Which soundcard for BF2?

[Joony]

Does using hardware audio make a big difference?

I'm thinking about Augidy 2 value, if that's supported...

Are older live! cards supported?

 

[SEAL62505]

I use an audigy without issues... Does anybody know what the difference between an audigy and audigy 2 is (doesn't the audigy use more cpu?) I only have a 2 channel setup.

 

[Stretchman]

Supposedly, the Audigy 2 ZS is supposed to be a great value.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Creative_Sound_...-_sound_card/4505-3022_7-31203883.html

The ZS series has gotten constant 8's from Cnet (which says its amazing) Plus, it is really the only quality sound card company that has survived the great transition to onboard channel sound chips.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Stretchman
Supposedly, the Audigy 2 ZS is supposed to be a great value.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Creative_Sound_...-_sound_card/4505-3022_7-31203883.html

The ZS series has gotten constant 8's from Cnet (which says its amazing) Plus, it is really the only quality sound card company that has survived the great transition to onboard channel sound chips.

Yeah, it was a great value when it was on sale for $40 a little while ago.

 

[Joony]

hmm, yeah, the Augidy 2 ZS series seems to be fairly cheap at times!

does it make a FPS difference when going from software to hardware audio? ie less load on CPU?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Joony
hmm, yeah, the Augidy 2 ZS series seems to be fairly cheap at times!

does it make a FPS difference when going from software to hardware audio? ie less load on CPU?

Yes.

The increase in performance will be dependent on how crappy your onboard sound is.

 

[Joony]

emm, I have some crappy onboard AC97 for my MSI RS480 ATI based 939 mobo.

 

[Pabster]

X-Fi, whichever flavor you prefer.

 

[SEAL62505]

Originally posted by: Pabster
X-Fi, whichever flavor you prefer.

Why is that? What does it have to offer beyond a zs?

Thanks!

 

[Joony]

in BF2 1.03, when you select xfi, EAX becomes HD?

in regular hardware, it's just regular EAX it seems...

 

[BW86]

another vote for the Audigy 2 ZS

 

[ElTorrente]

The only way that you can enable and actually "use" the highest, best sound setting in the BF2 is to use the X-FI - NOT the Audigy 2 ZS. You can't enable it with the 2 ZS.

BF2 is one of the few games out there that is actually coded to use the X-FI, and it supposedly sounds incredible. I have the Audigy 2 ZS and it is a very nice card, but I can't wait till I get the X-Fi..

 

[dfloyd]

The main reason imo to buy a Audigy over say anything onboard is only for lower cpu utilization. People swear the ZS is amazing with Eax III but I have had my ZS for going on six months and I dont notice it. Now you could say I have cheap speakers but my speakers were rated higher than anything Klipsch had out at the time and they are both THX and Dolby Digital Certified so I dont think its my speakers (Which is a 5.1 setup). That said I personally would choose the Nforce setup over anything else out of pure convienence. The sound in games is great and its a heck of alot easier to configure it and have it setup, especially with many new cases that have front Headphone/Mic outputs. The Audigy is a bit of a pain to configure that way because of the switching involved. I use all my outputs on my audigy when I have my regular speakers hooked up so I cant spare extras to run to the front hookups. Motherboards are designed with that thought in mind so alot easier to configure that way. If I want to do it with the audigy I have to lose my surround sound setup or constantly be at the back of my comptuer switching things.

As far as X-Fi goes I would take that with a grain of salt. Anything Creative says about their own new product should be for several reasons, not the least of which is they dont have any compeition so they have to force you to upgrade somehow. Intel pulled the same bs with MMX. I am not saying it wont be pretty nice, but if you got a Audigy it would be a serious waste of cash imo, and a huge victory for the marketing depts of the world if people went out and bought Xfi just because Creative is claiming its the best thing since sliced bread. As far as audio goes the best thing since sliced bread has done came and went, it was called A3D and it was far beyond anything Creative could think up at the time. True positinal audio, not this pre configured reverb that Creative is so proud of. Blah enough of my rant, my point is the main and only reason imo to get a Audigy over onboard is CPU Utilization, its ALOT lower on a Audigy say vs a Typical Nforce setup.

