Gaming and Sound Card

[JLV2k5]

Someone said this to me today

"the xfi sound cards actually offload the some of the work from the CPU and tests show an increase of up to 10% in framerates so if you want top of the line gaming machine, go with a nice soundcard."

Is this true, do XFI soundcards (whatever they are), increase frame rates for gaming? Please fill me in. Thanks.

 

[kevlee89]

I've heard this also..

from what I understand (may not necessarily be true, so going to need some validation..)

there are certain differences among the X-Fi cards. For instance, in the Creative line, I've heard the difference between the X-Fi Audio and Gamer lines is that the Audio line uses your CPU, whereas the Gamer line doesn't. On top of it, the fatal1ty version uses its own memory. Which of course can increase frame rates.

That's at least what I remember reading..you might be better off reading some articles on tomshardware

 

[MixedLogik]

I heard this too. From what I hear, the CPU uses usuage for your integrated audio, so it is less framerates, but nothing noticeably from and average user.

 

[JLV2k5]

Well if it increases the gaming experience in any way, then I'm in. Especially because sound cards are not that expensive. You can get a good one for around $100, and a decent one for way less than that. I need a convicting opinion on the sound card question before I can decide though.

Can anyone else answer my question?

 

[StrangleHold]

Yea from the X Fi Gamer (not the X Fi Audio) and up do there own processing. The lower end card and onboard use CPU time but I would say 10% is alittle stretching it.

 

[JLV2k5]

Well if it helps it helps. Even if it only increases frame rate by as little as 5%, i think its worth getting a sound card. I'll look into the X-Fi gamer sound cards and compare prices.

 

[bumblebee_tuna]

Both statements are true for the same reason: they have an onboard processing unit. While most of the X-Fi cards offload work from the CPU, the bottom of the line cards, such as Xtremeaudio/music, lack an onboard processor and require the CPU to process sound. It's not to say that the Xtremeaudio won't increase your framerates as it might better utilize the CPU over onboard sound in some cases. But, my recommendation is to at least spend the extra money and buy at least the Xtremegamer which is the first card to have processor along the X-Fi line.

 

[JLV2k5]

Can someone send me some links to these gaming sound cards. I cannot seem to find any for gaming on Newegg. Thanks

 

[Geoff]

They don't increase your framerates in real world gaming, I ran a test using onboard vs the X-Fi I have now and it didn't improve the average framerates. Then again most people buy sound cards for higher quality sound, not for higher framerates. You would probably have better luck trying to increase your FPS by installing a Killer NIC, haha

 

[JLV2k5]

They don't increase your framerates in real world gaming, I ran a test using onboard vs the X-Fi I have now and it didn't improve the average framerates. Then again most people buy sound cards for higher quality sound, not for higher framerates. You would probably have better luck trying to increase your FPS by installing a Killer NIC, haha

NIC, Network Interface Card? Is that what you're talking about? If not, what?


So if these X-Fi sound cards don't directly increase your frame rates, they probably increase gaming performance by relieving sound responsibly away from the processor, thus speeding up everything else the chip does.

 

[Geoff]

NIC, Network Interface Card? Is that what you're talking about? If not, what?


So if these X-Fi sound cards don't directly increase your frame rates, they probably increase gaming performance by relieving sound responsibly away from the processor, thus speeding up everything else the chip does.

Yes, NIC = Network Interface Card. The Killer NIC has it's own dedicated processor to off load networking duties from the CPU to it's own processor.

Increased framerates may have been more significant when single core processors were the norm, however with dual/quad core processors, the slight bit of CPU usage that onboard sound uses isn't really enough to notice a difference.

 

[JLV2k5]

Yes, NIC = Network Interface Card. The Killer NIC has it's own dedicated processor to off load networking duties from the CPU to it's own processor.

Increased framerates may have been more significant when single core processors were the norm, however with dual/quad core processors, the slight bit of CPU usage that onboard sound uses isn't really enough to notice a difference.

Is a LAN card the same thing as a NIC? I'm not really familiar with someone have a "Killer Network Interface Card."
Fill me in, thanks.

Can someone give me some links to these nice gaming sound cards? Thanks.

 

[bumblebee_tuna]

They don't increase your framerates in real world gaming, I ran a test using onboard vs the X-Fi I have now and it didn't improve the average framerates. Then again most people buy sound cards for higher quality sound, not for higher framerates. You would probably have better luck trying to increase your FPS by installing a Killer NIC, haha

True, processors now and days are advance enough to not take a hit from processing sound. However, on older machines, such as my old 3500+, I did notice an higher framerates in most of my games from e new sound card.

Sorry, just repeated what had already been said.

 

[JLV2k5]

So is it worth getting a soundcard for a gaming system? I'm not even going to care about the extra nice sound very much. Is it worth it?

 

[Massios]

Can someone give me some links to these nice gaming sound cards? Thanks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&DEPA=0&Description=X-Fi+XtremeGamer&x=0&y=0

One with XRAM, one without. Which ever you prefer.

 

[JLV2k5]

Can anyone expand on this Killer NIC that Omega was talking about? I guess this would replace the onboard LAN that allot of newer mobos have.

 

[JLV2k5]

And by killer NIC you really meant killer NIC. I see the brand name now. haha

What do these NICs do to help gaming and online applications altogether?

 

[bumblebee_tuna]

It's not worth the price for getting that NIC thing. Sound card, yes. It actually makes you better at games like CS.

 

[JLV2k5]

It's not worth the price for getting that NIC thing. Sound card, yes. It actually makes you better at games like CS.

Haha. Better you mean like having better sound will supposedly allow you to play better? Or better performance wise? And if you are saying this, I guess you mean releaving the CPU of some pressure by handling the sound junk. Thanks

 

[jds21]

From what I have heard though, the onboard RAM in the X-FI Fatal1ty cards can only utalised in certain games... and the list I saw was nto a long one. i could be wrong but this is just what I have heard