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The effects of using an AV receiver vs. Gaming Headsets

iCadaveR

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OK... little bit of a wierd thing here.

After trying a few different headsets,(Logitech G35, Fatality MKII, Soundblaster Tactic Sigma, Titan Ax Pro, Razer Chiciarcas<-forgot how it's spelt, Sharkoon Tactic, TurtleBeach x11, and some generic plantronics) i thought i would try out an oooold Onkyo Receiver i had sitting around. I connected all of these audio "devices" to the x-fi titanium champion s-card via spdif/optical for the record. I noticed something STRANGE. I noticed a HUGE hit registry boost in multiple games. All popular games as well. Cod4, Cod6, Cod7, Battlefield bad company 2, Battlefield 3 and even Homefront. The receiver used is an Onkyo TX-SR573. Looks like the audio the receiver is getting is 96khz/24bit pcm dts Neo:6. I noticed spdif is only a 2 channel connection so it encodes to what simply'er put than most descriptions is a pizza-like format. One channel per slice. I know that "supposedly" using an off-board sound card that it may use less resources, I really didnt notice much difference using headsets on that soundcard. but I couldn't help but notice a MAJOR boost all around using an AV receiver. Almost like it completely off-loaded the cpu of all audio-related tasks and focuses more on the game's or programs instead. I noticed faster movement<- almost like i was getting higher fps without seeing a huge increase, I also noticed better graphics(by that i mean cleaner, less blurry.) The biggest thing i noticed though was that it no longer took 1.5 second for my bullet to hit someone that was 1.5 feet away from me. I clicked/dead. It was intense. I had pulled off "hacker status" kdr's in tdm matches. cod4 107-15 kd.

reason i felt this is a big deal for some of the guys on this site is that everyone seems to be overclocking like mad to squeeze that extra frame which results in a less stable system. With the system im using i shouldnt really see 1.5 sec/1.5 feet time delay between time bullet was fired to the time of impact. and NEITHER SHOULD ANYONE THAT INVESTS A BUTTLOAD OF MONEY INTO THEIR PC.

Asus P8Z68-V Pro/Gen3 mobo
i7 2600k @ 3.5/4.4Ghz turbo
Dominator-GT 2000mhz 8GB 9-10-9-27-2N timings
2x GTX 460's PNY XLR8 @ 765mhz gpu clock
Patriot SSD 128 GB *(O.S. hdd)
Velociraptor 10,000 rpm 300GB (Games and apps hdd)
regular Maxtor 300gb for my music :p XD

I was always wondering why i was not getting the hit on the guy i had dead in my sight. Running at 125/250/333 solid fps??? 30% cpu usage at most for cod4???!!! Well that is fixed.

My main reason for posting this is... Has anyone else experienced this? Any input on getting A headset to give the same performance? Or am i missing something. Some sort of format or Sound Wrapping causing the latency? i noticed in cod4 lowering the sound quality to 22khz i would see a much snappier hit registry than at 44khz. Only problem a desert eagle should not sound like a freakin ray gun.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
Hit registry and sound have nothing to do with each other...especially sound having anything to do with hit registry.

Honestly, it just seems you need to tighten up your knowledge on how things work in online gaming a bit... that should clear up your questions and problems.
 

iCadaveR

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haha. first off. dont insult me. second maybe you should "tighten up" your knowledge of processing. fKn Trolls these days.
 
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No. Never happened to me.

Audio performance hit on today CPUs is minimal ( games sound quality isn't that demanding ).

I think that something in your PC is messed up if games run faster and look better:confused: if you use a receiver.

Maybe i'm wrong but, games running faster because of that is weird, but looking better i can't see how.
 
