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Sound Cards, do they really save FPS?

M

Mojo

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
1,569
I've heard many people say that sound cards save CPU cycles, which makes sense because something has to render the sound. Ok so if the sound card does something and allows the CPU to rest, that would make it produce a higher framerate. Correct?

My question is, how many frames does it save on average? Do different sound card offer different levels of FPS saving? I'm mostly wondering about the following cards, if anyone can help me out on this one:

-SB Live 5.1!
-SB Audigy 2
-SB Audigy
-M-Audio Revolution
 
Most soundcards today have a hardware decoder instead of running software so nowdays performance gain is not as significant but you CAN gain a lot by having a GOOD soundcard with a tried and tested hardware accelerator like soundblaster Live series and audigy cards all perform well and majority have good hardware acceleration.
 
Soundstorm increases a few fps over the creative stuff... at least that's what a lot of reviews suggested
 
I haven't run any tests or anything, but it was definately worth it to buy my Audigy 2 ZS. The games did feel that they did run smoother, but whether or not they was psycological or fact is beyond me. But overall, a good sound card is definately worth it in my eyes.
 
If you're wanting to get an increase in FPS, put your sound card money towards real performance hardware, like CPUs, RAM, and video cards.
 
Yea, just depends on what your most looking to do. Increase FPS, do like ^ said and get a video card, etc. If your looking to enhance the gaming experience, a good sound card (plus 6.1 speakers) doesn't hurt a bit.
 
Nano_PC_Solutions said:
Yea, just depends on what your most looking to do. Increase FPS, do like ^ said and get a video card, etc. If your looking to enhance the gaming experience, a good sound card (plus 6.1 speakers) doesn't hurt a bit.
Click to expand...
Yes I realize that, but that wasn't my question :).

Thanks for the link.
 
Im quite surprised to see the nforce 2 audio do so well, even beating creative.

The biggest problem ive had with creative hardware is the drivers. From what ive experienced, the hardware is top notch, the drivers are sub par.
 
Wixard said:
Im quite surprised to see the nforce 2 audio do so well, even beating creative.

The biggest problem ive had with creative hardware is the drivers. From what ive experienced, the hardware is top notch, the drivers are sub par.
Click to expand...

nForce (and the progeny, nForce2 and nForece3) takes advantage of AMD's HyperTransport protocol (which has a lot more bandwidth th PCI bus, which is, apparently a limiting factor). The failure to release a PCI-based version of SoundStorm has pretty much summed up that the advantage is *entirely* due to HyperTransport.

What I am curious about is can HyperTransport be built into an Intel-processor chipset, and if so, why have none of the licensed chipset manufacturers (including nVidia and ATI) done so?

From what I understand, HyperTransport is *not* uniquely AMDs (even though AMD did invent it) and there are not, again as much as I am aware, any barriers to prevent its usage in Intel-processor chipsets.
 
That Tom's article is fucking bullshit... "OMG OMG ALC650 IZ STEALING J00R MEGAHURTZ!!"

Clarification time.

The ALC650 is an AC'97 codec, just like the Analog Devices AD1890 "SoundMAX" chip, the C-Media CMI9738, etc. What this means is that the ALC650 is a 'stupid' chip which has A/D and D/A converters on it, and that's it! Turns out, AC'97 is just a standard electrical protocol for attaching one of these 'stupid' codecs to a sound "controller" using only 4 wires.

The actual "controller" is found within your computer's south bridge. This *controller* sits on your computer's bus, interacts with your sound drivers and does all the audio processing.. ultimately determining how many CPU cycles are used to provide the sound for your favorite game.

Examples of AC'97 controllers include...

- VIA 686B
- Intel i8x0
- nVidia Soundstorm

That's right folks, the respectable Soundstorm is an AC'97 solution! And there's a good chance that if you bought a Soundstorm motherboard, it might actually have one of these "dreaded" ALC650 chips! After all, the ALC650 just happens to be *soundstorm certified* by nvidia!

And since Tom's Hardware didn't actually reveal what motherboard had the ALC650 chip on it, which would in turn reveal what audio controller it was attached to, their evaluation of the chip is garbage. Ignore it.
 
PGHammer said:
nForce (and the progeny, nForce2 and nForece3) takes advantage of AMD's HyperTransport protocol (which has a lot more bandwidth th PCI bus, which is, apparently a limiting factor). The failure to release a PCI-based version of SoundStorm has pretty much summed up that the advantage is *entirely* due to HyperTransport.

What I am curious about is can HyperTransport be built into an Intel-processor chipset, and if so, why have none of the licensed chipset manufacturers (including nVidia and ATI) done so?

From what I understand, HyperTransport is *not* uniquely AMDs (even though AMD did invent it) and there are not, again as much as I am aware, any barriers to prevent its usage in Intel-processor chipsets.
Click to expand...
HyperTransport is AMD's flavour of a high-speed, low-pin-count, packet-oriented bus for doing chip-to-chip interconnect. VIA has V-Link and Intel has their own name for their northbridge/southbridge interface which I can't remember offhand.
 
I used the onboard Nforce2 sound for a while but when I played games like FarCry with the sound setting at a respectable setting, there was an unusually large amount of popping and noise so I just settled with an older Santa Cruz I had lying around.

Oh and just as personal policy, I avoid anything with a VIA chipset. I had some nightmare problems with it a few years ago and just don't deal with them at all anymore. Plus, you can't use Digidesign products with a VIA chipset and if one of the biggest names in digital audio says avoid them, I'm inclined to follow suit.
 
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