Getting a soundcard

[Unfocused]

OK, I finally managed to turn my on-board sound card off (that's why I wanted to access BIOS in the other thread) and it it did give a boost to my FPS (tested it with BF2142), especially in Titan mode inside the Titan, where every additional frame counts (still about 15-20 though, but it was smoother than previously).

So now I'm thinking of buying a sound card. Will pretty much any soundcard do? I'm mostly playing using headphones and have only 2 speakers, not some fancy 5+1 setup, so I really don;t need anything expensive or with a good brand.

I want two things:

1. The sound quality should not be worse than the one I'm getting with the integrated soundcard.

2. My CPU should be relieved of the stress associated with processing sound as it was when I turned the sound off in BIOS (if that is even possible).

Other than that, I want the cheapest POS available with a warranty

I checked and one of my local shops supposedly has this (page is like half English, half German for some reason): clicky

Will that take the stress off the CPU completely? If not, to what extent? I'm only buing it to get a few more FPS, as I did with turning the integrated sound off.

 

[NeptuneUK]

get a low end creative one, twill do the trick fine.

 

[giant384]

either get a sound blaster live! or a sound blaster audigy 4.

 

[Unfocused]

I'm afraid that may not meet the "cheapest POS with a warranty criteria". Would there be anything wrong with buying something for half the price and spending the other half in a pub?

And you haven't actually answered my question - will a soundcard take the strain off the CPU? If not completely, to what extent? What does it depend on?

 

[Stigmata]

It won't make a huge difference... I think it's usually on the order of 1-2 FPS, maximum, compared to on-board sound rendered through the CPU. The biggest difference usually comes with the enormous increase in the quality of the output and the addition of hardware capabilities like EAX.

 

[Unfocused]

It won't make a huge difference... I think it's usually on the order of 1-2 FPS, maximum, compared to on-board sound rendered through the CPU. The biggest difference usually comes with the enormous increase in the quality of the output and the addition of hardware capabilities like EAX.

Well, turning the onboard sound card off gave me those few FPS more (as you said, not a big difference, but a bit more than 1-2 I think), so I was thinking I could achieve the same effect AND have sound, by turning that onboard sound off and using a seperate sound card instead. You think that's possible?


Maybe I'll get that Audigy 2 after all, since it's go a sound processor and all (as opposed to the cheapest ones).

 

[giant384]

yes you will get the strain off the cpu since the sound card has its own dedicated processor, but the big difference is sound quality.

 

[Stigmata]

Turning off sound completely gives you about the same performance as installing a dedicated sound processor (save for a tiny, tiny performance drop due to having to send sound data to the sound processor when it's enabled ).

Long story short: You'll get the performance boost if you buy a sound card, plus the game audio will be of much higher quality.

 

[Unfocused]

OK, thanks for your help guys. :cheers:

Last questions - after I get the card, should I choose "hardware sound" instead of "software" wherever possible? And since it's the processor on the sound card handling stuff - will there be difference in performance if I set audio options to high?

 

[giant384]

yes choose hardware always.

 

[Stigmata]

And since it's the processor on the sound card handling stuff - will there be difference in performance if I set audio options to high?

Probably not. You would get a slight performance hit if you set it to "high" running off a six-year-old sound processor, but if the card is anything close to modern, there'll be no problems.

 

[hungryduck]

If your going to buy a sound card these days - Creatives X-Fi line of cards are currently some of the best on the market.

 

[giant384]

If your going to buy a sound card these days - Creatives X-Fi line of cards are currently some of the best on the market.

mostly only the ones with the xram especially for if you play bf2 or bf2142

 

[3ssence]

Except for the fact that the x-ram actually makes no difference in comparison to the non x-ram versions of the cards in those games. Unless they've changed something, as early reviews between the non x-ram and x-ram cards showed no difference.

 

[The Brick]

No difference yet. If you're gonna get an X-Fi, get the eXtreme music. The rest is a waste of money unless you really need that frontpanel or if you're a professional audio artist.

If you can get a second hand Audigy 2 ZS for like 40 bucks or something, then that would be the best deal I could imagine.

 

[Unfocused]

Ah, now I'm ****ing lost. I was like "fine, I'll get Audigy, looks reasonably cheap!", but it's the Audigy SE that's cheap, not Audigy 4 giant was talking about, which is more expensive.

So the Audigy SE probably won't cut it, yes (in terms of relieving my CPU)? (check specs) I'm really clueless when it comes to soundcards... Why are there such differences in price anyway? Just cause of the sound quality?

As for the X-Fi - I want to buy a regular soundcard mostly to get that slight FPS improvement. Looking at the price of the X-Fi - for the price I'd rather buy something like a Sempron 64 3500+ and a mobo for that and get a big boost.

 

[3ssence]

Do what Brick suggested then and try and get hold of a 2nd hand audigy2, v good soundcards, will do the job required and should be a reasonable price.

 

[Unfocused]

I think I'm going to get the Audigy 4 (vanilla; at least it's listed as "Sound Blaster Audigy 4 7.1 Dolby EX DTS ES 108dB oem" so I'm guessing that's the standard version) after all, since it's Christmas and all that

That should be like Audigy 2 or slightly better, amirite? I can't find the Audigy 2 ZS anyway anywhere near me and I like to buy stuff locally (less fuss with returns etc.)

 

[3ssence]

Good card, will do what you want it to do just fine.

 

[Asus]

I have used to have an Audigy 4 and it worked great. I thought it also had a lot better quality sound (especially music) than my onboard.

 

[Unfocused]

Bare with me, but I think I might change my mind one more time: I found a new X-Fi Xtreme Music (OEM; who needs a box ) about for about 125% the price of an Audigy 4 which is good compared to what I previously saw. Now I think I would regret buying an Audigy 4, knowing there's an X-Fi for not that much more money.

 

[3ssence]

I agree, the pricings over here are very similiar, and idd an oem xtreme music can be had for very little more than an audigy4. And i have an xtreme music and i can safely say that it is a fantastic soundcard.