ANy time you use offboard sound you are going to see an FPS increase. Onboard sound relies on the CPU, affecting game performance, whereas offboard sound (either USB or PCI) does not. In addition, if you have a decent sound card you can set your sound settings higher, which, IMO, increases your situational awareness, making it easier to stay alive. The X-Fi supposedly takes this a step further by allowing you to set sound to Ultra High.
Totaly agree,KingLou wrote:
YES, getting a good sound card helps. Having a sound card that can process sound info easily, and remove some of the burden from the CPU (my understanding is that onboard sound involves the use of the CPU) can help up your performance. I have a pretty decent system:
ASUS A8n-SLi Deluxe mobo
AMD 64 3500+ (oc'ed to 2.6ghz, but still probably my bottleneck)
2 gigs of Corsair VS Ram
2x eVGA 7800gt CO (copper heatsink) factory OCed running in SLi
and a Silverstone Zeus 650 watt continuous (700+ watt max) SLi certified PSU to keep everything powered.
I was previously using onboard sound......cause I, like you, didn't know the importance of a good sound card.
I played BF2 with no problems. However, when I got SF, I couldn't run it. The sound was too choppy and was causing performance issues. This forced me to get a new sound card.
I opted for the Audigy 2 ZS because they are still awesome cards, and the price has dropped dramatically since the introduction of the X-Fi.
Now I can run SF......and the BEST part is, you have a major advantage over players that don't have a good sound card. Why? Because trust me, with a good sound card, you will hear things you never heard before. Not only can you hear people coming, you can hear them coming from far away, and from which direction. This is VERY helpful. I was blown away by all the new sounds I heard when I got my Audigy (I never knew there were frog sounds on Zatar Wetlands before.....haha).
KiL
i run myself audigy 2 ZS and 7.1 Creative GiGaWorks and you can things come from all direction and you even tell the distance and speed they are comming at you at. You can hear from where people are shooting at you plus a lot of other awesome things. Also since the processing is taking away from the CPU you can tell teh difference in load times...
peace
Well when it comes to sound cards I really have no idea on specifics.
I'm assuming that the audigy 2 etc has a APU??? (Audio processing Unit) onboard.
When did creative start with APU's, example would an old SB Live, or fortissimo II be superior to the modern on-board sound. (I'm thinking not since the BF@ read-me doesn't list them as hardwaresupport cards).
Also are all Audigy 2's the same? There are several OEM's on e-bay that are really really cheap without the faceplate remote etc. Are all the cards the same just different connectors, external units, remotes, etc.
How about the audigy 4, I've heard it's just an audigy 2 with better S/N ratio.
The reason for my confusion is I was looking at the X-fi cards some come have 64MB of memory others don't, some say 64 -channel support others don't mention it.
If anyone really knows the difference between these cards performance wise could you provide a short list and description.
I'm assuming that most cards actually swap with the memory but the 64Mb version does not... is it just a recording buffer or something.
I'm assuming that the audigy 2 etc has a APU??? (Audio processing Unit) onboard.
When did creative start with APU's, example would an old SB Live, or fortissimo II be superior to the modern on-board sound. (I'm thinking not since the BF@ read-me doesn't list them as hardwaresupport cards).
Also are all Audigy 2's the same? There are several OEM's on e-bay that are really really cheap without the faceplate remote etc. Are all the cards the same just different connectors, external units, remotes, etc.
How about the audigy 4, I've heard it's just an audigy 2 with better S/N ratio.
The reason for my confusion is I was looking at the X-fi cards some come have 64MB of memory others don't, some say 64 -channel support others don't mention it.
If anyone really knows the difference between these cards performance wise could you provide a short list and description.
I'm assuming that most cards actually swap with the memory but the 64Mb version does not... is it just a recording buffer or something.
In response to various posts:
1. Offboard sound solutions will have a somewhat significant impact on framerate, depending on the quality of your machine. If it's slow, you'll probably see the improvement. If it's a high-end system, you probably won't notice it as much. What you will notice, however, is an improvement of quantity and, if you're observant, quality of sound.
2. I would pick an 'SB Live!' over any on-board solution any day of the week.
3. Audigy 4's are pretty much souped-up Audigy 2's, only with less availability. If you're going to go for something that expensive, be smart and grab an X-Fi instead.