 

[Kevlar Coated Tent]

I've actually heard great things about the X-Fi in reviews i have read, but then again what do you expect when its so dam expensive. If your have lots of money to waste get the X-Fi otherwise settle for a ZS, you certainly wont be disappointed with it, specially if you never actually hear a X-Fi, lol

 

[NatePo717]

Originally posted by: Kevlar Coated Tent
I've actually heard great things about the X-Fi in reviews i have read, but then again what do you expect when its so dam expensive. If your have lots of money to waste get the X-Fi otherwise settle for a ZS, you certainly wont be disappointed with it, specially if you never actually hear a X-Fi, lol

The crystalizer is amazing! The difference I get playing BF2 with onboard to X-FI is like night and day. I'm very pleased with my purchase.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Onboard sound when it comes to gaming can use upwards of 30-50% cpu utilization. And if you plan to buy a sound car, X-Fi is the way to go.

A small sample of cpu utilization w/ onboard sound

Review of X-Fi

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Onboard sound when it comes to gaming can use upwards of 30-50% cpu utilization. And if you plan to buy a sound car, X-Fi is the way to go.

A small sample of cpu utilization w/ onboard sound

Review of X-Fi

Only the sh!ttiest of integrated sound is going to take up that many CPU resources in normal usage.

I don't get it... you say integrated sound will take 30% to 50% in general and then link to benchmarks showing 7 different sound solutions of which only one just barely gets to a 30% CPU utilization.

The performance increase in games from a FPS standpoint is negligable from an A2 to an X-Fi.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Onboard sound when it comes to gaming can use upwards of 30-50% cpu utilization. And if you plan to buy a sound car, X-Fi is the way to go.

A small sample of cpu utilization w/ onboard sound

Review of X-Fi

Only the sh!ttiest of integrated sound is going to take up that many CPU resources in normal usage.

I don't get it... you say integrated sound will take 30% to 50% in general and then link to benchmarks showing 7 different sound solutions of which only one just barely gets to a 30% CPU utilization.

The performance increase in games from a FPS standpoint is negligable from an A2 to an X-Fi.

Umm. If you knew about onboard sound on motherboards, you'd know that the Reaktek ALC850 is on a good number of motherboards, including premium motherboards that cost over $200.

And sorry, if I didn't spend more time providing links of onboard sound cpu utilization in games. I was disproving the other posters comments of how the X-Fi uses more cpu utilization than onboard sound. Plus, you need to read more carefully, I never said integrated sound will take 30% to 50% generally.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Onboard sound when it comes to gaming can use upwards of 30-50% cpu utilization. And if you plan to buy a sound car, X-Fi is the way to go.

A small sample of cpu utilization w/ onboard sound

Review of X-Fi

Only the sh!ttiest of integrated sound is going to take up that many CPU resources in normal usage.

I don't get it... you say integrated sound will take 30% to 50% in general and then link to benchmarks showing 7 different sound solutions of which only one just barely gets to a 30% CPU utilization.

The performance increase in games from a FPS standpoint is negligable from an A2 to an X-Fi.

Umm. If you knew about onboard sound on motherboards, you'd know that the Reaktek ALC850 is on a good number of motherboards, including premium motherboards that cost over $200.

And sorry, if I didn't spend more time providing links of onboard sound cpu utilization in games. I was disproving the other posters comments of how the X-Fi uses more cpu utilization than onboard sound. Plus, you need to read more carefully, I never said integrated sound will take 30% to 50% generally.

I know 850 is widespread. Look how many 850 solutions are on that link you gave that are better implemented than their generic 850 that's performing poorly.

I honestly don't know how the OP's integrated audio solution performs. I thought you were implying that his was going to take up 30% to 50% of his CPU in gaming. Is this his motherboard?
ALC658C for the integrated audio?

I said above in this thread that the increase will be dependent on how crappy your integrated audio is. My point is general statements here that don't apply to everyone.

Recommending an X-Fi as the "way to go" for anyone planning on buying a soundcard? What if they have 2.1 speakers or a lower quality 5.1 set?

Maybe I do need to read more carefully. I didn't see where someone said X-Fi uses more CPU than onboard...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

650 vs A2

Looks like around 5% performance hit in the games tested for onboard vs an A2.

