, but it seems I'm definitely seeing slowdown.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? Does anyone know of a good sound card that won't draw much CPU power, if any?

-brennan

 

[Rankor]

From my experience (MX300) Aureal chips are the ones that hog the most CPU (in my case, 25%). Creative's Live! cards are considerably lower (~10% from my X-Gamer).

I would look into disabling all the stuff that's loaded on start-up for the Live! card like AudioHQ and the Creative Launcher. That'll help speed things up hopefully.

 

[Napalm]

I don't know how badly my SBLive is draining CPU resources while in Windows/games but I can tell you that it adds a full 9 seconds to my boot up time. I was quite surprised to find this, but then again, it is only 9 seconds of my life...

Napalm

 

[Eug]

I lost 1 fps and a bit in Q3 (out of 30 - crappy video card) going from a SB AWE 64 Gold to a SB Live! Platinum.

 

[brennan]

Napalm:
I agree, it's not really altogether that significant. But, it's a really annoying few seconds now that I've seen my boot time without the card.

Rankor:
Nothing is enabled. I downloaded the newest drivers-only package and installed it; I hate the rest of that crap. It's just the card doing this.

-brennan

 

[Ulysses]

About a year ago I bought a Diamond Monster Sound MX300 sound card after reading a PC Magazine article comparing cards. The article praised the card and the Aureal 3D sound effects as superior at that time, but noted the card's very high CPU usage. They were right on all counts! But it's a nice trouble-free card, and I knew what I was getting into.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Are you guys using 2048 reference drivers? The latest releases really cut down on CPU utilization.

-SUO, MX-300+MX-25

 

[Crypticburn]

Yeah, I went to SB live yesterday, after finally getting it right (putting it in the first PCI slot) it was beautiful, and the CPU util/boot up time is worth it, although I dont have what you guys describe.... I guess just get the new drivers like SUOrangeman suggests... see if that helps

 

[Prodigy^]

the Live! is supposed to have very low CPU usage, especially compared to the MX300

 

[duragezic]

Very odd. I found going from a SB 32 AWE to a Sb Live! Value did very little on CPU usage. You say it increaed your boot time? For me, after a format, it seems every time I install anything and reboot it gets a little slower. After a few days of reloading all your drivers and programs, it seems almost as slow as before the format. I guess it's just windows.

 

[JellyBaby]

The Aureal reference drivers add time to the Windows bootup process, too. As for cpu utilization, weren't the vortex 1 cards the big offenders? Vortex 2 cards were better but still hogs compared to sb stuff. BUt the later drivers from Aureal brough cpu usage down to near that of SB at least from what I remember. Just sitting in Windows with no sound apps running, your PC shouldn't take a noticeable hit. You'd need to fire up a game that uses 3D sound (especially EAX or A3D).

 

[brennan]

I dunno, guys, I have the latest drivers (downloaded them 2 days ago), but it just boots slower, and it seems normal stuff is a *mite* slower. Eh. Probably worth it, cause it's a nice card, but at least I'm not insane, because other people are having the same issues.

I just wish it didn't boot so much slower. I also wish the moon was made of green cheese. Neither is likely to come true.

-brennan

 

[Wingznut]

The boot up time really has nothing to do with the sound card's cpu utilization, as you are referring to.

When it is stated that the Vortex cards use more cpu cycles, that is only when using A3D. Upon bootup, there is no A3D in use.

For a sound card to slow down boot up, it is either because of the drivers loading, or some other sound card related program launching.

Have you looked into your Startup folder? How about the Startup tab in MSconfig?... Just to make sure something isn't launching that you don't need to launch.

 

[Captain Ginyu]

The mx300 in non 3d audio mode uses less cpu than the live with the newest drivers because its wired chip not a dsp. Dsp's use more cpu then a non dsp.

 

[StanTheMan]

After you install SBLive!, you should notice that the registry is bloated (c:\windows\System.dat). After original instalation of LW3, my registry floated around 9Meg. I tried to deleted the environment effect that I don't need. It reduces my registry file, and it speed up the booting process a little bit.