Does a sound card give better overall performance than onboard sound?

[lemonadesoda]

@MiST91

Its definitely worth benchmarking your system before and after you install your OLD soundcard. Many older soundcards actually DECREASE performance... becuase the CPU is doing all the work for the soundcard through old drivers... especially compared with newer onboard sound.

NOTE that in many games, you can select the sound driver. In some EAX compatible games (I have Audigy2), I actually find the software driver "MilesFast Audio" to be superior to the EAX driver... both in FPS performance and stability.

 

[AshenSugar]

the xmystic is like 53bucks i have used it in 4 builds for people and have had 3 friends buy them all using nforce4 boards with realtek ac97(nf4 dosnt support hd audio) they all LOVE them, nobody i know has their latest card but it would be intresting to see somebody who had gotten one do a review of it from a real users stand point.

and thanks Ketxxx, alwase helps when somebody the masses respect says what you been saying all along

with creative you alwase gotta worrie about "is if gonna work" and "are the drivers gonna suck" and when they do "is creative gonna fix it"

some quotes from a thred a buddy sent me.
http://www.thinkhardware.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4109

Dude!
Dropped in my XPlosion!
Digital optical line was recognised and 5.1 kicked on, crystal clear in all 1000 watts of glory. *feels giddy*
This is the best audio I've ever got out of an add in sound card as far as dvd and music go. I'd have to rank this one right there with my Soundstorm off on my Abit NF-7s rev2. Winamp is using a 1%-3% draw on my cpu, core 0. I can live with that, next I'll test gaming. Let you guys know tomorrow.
So as long as AuzenTech keeps making sound cards with this quality sound output I'm sticking with them.
Screw Creative. This is just like that "put the card too close to an ethernet card and wipe the Audigy bios" bs we went through a while back.
EAX 3.0 is overrated, Dolby DTS kicks ass.

As far as gaming goes, practicly no draw on the cpu. I haven't done a lot of gaming with it yet (2 1/2 hours Oblivion), and there hasn't been any crackling or popping except for once in Belgareth's tower (user mod) it would pop when I jumped and swung at the same time, but that's with its default drivers and I can't get it to distort anywhere else no matter what I've tried. I'll go further into detail as I try different games, probably Sunday since I've got to work Saturday.
Pat, when you say recording, do you mean an instrument or cd/ dvd ripping? I've still got to try both, but since it doesn't come with a midi bracket (have to order it seperate and it's not in stock at New Egg) I can't hook my Yamaha keyboard up and try it out. As soon as I can get ahold of my buddy Dale and ask which sound card he uses for his bands' recording sesions I'll let you know, his recordings come out pretty clean.
For me, this card was a great buy so far, but then again My speaker setup and headphones are what most people would call overkill, so unless it's going to be used with eiter quality speakers or headphones then it's a waste of cash at $120 (though the $20- $200 Creative cards are a waste, I can't remember a time without them having compatabilaty problems of some sort).
Keep buying Creative, then the next headline you'll see is:
XFI Xtreme 4 by Creative has known compatability issues with:
ATI chipsets
Nvidia Chipsets
Via Chipsets
Intel Chipsets
SiS chipsets
and pci slots in general be it Macs or PCs
But buy it! It's uber l33t!!!
***Warning, Creative sound cards may and will not function installed inside of or within 100' of a pc, small appliance, carpet, yapping dog, stereo speaker, paved road, or anywhere with still or running water***

haha that above is more true then creative fans would like to admit!!!!
my buddy had one of those audigys that got wiped by being to close to a network card, what a POS!!!!!
then x-fi comes out and has a HUGE list of incompatabilitys with pretty much every chipset on the market!!!!! they finnly fix it but it forces board makers to make special bios for x0fi users, as well as in many cases x-fi early adopters to RMA their cards to get updated ones!!!!

im talking a 300$ sound card that only works properly if your lucky......and the driver support......what a joke......

AuzenTech use c-media's latest audio prosessors/codecs and HIGH QUILITY CIRCUTES, you can use c-media drivers from the c-media forums if you need to we did this for a buddy who had 2 games that acted weird with his xmysic till AuzenTech put out an updated driver(same driver just renamed) if you ask for help on c-media forums you get it, if you ask for help on creative forums,,,,,,be prepared to wait, and wait , and wait till they finnly get to you months later then be prepared to wait some more whal they deside if your problem needs fixing or if you just get forgotten!!!!

 

[_33]

The new X-FI sound cards are way way better than anything creative ever sold before.

Now 20 fps more in games is a ridiculous thing to say if you expect to win some framerate in games, you shouldn't expect too much. Sound takes a minuscule fraction of the overall memory bandwidth, and it is never managed directly by the CPU, but by onboard like AC97 or Karajan audio (DFI Lanparty), and what not.