4. Not all Audigy 2's are the same. Some come with 5 1/4 bay controllers, or external boxes. This is to hook up with complex speaker systems and other external audio devices. The average user will only need the 100% PCI-bay device.
5. X-Fi XtremeMusic is the way to go for anyone wanting awesome sound. The Crystalizer is awesome and BF2 takes advantages of other various features of this card. No, surround sound isn't the only thing it offers.
6. I honestly don't understand why some people are upset with Creative Labs. In my life, I have only bought three sound cards for personal use. The 16, the Live! and the Audigy 2. I had no trouble finding drivers, or finding software that supported these drivers, and none of the cards have broken down yet. I've even bought a CL 3D Blaster Annihilator once upon a time, and it was awesome for Quake 1/2. That card still works. I went on to an eVGA GeForce 4 MX and, after I was about done using it, it fried with only a 1% overclock. But honestly, CL sound cards are the ones with the most support in the market.
7. One of the reasons some X-Fi sound cards have more memory is to allow more things to be handled on the card without having to resort to the mainboard. Another reason is that you can do more with the MIDI bank. But there isn't very much improvement with a Fatal1ty over an XtremeMusic. But, being who I am, I'd personally go for the former rather than the latter.
8. One of my friends has an X-Fi, and I noticed that it sounded better than my Audigy 2...and this was without prior knowledge of what sound card he had, so no. It wasn't illusion.
1. Offboard sound solutions will have a somewhat significant impact on framerate, depending on the quality of your machine. If it's slow, you'll probably see the improvement. If it's a high-end system, you probably won't notice it as much. What you will notice, however, is an improvement of quantity and, if you're observant, quality of sound.
2. I would pick an 'SB Live!' over any on-board solution any day of the week.
3. Audigy 4's are pretty much souped-up Audigy 2's, only with less availability. If you're going to go for something that expensive, be smart and grab an X-Fi instead.
4. Not all Audigy 2's are the same. Some come with 5 1/4 bay controllers, or external boxes. This is to hook up with complex speaker systems and other external audio devices. The average user will only need the 100% PCI-bay device.
5. X-Fi XtremeMusic is the way to go for anyone wanting awesome sound. The Crystalizer is awesome and BF2 takes advantages of other various features of this card. No, surround sound isn't the only thing it offers.
6. I honestly don't understand why some people are upset with Creative Labs. In my life, I have only bought three sound cards for personal use. The 16, the Live! and the Audigy 2. I had no trouble finding drivers, or finding software that supported these drivers, and none of the cards have broken down yet. I've even bought a CL 3D Blaster Annihilator once upon a time, and it was awesome for Quake 1/2. That card still works. I went on to an eVGA GeForce 4 MX and, after I was about done using it, it fried with only a 1% overclock. But honestly, CL sound cards are the ones with the most support in the market.
7. One of the reasons some X-Fi sound cards have more memory is to allow more things to be handled on the card without having to resort to the mainboard. Another reason is that you can do more with the MIDI bank. But there isn't very much improvement with a Fatal1ty over an XtremeMusic. But, being who I am, I'd personally go for the former rather than the latter.
8. One of my friends has an X-Fi, and I noticed that it sounded better than my Audigy 2...and this was without prior knowledge of what sound card he had, so no. It wasn't illusion.
I went from a SB512 to an Audigy 2 zs Gamer and heard a big difference. With that card and reasonable cost Plantronics headphones I can hear footsteps around corners when its quiet, and hear choppers beyond visual range.
You can hear the effects of the echos off walls if you are inside or walk between buildings thanks to EAX. The sound is directional, so when you turn your head in the game, you can hear the difference as if you had two ears.
As an example of the game play advantages, I can stand in front of the Karkand Suburb CP and hear a vodnik driving past the fountain below or a tank rolling up the road from train accident and know if they are headed my way and when they will arrive.
Would an X-Fi make a noticeable difference over an Audigy 2 Gamer? I really can't say, but I can't believe I can be missing much.
You can hear the effects of the echos off walls if you are inside or walk between buildings thanks to EAX. The sound is directional, so when you turn your head in the game, you can hear the difference as if you had two ears.
As an example of the game play advantages, I can stand in front of the Karkand Suburb CP and hear a vodnik driving past the fountain below or a tank rolling up the road from train accident and know if they are headed my way and when they will arrive.
