Performance: CPU limitation and bad audio system?

[Das Bose]

I don't doubt.

Do you find a noticeable improvement in sound using a DAC: I've got a half-decent one kicking around, and your post made me wonder about taking the trouble to put it into my system.

BTW, it is sunny here in Scarborough today, isn't it (I'm presuming you're not in Canada)?

Hahah no way? You live here? As in between Whitby and Filey? Yes it's actually been quite nice so far today...

Anyway, I have a Realtek ALC1200 codec and output digitally to an off-board DAC which feeds my Hi-Fi system.

Using headphones my dac/amp blows away the sound I get from plugging my headphones into any of the soundcards I have tried. X-Fi Titanium, couple of Auzentechs and the STX asus thing.

Simply better separation, dynamics and detail resolution, especially via ASIO.

Of course plugging the same headphones into the headphone jack on the back of my mobo, and using the codec to convert the audio, sounds immediately 10 times worse than any add in card

Try it and see what you think.

 

[wake_up]

All my performance problems vanished when I got a cheap dedicated soundcard.

AMD x4 955. NVidia 560ti, 8 gb ram, SSD, MSI 870-G54 mainboard

What soundcard did you get?
I have the same board, but with an x6 1090T and sometimes i see
a little stuttering the looks like its caused by sound issues.

 

[THD]

Good, another sound thread, these seem to be popping out like mushrooms after a rainy day now. Hopefully twi will realise that their excuse of "XAudio2 being able to do everything they need" will not hold, pull the finger out of their *** and recode the sound engine to OpenAL some day. This is supposed to be a PC game, no?

 

[Conscript]

How do you know it's still working if you can't get it...working? Either the card or its slot might have gone US, not uncommon when switching cards in and out and you haven't grounded/earthed yourself before touching them.

Because I was incredibly careful when handling the components. I always am. I had minimal interaction with the card and grounded myself frequently (besides, has anyone actually ever managed to damage a component with static electricity?). Also, if I'd knocked out the sound card with static, I would of damaged the MB or GFX card which both got handled a lot more.

Ive tried placing it in different slots to no avail. In a way you're right, I cant be 100% positive the card is working. However, it was working fine right up until the GFX card overhaul. I just think the chances of it suddenly failing are very remote.

 

[Kosigan]

Please switch us to OpenAL! Many of us have nice & shiny sound cards that could relieve a bunch headaches.

 

[Shadrach]

If you are suffering from massive stutters and lag caused by audio this might help a bit,
In ROEngine.ini under [XAudio2.XAudio2Device] set this:

CommonAudioPoolSize=192

I have it at 192 but judging from the stats, usually about 100 megs are used by the memory so maybe 128 will suffice - I set 192 to be sure.

This value is in megabytes and is "The amount of memory to reserve for always resident sounds". I noticed a lot less sound stutters with it set, even with 32 channels and HQ, and even in the usually terrible grain elevator ground floor

Also try to set:

3. Change MinCompressedDurationGame to 0.3 From 5
4. Change LowPassFilterResonance to 1.0 from 0.9

(from http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=65000)



But TWI, please add OpenAL support as soon as possible, it's a pain without it.

 

[MadTommy]

The sound is created and processed in your pc digitally, then sent to your soundcard/the onboard codec to either be converted to analog and outputted to speakers or simply outputted as a digital stream to an off-board dac.

If you use the first option and have an add in soundcard then the sound will be played by your soundcard and benefit from the quality dacs, opamps onboard

If you output digitally to a DAC then a soundcard is arguably pointless, unless you are using it to accelerate OpenAL or old EAX games via Alchemy e.t.c.

Thanks Das Bose, all very good info.

Yeah i use analog output to either my 5.1 headset via an x-fi extreme music (old, quality version) or to my nad/mission stereo setup, depending on preference.

 

[Richey79]

(besides, has anyone actually ever managed to damage a component with static electricity?).

A mate of mine destroyed a CPU he had bought himself with static electricity before he got it anywhere near his machine.

Sounds like you know what you're doing, but key things are to repeatedly touch the machine's chassis while it's connected to the mains and the power's off. Move around as little as possible, and I'd try to install the components in an uncarpeted area with your shoes off, just to be safe. If you're a really careful person (I'm not), then those static dischargers that affix to your wrist make the operation pretty-much risk free.

 

[Phazon]

I read today that apparently Windows 8 will be bringing back the ability for hardware processing of sound.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectSound

Windows 8 will see the return of hardware accelerated audio. The WASAPI audio stack, the PCI WaveRT driver interface and the Microsoft audio port class drive have been reworked to allow "hardware offloading" of multiple audio streams to the audio card for mixing and effect processing.

Be nice if that was ported over to Windows 7.

 

[joecheeze]

any updates on this??

 

[ComeAndSee]

I have a PCI Xonar D1. I had too many problems with my Creative cards.

 

[=GG= Mr Moe]

I have a PCI Xonar D1. I had too many problems with my Creative cards.

A little off topic, but yeah, I'm looking at an HT Omega card just to escape from Creative's drivers.

 

[Das Bose]

I read today that apparently Windows 8 will be bringing back the ability for hardware processing of sound.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectSoundhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectSound




Be nice if that was ported over to Windows 7.

Hehe, I was playing HOS on the Win 8 Dev preview earlier, just to see if I could. It played fine.

That's very good news though, I've been looking for a reason to buy a soundcard for a few years now