08-08-2004, 02:40 PM
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#1 |
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Lieutenant Junior Grade
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Bay Area ,CA
Posts: 170
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Sound Card rec's
I'm also thinking of getting a PCI soundcard of some sort..Any rec's? I'm looking at several creatives..but nothing super expensive..I want to take the load off my CPU..I use the onboard sound right now..Or is this even worth it? Is the performance benefit much for doing this?
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08-08-2004, 02:42 PM
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#2 |
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Secretary of the Navy
  
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Chillin' N Da 'Hood
Posts: 34,997
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Basic SoundBlaster Live 5.1 has always done the trick for me...
But if you want "fancy" go Audigy 2... 
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08-08-2004, 03:31 PM
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#3 |
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Chief of Naval Operations
 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: City of The Dead
Posts: 13,552
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my onboard sound (nForce SoundStorm) has been better to me than my Creative 5.1 Live! ever was.
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08-08-2004, 03:48 PM
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#4 |
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Lieutenant Junior Grade
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Bay Area ,CA
Posts: 170
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I have like SoundMAX or some crap like that..Is EAX 4.0 and all the other iterations overrated?
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08-08-2004, 03:55 PM
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#5 | |
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Secretary of the Navy
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Chillin' N Da 'Hood
Posts: 34,997
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Quote:
Pretty much to me, as long as I can hear your character sneakin' up on me from behind.... and all the cool sound directional sound effects from most of today's games... I'm happy.  |
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08-08-2004, 04:01 PM
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#6 |
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Lieutenant Junior Grade
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Bay Area ,CA
Posts: 170
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So does a card alleviate alot of load for one's CPU? (in my case for instance)
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08-08-2004, 04:49 PM
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#7 | |
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Admiral
 Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 5,064
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Quote:
I'm quite fond of EAX, because when a game uses it well, it makes for a very cool experience. My recommendation is the Audigy for around $40 or the Audigy2 for around $70 Maybe this one:http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...102-158&DEPA=0 I like to think that PCI sound cards will take more sound duties off the cpu better than will an on-board sound card, but I have yet to test this.
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Five years... |
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08-09-2004, 10:05 PM
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#8 |
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Vice Admiral
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Cali, but missing Hong Kong and Texas
Posts: 4,782
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I'm speaking out of my ass at the moment...but doesn't the south bridge of the mobo take on the load of the sound stuff on the mobo...not the cpu?
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Life is like toilet paper, long and useful! The stars at night, are big and bright *clap 4x* deep in the heart of TEXAS! |
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08-09-2004, 10:46 PM
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#9 | |
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Admiral
Join Date: May 2000
Posts: 5,064
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Quote:
The bus mastering in the south bridge doesn't have the the processing power to code/decode multi-channel audio. It many just takes the load off the cpu for duties like moving data around, using interupts, and opening and closing DMA channels. |
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08-09-2004, 10:52 PM
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#10 |
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Lieutenant Junior Grade
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Bay Area ,CA
Posts: 170
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So is a soundcard a good upgrade over onboard audio in a CPU boost sense?(or would it really be that much diff?)
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"A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." -MLK |
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08-10-2004, 12:00 AM
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#11 |
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Banned
 Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Posts: 8,700
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A good onboard sound chip like Nvidia Soundstorm will only utilize 2% cpu max. If thats what you have you don't need anything else. If all you have is crappy realtek or something get an audigy 2.
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