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Lol. Anyway, there are guys that turn their graphics down to achieve the killrun and stats-gasm of their live, so some part of LAG is generated by the users computer. That is all I have heard. Audio could be the same...
 

iCadaveR

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alright thanx for more inciteful comments. but here's my point. yes i know the hit on today's cpus are nothing really. but think about this. playing bfbc2 for instance. ever had that shot that came from your GOL sniper or your shotty point blank and seen the blood splatter from the guy yet he still manages to kill you. and you know he should be dead? you can google it... just put in "bfbc2 hitreg fail... and you will see a lot of it. since i plugged this receiver in not once has that happened to me. i go back to a headset it goes retarded again. ive tried everything from disabling hyperthreading because of a roomer stating that it can cause performance hinders and that "most" games dont utilize it yet. Now something leads me to believe that having the cpu preprocessing the audio before its sent to the headset can cause this no hitreg in bfbc2... seems like the cpu is too busy focusing on that high quality gun sound than the fact you shot the fkr. Causing no hitreg but your video card knows its supposed to render blood because you hit him. ive tried onboard audio, and several soundcards... all of which reacted the same. i suggest someone tests this theory other than me so i know im not trippin. Hook it up with windows default drivers via spdif enable stereo mix and see what im talking about. its a trip. Both pc's ive built... the other was a p6t deluxe i7 940 @4.0ghz build and it acted the same exact way. a buddy of mind running an amd athlon p.o.s. even received a very noticeable boost. give it a shot before you shoot it down because "today's processors are all that"
 

iCadaveR

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2x gtx460's @ 1440x900 75hz, smoke and shadows off, and AA @4x, gives me a SOLID 333fps. i typically run a solid 250fps because cod4's graphics engine is designed in a funk that has sweet spots for maxpackets and framerate. + punkbuster's max fps cvar is com_maxfps 250. headset or not its playable to me. im talking about hit registry here. The time it takes for your shot to hit the fkr. even on a server with 200 ping my shots are perfect. bang/dead not bang.....dead.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
haha. first off. dont insult me. second maybe you should "tighten up" your knowledge of processing. fKn Trolls these days.
Sorry man, didnt mean to insult you.

Let me put it a different way...just like the trunk lid button on your car has nothing do with how fast your car goes is how using an A/V receiver effects gameplay. :toast:

When using the A/V receiver, all the receiver is doing is AMPLIFYING the line level signal it gets. The CPU/sound card is still doing the EXACT SAME AMOUNT OF CRUNCHING to get that sound out regardless of what is on the other end. Same thing with cans, they accept a line-level out and boost the signal on its own. Again what is at the end of the signal has nothing to do with image quality or FPS. Like someone mentioned above, the CPU cycles used for audio is negligible.
 
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iCadaveR

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well typically... i play with a 20-35 ping. the 200 ping was a reference. and what i am saying is that when using a soundcard/headset vs soundcard/av receiver... the soundcard isnt actually doing anything except acting as a passthrough. and the car reference reminded me of men in black... dont ever touch the red button. I can admit i dont know s*** in the audio area. But i can tell you i notice a difference. Maybe you should try it and not be so biased. Also An AV receiver decodes too. So in a sense it does process audio. receiving a pcm= pulse code modulation, Raw audio, or LPCM= lossy pulse code modulation, or formats like DDL 5.1, or even DTS signals then sending and amplifying the corresponding audio channel to the correct speaker. you are leaving out a lot of other variables as well. Bit rate, khz sampling rates, how many channels, what format. yada yada through one digital bitstream/ analog signal.

video relevence: freeing up cpu usage/ cycles to forward more video information to vram to be processed by gpu... makes sense to me.
 

iCadaveR

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im telling you you should give it a shot. try out a receiver hooked up by toslink and test some hit reg
 

iCadaveR

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unless you can give me some pointers on using a headset. because ever since i experienced the hit registry i get now ive been staying away from headsets because i know the difference is there. just like with the audiodg.exe memory leak in windows 7. you can always tell something isnt right.
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
Something isnt right... I agree, but you are looking in the wrong place. Where, no clue. Id try uninstalling and reinstalling with the latest audio drivers (even if you are on the latest, reinstall).


