add-on sound card to improve performance?

[onesoul]

While playing MWLL (*love* it by the way), some audio samples periodically stop working or lag several seconds behind, usually when in heavy combat.  Example is the computer reporting damage that's seconds late (sometimes even after I've died), or RAC gunfire not playing at all.

In the old days (80s, 90s), an add-on sound card would improve game performance by off-loading sound processing from the CPU.  Does that still apply?

I know my video card is certainly a bottleneck too.  While I'm buying a faster video card, wondering if I should buy a sound card.

Dell Precision 690
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5355 @ 2.66GHz (8 CPUs) ~2.7GHz
8192MB RAM
1TB hardware RAID1
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS OC2
Sound Card: integrated
Speakers / Headphones (SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC (for 64-bit Windows))
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600)

[Hartsblade}12th VR{]

I was using on-board sound and just add a dedicated sound card and I have to say the difference is very noticable.

Here is the one I went for (got it onsale for $275.00)

ASUS XONAR XENSE 7.1

[GB-72AT Talon]

I used the same logic and had interesting results.  Had a dedicated Audigy2 PCI sound card installed, had nothing but trouble with sound drop outs and crackling...thought it was MWLL but finally took it out and went to using the onboard sound on my motherboard.  You would think it would perform worse.  It got better though.  Not completely better but better.  Then later on I bought a headset for using Teamspeak/Ventrillo and gaming with.  I messed up and realized after the fact I got a USB headset which of course because it is USB, has its own sound DSP chip inside of itself so it doesnt even use the onboard sound processor.  I figured it would be completely worthless.  Surprise!  I have almost no audio issues now.  Now, I know there are some progressive fixes with version releases that addressed sound issues superimposed over this anecdotal evidence.  I have been wanting to re-install my Audigy2 sound card to see if it is still not working properly....

[=KoS=toasterpastries]

I don't know if it's hardware-specific, but I had a X-Fi Titanium, and it gave me nothing but headaches with the mod. As soon as I pulled it out and ran my on-board sound, everything was fine.

Experiences will vary, but that was mine.

[[CW] Lictor]

I don't know if it's hardware-specific, but I had a X-Fi Titanium, and it gave me nothing but headaches with the mod. As soon as I pulled it out and ran my on-board sound, everything was fine.

Experiences will vary, but that was mine.

+1 for this,

I pulled my XF-FI Platinum and moved to onboard sound and my performance went up.

[sleepysheep]

I used the same logic and had interesting results.  Had a dedicated Audigy2 PCI sound card installed, had nothing but trouble with sound drop outs and crackling...thought it was MWLL but finally took it out and went to using the onboard sound on my motherboard.  You would think it would perform worse.  It got better though.  Not completely better but better.  Then later on I bought a headset for using Teamspeak/Ventrillo and gaming with.  I messed up and realized after the fact I got a USB headset which of course because it is USB, has its own sound DSP chip inside of itself so it doesnt even use the onboard sound processor.  I figured it would be completely worthless.  Surprise!  I have almost no audio issues now.  Now, I know there are some progressive fixes with version releases that addressed sound issues superimposed over this anecdotal evidence.  I have been wanting to re-install my Audigy2 sound card to see if it is still not working properly....

I think it is basically pot luck on a few things.

A) Sound doesn't generally effect the CPU much at all, so it is more about the amount of channels you can have, and the sound quality it self
B) How good your onboard sound is
C) Which sound card you buy, some don't work at all, some do seem to work
D) How lucky you are

The problem comes down to D) where in the end, you could just be throwing money away for nothing.

So basically if you got money to spare, and it's annoying you that badly, I would check the fourms on who's managed to get it to work with which soundcard, and buy one. Otherwise I wouldn't waste your money.

It's very rare I get any sound problems and I only use onboard sound. I would never ever buy a soundcard for this game since it just doesn't need it in my experiance and would be a waste of money.

Experiences will vary, but that was mine.

This.

[onesoul]

Reading other Crysis audio problem threads, I will switch from my USB headset/mic back to the on-board chipset (Sigmatel I think) and analog stereo speakers.

Curious if getting off USB solves the sound buffering.

Also read a thread about video TRIPLE BUFFERING solving audio issues (http://www.incrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=13195&p=20)

And people wonder why I stopped playing PC video games and switched to consoles.
MWLL is the *only* reason I started playing on the PC again.

[=KoS=toasterpastries]

If you use TS3 while you play MWLL (like most of the community), having a USB headset in conjunction with speakers helps for sure.

Having all the explosions and dakka-dakka separate from comms means you can always hear both.
It seems to perform better as well, my PC seems to like the game audio and comms being separate.

Also, consider trying s_maxchannels 128 in the console, and if it improves things, add it to your autoexec.bat.
Increasing the maximum # of channels has helped most people out pretty universally.

