Interesting little PC problem Ihad

[Vanraw]

Does onboard audio really suck up that many CPU cycles? when most CPU's were single core i always had a stand alone audio card, but with a CPU like an I7 with 4 smoking fast cores, do you really take a performance hit?

Just curious.

It really doesnt anymore. At least as long as the hardware and drivers are working ok. They havent really had CPU drains since the G31 chipsets were introduced by Intel. But people still have old perceptions.

Only reason I shared this was because it wasn't a gaming experience issue. It was a hardware fault. Even standard internet browsing perform, was impacted. Heck just opening the simple Google web page was a chore. It was impacting the entire PC.

FYI I did install a Creative Labs sound card and its working great.

Wrong, completely wrong. Onboard sound can use as much as 15% CPU. On a faster multicore you can end up around 5%. So if you are running your games in very high video detail and maxing out CPU, your sound & fps will suffer. Because video is higher priority you may experience sound latency meaning the sfx are lagged and not playing exactly when they're supposed to, granted its in milliseconds, but hey..that matters to me. You can gain as much as 5 FPS with a dedicated soundcard, especially if you are like me and run HIGH quality sound + surround.

Sound makes ALL the difference in games, and gives you that much more of an edge. When you hear something happen and can react to it. I cant stand having ppl playing without sound on my team because they are basically fodder.

Yes, if you take your system to the edge, you can see some impacts. I have seen testing results that show 5 FPS hits on difference between on board audio and sound cards. But most CPU benchmarks dont show anywhere near 15%. Agree that if your maxing your system as far as graphic settings and sound quality you would see a bigger difference. For my part, and as long as the hardware is working, I dont see a major difference. At least not one that warrants a $100 plus addon card that takes up yet another PCIe slot on the motherboard.