Would an X-Fi make a noticeable difference over an Audigy 2 Gamer? I really can't say, but I can't believe I can be missing much.
This isn't very hard to understand.
If you care about sound, you're going to crank it up on high quality and get a proper sound card. If you don't really care about sound, you're just going to leave the settings on low. It all depends on how much cash you're willing to spend on your system.
I recommend that everybody go to a PC shop and listen to the difference, if they have a rig up. If people like it, it should be a considered upgrade. If not, whatever. If the game gets choppy through loud series of explosions, it may be your sound crowding your CPU; but remember - BF sounds aren't all that large. There's just alot of them.
And the X-Fi is only $150 if you shop at a rip-off store. You can get it for as low as $80-$100.
If you care about sound, you're going to crank it up on high quality and get a proper sound card. If you don't really care about sound, you're just going to leave the settings on low. It all depends on how much cash you're willing to spend on your system.
I recommend that everybody go to a PC shop and listen to the difference, if they have a rig up. If people like it, it should be a considered upgrade. If not, whatever. If the game gets choppy through loud series of explosions, it may be your sound crowding your CPU; but remember - BF sounds aren't all that large. There's just alot of them.
And the X-Fi is only $150 if you shop at a rip-off store. You can get it for as low as $80-$100.
vjs wrote:
40% of what? 40% of nothing is still nothing...
I'd like to see a page with some benchmarks of on-board sound with low medium and high settings vs x-fi etc with low medium high and eax enabled.
Sure it will sound better it should you just spent over 150 bucks on a sound card.
But what can one expect with lag, fps, load times, etc.
For my machine BF2 isn't that CPU intensive changing sounds from low to medium certainly created more sounds. Better? Subjective... but I'm certainly enjoying the game more with medium sound details.
Question is? Would using a sound card such as the x-fi benifit the game non-sound wise?
Would installing an audigy 2 in a slower P4 with onboard sound make the game more playable?
Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2006-04-04 01:23:48)
X-fi cards has a HUGE difference from the audigy 2... why do u think it costs more? and its made by the same company... The XFi series is the sound card and the quality is just pure amazing. and it did improve load times and a few fps since it took off some load from the CPUVic42 wrote:
I went from a SB512 to an Audigy 2 zs Gamer and heard a big difference. With that card and reasonable cost Plantronics headphones I can hear footsteps around corners when its quiet, and hear choppers beyond visual range.
You can hear the effects of the echos off walls if you are inside or walk between buildings thanks to EAX. The sound is directional, so when you turn your head in the game, you can hear the difference as if you had two ears.
As an example of the game play advantages, I can stand in front of the Karkand Suburb CP and hear a vodnik driving past the fountain below or a tank rolling up the road from train accident and know if they are headed my way and when they will arrive.
Would an X-Fi make a noticeable difference over an Audigy 2 Gamer? I really can't say, but I can't believe I can be missing much.
I'm sorry guys part of the problem here is this is starting to sound like the speaker wire debate, where people spend 3K on speaker wire...
I didn't mean to be harsh about the 40% but 40% sounds like alot... but seriously 40% of what? I understand that more voices could be heard with an audigy 2 vs on-board etc, but I can't see the x-Fi being a tremendous improvement. I mean how good can it get.
Normally I'm playing with headphones, I think most people do. It would be nice however to get a set of 4-channel headphones with a mic and a decent card.
So not to be an entire idiot when it comes to sound...
The SoundBlaster Live CT4830 with the EMU10K1-NEF should be better than the nforce2 MCP2-T on board. I though they both operated of the CPU using codex. Or does the live actually use a APU?
I didn't mean to be harsh about the 40% but 40% sounds like alot... but seriously 40% of what? I understand that more voices could be heard with an audigy 2 vs on-board etc, but I can't see the x-Fi being a tremendous improvement. I mean how good can it get.
Normally I'm playing with headphones, I think most people do. It would be nice however to get a set of 4-channel headphones with a mic and a decent card.
So not to be an entire idiot when it comes to sound...
The SoundBlaster Live CT4830 with the EMU10K1-NEF should be better than the nforce2 MCP2-T on board. I though they both operated of the CPU using codex. Or does the live actually use a APU?