[GB-72AT Talon]

I am talking about using the USB headset exclusively.  When I plug my Plantronics USB headset into the pc all sound is now being processed by the internal cheap sound DSP in the headset and is no longer being processed by any sound card or onboard sound.  My sound issues went away when I went to using the USB headset.  Which is really odd.

[Freeborn_Toad]

I haven't recommended Creative cards to anyone in more than twelve years. You needed one for good DOS support on any sort of budget, but I have not been impressed with any of their recent offerings.

Creative's drivers were never good, and the only real advantage they have is EAX, which is of highly exaggerated value. Even EAX 5 sounds worse than A3D 2.0 did back in 1999-2000.

That said, a decent sound card is more than worth it to me. General audio quality is just better, and support for greater polyphony can really help in some situations.

In the old days (80s, 90s), an add-on sound card would improve game performance by off-loading sound processing from the CPU.  Does that still apply?

Not unless you are seriously weak on CPU power.

This is another reason I haven't recommended Creative (whose cards have traditionally been the best at offloading sound work from the CPU). Processing sound in software is so easy for any contemporary CPU that offloading processing to a sound card has next to no effect.

[Gremlich]

I have the X-Fi platinum as well and have seen no obvious performance issues other than my skill in the game.

I agree - problems are potluck.

[onesoul]

Found the USB Dolby headset was the sound issue root cause.  Its' little DSP chip couldnt keep up.  That pisses me off.  Headset was $60.

As recommended above, I switched back to the onboard audio and analog spreakers.  Audio problem solved.

Installed the GTX 465 last night (upgraded from an 8800 GTS). Went from auto detect med graphics to high, but didnt get much playtime.  Card from Fry's was tampered with (fan shell tabs were all snapped).

[=KoS= 37]

Creative's drivers were never good, and the only real advantage they have is EAX, which is of highly exaggerated value. Even EAX 5 sounds worse than A3D 2.0 did back in 1999-2000.work from the CPU). Processing sound in software is so easy for any contemporary CPU that offloading processing to a sound card has next to no effect.

I have an Audigy 2 ZS and it's drivers for Windows 7 are awful, it sounds like I'm listening in an auditorium (that bad auditorium effect in Creative's software) and it's muddy.  It won't be around long anyway, it's PCI.

[GB-72AT Talon]

Found the USB Dolby headset was the sound issue root cause.  Its' little DSP chip couldnt keep up.  That pisses me off.  Headset was $60.

As recommended above, I switched back to the onboard audio and analog spreakers.  Audio problem solved.

Installed the GTX 465 last night (upgraded from an 8800 GTS). Went from auto detect med graphics to high, but didnt get much playtime.  Card from Fry's was tampered with (fan shell tabs were all snapped).

There's no way I would be buying a 465GTX today unless it was really cheap.  By now I wonder if there are even any new cards out there.  You would really be doing yourself a favor by getting a 460GTX 1Gb card.  (No 768Mb or SE models!)  I know on paper the 465 looks as fast or even slightly faster but it's not.  The 460 is the cooler running newer version of the 465 and more truthfully performs similar to a 570GTX range of performance.  If you see charts comparing the 465 to 460 with the 465 slightly ahead, its because the 460 reference clock is like 600Mhz but they all ship running 750Mhz or higher with many around 900Mhz and at those "stock" clocks they walk away from a 465.  The way you received your 465 is a sign, to return it for a 460 1Gb.   /rant. ;-)

[sleepysheep]

Found the USB Dolby headset was the sound issue root cause.  Its' little DSP chip couldnt keep up.  That pisses me off.  Headset was $60.

As recommended above, I switched back to the onboard audio and analog spreakers.  Audio problem solved.

Installed the GTX 465 last night (upgraded from an 8800 GTS). Went from auto detect med graphics to high, but didnt get much playtime.  Card from Fry's was tampered with (fan shell tabs were all snapped).

There's no way I would be buying a 465GTX today unless it was really cheap.  By now I wonder if there are even any new cards out there.  You would really be doing yourself a favor by getting a 460GTX 1Gb card.  (No 768Mb or SE models!)  I know on paper the 465 looks as fast or even slightly faster but it's not.  The 460 is the cooler running newer version of the 465 and more truthfully performs similar to a 570GTX range of performance.  If you see charts comparing the 465 to 460 with the 465 slightly ahead, its because the 460 reference clock is like 600Mhz but they all ship running 750Mhz or higher with many around 900Mhz and at those "stock" clocks they walk away from a 465.  The way you received your 465 is a sign, to return it for a 460 1Gb.   /rant. ;-)

This, sadly if the you paid more for a 465 than a GTX 460 1gb, you got ripped off..... And you can't trust auto detect, I've met cleaver 2 year olds than auto detect graphic settings in games lol.