 

[ktr]

Damn ktr! You proved another wrong again? Any game can use Creatives X-ram. Does BF2 or any game need it?? Not that I am aware of. Any soundcard with an onboard audio processer is a different thing then X-ram. From what I have read, the jury is still out on weather or not the X-ram really is worth your (or your parents) hard earned money. I do know that the 2ZS has no X-ram but still has its own audio processor, so BF2 sound can be rendered by hardware rather then just sotware. Also, X-fi is different then X-ram, but i imagine you know that.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2005/10/31/creative_xfi/1.html

read up!

X-RAM: Audio data obviously consumes system memory, and throwing it back and forth across the PCI bus can be slow. Because only so much system RAM can be used for audio, there is a limit to the number of streams of audio that can be processed simultaneously. X-Fi alleviates these bottlenecks by bringing back on-board RAM. The Fatal1ty version of the card has 64MB on-board. This can be used by the developer to process audio data on the card, without having to go to CPU or main memory. It also allows for more simultaneous streams of audio to be processed and played concurrently. The net result should be more FPS and better quality audio. Games have to be written to support it, but many games coming up will be - currently, both Battlefield 2 and F.E.A.R. are accelerated.

you want more???

http://xfi.blogspot.com/2006/01/x-ram.html

Developers wishing to utilize X-RAM in their own software applications must use Open AL.

A game which makes use of Open AL does not require additional function calls. By default the X-RAM extension is set to automatic, all Open AL buffers will be loaded into X-RAM as long as there is storage space left. This means that if a game is using Open AL it makes use of X-RAM as soon as it has been detected on your sound card. The X-RAM extensions can also be set to manual (hardware or accessible). In this mode it is up to the game developer to decide what sounds will be uploaded to the X-RAM.

Games like the Battlefield 2 expansion Battlefield 2: Special Forces and Quake 4 fully support X-RAM according to the official SoundBlaster site. It is nowhere stated that Battlefield 2 was build with X-RAM in mind. Not on the product information page nor in the interview with the developers. In Quake 4 you can get detailed information about what sounds have been loaded, into which memory they have been loaded and how much memory they actually use.

wrong or knowledgeable???

 

[Ketxxx]

and thanks Ketxxx, alwase helps when somebody the masses respect says what you been saying all along

just telling it like it is if im honest, if the popping and crackling of the soundmax (AD1988 chip) is ever resolved properly (which apparently it could be with a revised WAV table) id go as far as to say its better than any version of the X-Fi.

 

[AshenSugar]

whats weird is that it only effects some people, like i havent had it pop, but others have, and if asus would update the damned drivers or offer us raw adi drivers these issues would be fixed the versions beyond 5.12.3030 are sposta fix the problems people have with adi cards, but asus is still at 5.10.xxxx

 

[Ketxxx]

maybe somebody needs to drop the toads at asus a email?

 

[AshenSugar]

i tryed sending tech requests, but no joy so far, quite slow over there for mobo support, this why i avoided asus boards for so long, video cards you call and get help RIGHT NOW, boards, well sit and wait or sit and spin, sad when "low end" companys like foxconn and ecs and biostar are easyer to get support from then a top name brand like asus.

try and slap them with an email, if you find a good email addy to slap them with post it in the soundmax thred.

 

[Ketxxx]

ill see what i can dig up. terrible really. asus make good stuff but when it comes to ech support... once they do eventually get back to you all that remains is a skeleton covered with cobwebs sitting at his pc waiting..

 

[AshenSugar]

on the other hand i emailed biostar and they got back to me within 2 days, thats pretty fast for a low end company

 

[Ketxxx]

if need be ill muscle asus. ive had to deal with obnoxious dumb-shit tech support ppl before.

 

[AshenSugar]

whats funny is that their board support people suck arse, but you call about a video card and they couldnt be nicer or more helpfull, the rep i delt with even had them upgrade my card b4 they sent it back since it took them longer to send it back due to low supply of x800pro vivo/xt pe cards at the time!!!!

on the other hand it took 5 rma;s to get my buddys board with a faulty realtime clock and usb ports replaced, they just kept cleaning it off and sending it back because it posted fine!!!!

 

[Ketxxx]

bloody morons :\

 

[GLD]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2005/10/31/creative_xfi/1.html

read up!



you want more???

http://xfi.blogspot.com/2006/01/x-ram.html





wrong or knowledgeable???

On the quotes, your first one says BF2 is accelerated?
Your last quote states BF2 supports X-ram but no one claims it was built with it in mind. So if it wasn't built to support X-Ram, then you could say any game can utilize a sound cards onboard memory, ie X-ram.
More info needed.......................

