Topic: Sound Cards?

[Robotochan]

Just got a question this time   Do sound cards take the pressure off the CPU like GFX card take the pressure off the CPU? If so would that mean better performance when using the system with music playing?

[Sandra]

Didnt realise GFX took it off CPU Robo, thought any cards released memory up from your RAM but never thought of CPU load for either  

[Robotochan]

Well that was what I was told. If you use onboard GFX surely more of the CPU would be used by the GFX than if you had a GFX card like a Ti4200?

[Adept]

Yes Robo - a superior sound card will use less CPU cycles to generate the sounds.

This is why GFX cards are benchmarked without sound enabled. The sound card used can affect the frame rate slightly.

[Robotochan]

Great! Cheers Was thinking off a Sound Blaster 5.1 Live. Are they any good?

[Adept]

Great! Cheers Was thinking off a Sound Blaster 5.1 Live. Are they any good?

I have one of those in my PC. I'm not sure how you tell how good it is to be honest though Robo. I'm not much of an audiophile - it sounds just as good as the Soundblaster 128 i had before it - and just as good as the cheapo ISA card I had before that  

[Robotochan]

Yeah me either, had AC97 sound since November 98 when I got my first PC and never noticed the difference when I went to any of my friends houses  

[Sandra]

I recently got a soundblaster 5.1 live card so that I can connect my pc to my home cinema through the digital coax out of the card and it sounds great Robo.
It also has a synth for drums, guitar and keyboards that I didnt realise it had. Not sure if I will use that feature yet or not but I had a quick play with it and it seems quite good