Does a sound card always "hardware" accelerate audio?

[AndroidVageta]

Ive been reading online some things and I keep seeing that hardware acceleration, especially in games is dying. But my thought is is that if you have a good dedicated sound card (in my case a X-Fi Platinum) then even if something like a PC game doesnt actually have the option for hardware sound, arent you still getting hardware accelerated sound due to the audio being processed by the sound card and not the CPU?

Its not like if theres no option for hardware audio that the CPU processes the sound then its just passed through the sound card...the card is still doing its job, no? So does not having the option for hardware sound really effect anything?

That is all, discuss!

 

[450]

The CPU takes on the audio processing nowadays for the most part. It really doesn't matter though, as modern CPUs are so fast that you're not really losing out on anything.

 

[GotNoRice]

I see what you are saying, but that isn't what people refer to when they refer to hardware acceleration. And unless you disable sound completely it's still going through a "sound card" even if that is just your onboard.

The main issue is that most hardware acceleration was done through EAX via Directsound and Directsound was removed in Vista and 7. The only way you are going to get hardware acceleration on a current title is using OpenAL but not many support it. You can play old EAX titles using Alchemy to convert EAX into OpenAL on the fly but there aren't any new games being made with EAX that I know of.

 

[AndroidVageta]

Right...I guess what Im basically asking is that will playing a game with no hardware support, is that audio impacting my CPU or is it all still being processed by the sound card? If its not, then whats the point of having a dedicated sound card?

 

[450]

Right...I guess what Im basically asking is that will playing a game with no hardware support, is that audio impacting my CPU or is it all still being processed by the sound card? If its not, then whats the point of having a dedicated sound card?

Its impacting the CPU, but like I said earlier a CPU can handle audio related tasks with ease nowadays.

A dedicated soundcard generally has a better DAC, more input/output options, better SnR, and often will have less hiss/crackle than the onboard sound.

Onboard sound has come a long way though. Nowadays I usually just go from onboard to a receiver and connect via optical or coaxial cable.

 

[umeng2002]

It really shouldn't matter. What does matter is how the sound is converted from digital to analog. the DACs, OPAMPS, capacitors, etc. in the souncard OR the receiver determine this. A good sound card might do it better than a low end or mid-range receiver. When people say to just throw it to a reciever via optical, it just transerfers the conversion responsibility from the sound card to the reciever.

When it does matter is when you're looking at features. Games doing sound in software won't have the ability to output Dolby Headphone or CMSS Headphone, etc. unless you have a soundchip (onboard or in a soundcard that supports that feature).