I guess my main point is that yeah, a soundcard will increase your performance but

1. It's often not significant
2. You can often get better results spending money elsewhere in the system.
3. Some integrated audio solutions perform better than soundcards (soundstorm vs A2 in that benchmark for example)

If you're video card limited in your system, changing your CPU utilization from sound will make very little impact.

Without knowing the OP's system including speakers, I don't think it makes sense to recommend something specific unless it's just an incredible deal.

Joony, what's your system?

 

[aatf510]

Oh crap, I just sold my A2 ZS last Thursday, and I just played an hour of BF2 on onboard audio (Realtek 850)!
I just can't believe what I was hearing, it's not the sound quality I am complaining, but the everything simply changed!!
Now it sounds like I have noisy gunfire everywhere around me within 5 feet and I am unable to tell any sort of distance or direction from it. Also, the sound of gunfire has changed from real machine guns noise to some toy guns noise.
When I hop on a jet, the jet engine has also change into something that simply doesn't sound like anything.....
well.. I never thought that onboard audio can be this bad.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: toattett
Oh crap, I just sold my A2 ZS last Thursday, and I just played an hour of BF2 on onboard audio (Realtek 850)!
I just can't believe what I was hearing, it's not the sound quality I am complaining, but the everything simply changed!!
Now it sounds like I have noisy gunfire everywhere around me within 5 feet and I am unable to tell any sort of distance or direction from it. Also, the sound of gunfire has changed from real machine guns noise to some toy guns noise.
When I hop on a jet, the jet engine has also change into something that simply doesn't sound like anything.....
well.. I never thought that onboard audio can be this bad.

You sold your A2 to use onboard?

 

[PrayForDeath]

I vote for X-fi. It allows for incredible positional audio even with stereo headphones, and it sounds great.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Onboard sound when it comes to gaming can use upwards of 30-50% cpu utilization. And if you plan to buy a sound car, X-Fi is the way to go.

A small sample of cpu utilization w/ onboard sound

Review of X-Fi

Only the sh!ttiest of integrated sound is going to take up that many CPU resources in normal usage.

I don't get it... you say integrated sound will take 30% to 50% in general and then link to benchmarks showing 7 different sound solutions of which only one just barely gets to a 30% CPU utilization.

The performance increase in games from a FPS standpoint is negligable from an A2 to an X-Fi.

Umm. If you knew about onboard sound on motherboards, you'd know that the Reaktek ALC850 is on a good number of motherboards, including premium motherboards that cost over $200.

And sorry, if I didn't spend more time providing links of onboard sound cpu utilization in games. I was disproving the other posters comments of how the X-Fi uses more cpu utilization than onboard sound. Plus, you need to read more carefully, I never said integrated sound will take 30% to 50% generally.

I know 850 is widespread. Look how many 850 solutions are on that link you gave that are better implemented than their generic 850 that's performing poorly.

I honestly don't know how the OP's integrated audio solution performs. I thought you were implying that his was going to take up 30% to 50% of his CPU in gaming. Is this his motherboard?
ALC658C for the integrated audio?

I said above in this thread that the increase will be dependent on how crappy your integrated audio is. My point is general statements here that don't apply to everyone.

Recommending an X-Fi as the "way to go" for anyone planning on buying a soundcard? What if they have 2.1 speakers or a lower quality 5.1 set?

Maybe I do need to read more carefully. I didn't see where someone said X-Fi uses more CPU than onboard...

I recommended the X-Fi b/c BF2 is optimized for it. But you are right, it's not the card for everyone. But even if you have 2.1 speaker or lower quality 5.1, it still would be a good chocie for BF2. B/c of BF2, most folks use headsets and the X-Fi actually enhances them. At a little more than $100 for the Xtreme Music and b/c many new games will be optimized for X-Fi, I think it's the card to get for a gamer.

 

[Joony]

system rig

Yeah, Intergrated Realtek ALC658C, ugh

I do have Sony MDR-V6 headphones though, which are somewhat decent.

I'm somewhat leaning towards x-fi xtrememusic for the ultra high quality in BF2.