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CPU usage - VIA versus Audigy

L

lorcani

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 21, 2003
Messages
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I have a VIA onboard sound chip. It works fine, but I experience terrific slowdown in games, even though the rest of the system has been upgraded. Most of the anomalies have a sound stuttering problem associated with it, so I thought it may be the sound chip. So, is there a noticeable difference between the VIA sound chip's CPU usage, and the Audigy 1/2 CPU usage?

The system is:
AMD Athlon 2200+ @ stock
EPoX 8K9A2+ motherboard
BBA Radeon 9600 Pro 128Mb @ 450/320
512Mb Corsair Value Ram
On-board sound
WD 800JB
[Spurious CD drives]

Thats a relatively new system, so I'm thinking its gonna be the onboard sound, but I wanted to check this out before I make a purchase.
 
Easy way to check whether the sound's the problem: turn off sound and try and reproduce the slowdown. If it doesn't happen, a soundcard with hardware acceleration (such as an audigy) will help. If it's still happening, the stuttering is a byproduct of the slowdown, not a cause.
 
sound cards will give you an increase anyways since they take work off of the other components by doing all the sound processing onboard

thats my dumbed down explination of things :p
 
Originally posted by JoJoFine
thats my dumbed down explination of things :p
Click to expand...

I. R. Stupid, so thank you :p

I'll try running it without sound. I was wondering whether the sound chip would still process it, just not send it out the output hole. Thanks for clarifying.
 
Originally posted by lorcani
I. R. Stupid, so thank you :p

I'll try running it without sound. I was wondering whether the sound chip would still process it, just not send it out the output hole. Thanks for clarifying.
Click to expand...

well unless you disable the onboard sound the onboard chip will still be processing. by puting in a sound card without disabling the onboard sound you're almost guranteed to have conflict errors pop up
 
sound cards will give you an increase anyways since they take work off of the other components by doing all the sound processing onboard
Click to expand...

it matters on what we're talking about here. most cards, when doing software 3d rendering, will perform about the same. it's when you get into using direct sound 3d and EAX that you'll see host-based audio cards start taking hits.

an audigy 2 can do all of that; software, hardware and EAX in hardware, and would show the least amount of cpu usage. motherboard audio would show a considerable amount more because it does all of its hardware and EAX processing through the host (CPU).

id venture to say that in a game that utilizes EAX, a motherboard audio solution will be about 20% slower than an audigy card that can do everything by itself without processor help.
 
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