 

[ktr]

The Creative website gives us the theory behind "Xtreme Fidelity RAM," also
known as "X-RAM."
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/X-Fi/technology/x-ram/gamingXram.asp?page=3

"...
- A game that detects X-RAM can decompress its data at load time into it so
that it does not have to spend precious processor cycles decompressing data
during runtime.
- A game that detects X-RAM can use higher quality audio assets that it might
not be able to use otherwise.
- An application that detects X-RAM can load sounds into it instead of
streaming them from the hard drive.
...
The benefits of X-RAM will be seen in future titles
..."

Please note the use of "game/application that detects X-RAM" above, because
that is important to the buying decision.

This Digit-Life.com review, dated February 7, 2006, talks to the support by
games for X-RAM.
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/multimedia/creative-x-fi-part3.html

"Does X-RAM provide real advantage in games? It does, but it can be said for
sure only about new games that were created in cooperation with Creative
programmers. There are only a few such games so far, but they are all hits:
DOOM3 1.3, DOOM3:ROE, Quake4, BattleField 2, BattleField 2:SF."

This report on the "The Tech Report" website titled "Creative's Sound Blaster
X-Fi Fatal1ty audio card - Much ado about X-RAM" by Geoff Gasior and dated
March 17, 2006 does an analysis of Quake 4 and Battlefield 2 on this card.
http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/xfi-fatal1ty/index.x?pg=1

From my reading of the above review, and the lack of industry-wide support
for X-RAM, there does not appear to be any substantial reason to buy the X-Fi
Fatal1ty over the X-Fi Platinum, despite X-RAM being a good concept overall.

If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.


Search strategy:

Google search on: "Xtreme Fidelity RAM"
http://www.google.com/search?q="Xtreme+Fidelity+RAM"

Google Search on: "X-RAM" support OR supports
http://www.google.com/search?q="X-RAM"+support+OR+supports

some stuff I dig up from google...

 

[Frederik S]

No program supports X-ram it's a marketing stunt from Creatives side, hope you all knew that before buying the sound card, the only thing that improves the audio quality in the more expensive X-Fi cards is the use of better components in general such as condensators. BF2 doesn't support X-ram it supports X-Fi technologi i.e. elevation filter, multiple audio sources and so forth.

 

[AshenSugar]

its alot of dbl talk, openAL under vista will let game devs use xram but it isnt automatic from what i have read, and the benifit is suspect at best from most reviews, u know the ones that arent scewed by fanboi-isim or because the cards $$$ insted of being onboard or being $$ insted of $$$.

i agree once again ket.....alot of bloody morons rearing their heads lately.....guess its that time of the year again.....

 

[ktr]

No program supports X-ram it's a marketing stunt from Creatives side, hope you all knew that before buying the sound card, the only thing that improves the audio quality in the more expensive X-Fi cards is the use of better components in general such as condensators. BF2 doesn't support X-ram it supports X-Fi technologi i.e. elevation filter, multiple audio sources and so forth.

according to creative... http://www.soundblaster.com/products/x-fi/technology/battlefield2/

...it does, but as you said "marketing stunt"...

benches says that their is couple to no fps increase...better off spend your money on memory or something else, like an ice cream.

 

[AshenSugar]

ktr, for ppl with 1gb ram, better off buying a good 2gb kit ,, bf2 loves the ram more ram will take bf2 from ungoddly slow to playable or playable to WOW fast(the gfx do not impress me!!!! i got better gfx out of games years older!!!)

oh and as i said AuzenTech audio cards, they all use HIGH quility parts, the bulegear/auzentech xmystic even lets you change out parts if you want even higher quility ic's added!!!
sure you dont get eax3+ but personaly as a gamer i dont care, i know that many game devs are droping eax support because more and more people are moving to onboard audio or non creative audio and it causts more to dev for eax then to dev for the more common audio solutions.

 

[ktr]

ktr, for ppl with 1gb ram, better off buying a good 2gb kit ,, bf2 loves the ram more ram will take bf2 from ungoddly slow to playable or playable to WOW fast(the gfx do not impress me!!!! i got better gfx out of games years older!!!)

agreed!

so back to the initial post...

MiST91, i recommend buy another gig of memory rather than buying a highend sound card...

if you have money to spare, look in to getting a refurb audigy 2 zs, there are around 30bucks...

edit...

http://stores.ebay.com/Creative-Lab...ter_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZQ2d1QQfsubZ3QQftidZ2QQtZkm

this is all from creative!

 

[AshenSugar]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829130002
cheap alternitive to the auzentech xmystic, same chipset(well - the +)
latest drivers avalable from cmedia forums=great!!!!