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Which sound card has the lowest load on system?

J

Jolt2

Senior member
Between the SB Live! and a C-Media sound card, which has the lowest load on the CPU? Which uses the PCI bus the best with out hogging the bus? I am talking just basic two speaker sound, nothing fancy.
 
Reviews usually show Creative's product with the lowest CPU load. I would assume that holds true for the lower end stuff.

I saw a recent (relative) review at Tom's Hardware on several sound cards.
 
The SB Live was notorious for hogging the PCI bus, but I would still go with the Live! as it would have better sound quality.
 
Probably the SB Live, but if it's going in a computer over 900MHz, the real world difference will be minimal.

The C-media 8738 sounds particularly good when the modified CMI 9738/9739 drivers are installed see here for details, but make sure you use the new 9738 drivers from the C-media website.

The C-media will produce a little more noise then the Live, but it won't be that noticeable on standard speakers, unless your specifically listening for it.

Cheers
 
It's a Toms article so take it for what its worth. It was actually an article to show how On-Board Audio could Affect FPS vs. Peripheral Sound Cards but it has some numbers to kinda show whats what.

On-board Audio vs Sound Cards

Hope this helps.

<3 lun
 
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