Maybe you should try it and not be so biased. Also An AV receiver decodes too. So in a sense it does process audio. receiving a pcm= pulse code modulation, Raw audio, or LPCM= lossy pulse code modulation, or formats like DDL 5.1, or even DTS signals then sending and amplifying the corresponding audio channel to the correct speaker. you are leaving out a lot of other variables as well. Bit rate, khz sampling rates, how many channels, what format. yada yada through one digital bitstream/ analog signal.
Im well aware what A/V receivers do. I have an HTPC which is connected to my Sony receiver and do not notice any difference in hit registry on that PC vs the one downstairs hooked up to my cans in the same games.

Again the RECEIVER is doing that work, not the sound card.

Holy triple post batman...edit button?????
 
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Athlon2K15

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I run a Pioneer Elite reciever for my pc sound and have never noticed anything being different than my logitech G330 headset.
 

iCadaveR

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see i dont believe the audio is being processed by the soundcard when using 3.5mm headsets. nor when using a toslink headset. looks like the audiodg.exe service is doing it all. ive seen people making the attempt to turn off all soundblaster special effects and what not in the windows audio panels. I would always see windows 7 utilizing 3% cpu to nothing but audio? i know thats hardly measurable but look at it this way. it has to buffer. thats more information between calculations.
 

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So if the soundcard isnt processing the audio why do some audio cards sound better than others? i can guarantee there is a big difference between my onboard realtek and a HT Omega Claro
 

iCadaveR

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Something isnt right... I agree, but you are looking in the wrong place. Where, no clue. Id try uninstalling and reinstalling with the latest audio drivers (even if you are on the latest, reinstall).

Holy triple post batman...edit button?????




I have tried multiple soundcards different drivers and different audio formats.
 

iCadaveR

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So if the soundcard isnt processing the audio why do some audio cards sound better than others? i can guarantee there is a big difference between my onboard realtek and a HT Omega Claro




maybe the only audio processing because done is a sound equalizer? im not sure... i agree there that some soundcards sound better than others using a headset. i went from using an asus xonar dx to using this x-fi card and i definitely heard the difference. but is it actually formatting the audio to what the speaker in the headset needs to receive?
 
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Benchmark Scores Faster than yours... I'd bet on it. :)
see i dont believe the audio is being processed by the soundcard when using 3.5mm headsets. nor when using a toslink headset. looks like the audiodg.exe service is doing it all. ive seen people making the attempt to turn off all soundblaster special effects and what not in the windows audio panels. I would always see windows 7 utilizing 3% cpu to nothing but audio? i know thats hardly measurable but look at it this way. it has to buffer. thats more information between calculations.
So what is processing the audio then?

SB Special effects ARE handled by the sound card so that actually makes sense.

If your CPU is using 30% during games, it has 70% more processing power to throw at ANYTHING, including audio. Its not the CPU or lack of CPU cycles as its clear from your description that you have plenty of CPU, and plenty of CPU cycles left.

One thing though, I am not biased, I am just speaking from a semi-educated position on this issue. :)
 

iCadaveR

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So what is processing the audio then?

SB Special effects ARE handled by the sound card so that actually makes sense.

If your CPU is using 30% during games, it has 70% more processing power to throw at ANYTHING, including audio. Its not the CPU or lack of CPU cycles as its clear from your description that you have plenty of CPU, and plenty of CPU cycles left.

right... but think of it this way... one cpu cycle game, the next audio, the next game, the next audio... so on so forth.. you are cutting their potential speeds in half.
 

iCadaveR

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So what is processing the audio then?

SB Special effects ARE handled by the sound card so that actually makes sense.

If your CPU is using 30% during games, it has 70% more processing power to throw at ANYTHING, including audio. Its not the CPU or lack of CPU cycles as its clear from your description that you have plenty of CPU, and plenty of CPU cycles left.

One thing though, I am not biased, I am just speaking from a semi-educated position on this issue. :)

yeah i couldnt tell you what half the jibberish says when it comes to speaker impedance or whatever. i get what some of it means but yeah. the biased comment i missed when i edited my original posting ... :D forgive me?
 

iCadaveR

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cutting out all possibilities saying that todays processors are completely overkill for anything you through at them is quite biased
 
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