Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: FBScud on August 13, 2004, 04:42:15 AM

Title: SB Audigy v. SB Live
Post by: FBScud on August 13, 2004, 04:42:15 AM

I currently have the SB Live soundcard.  Will upgrading to the SB Audigy give me a decent increase in FR?  Just trying to decide if its worth upgrading this component for around $90.

P4 1.3 mhz
256 RDRam
ATI 9600 XT
CH Pro HOTAS USB
WindersME

Title: SB Audigy v. SB Live
Post by: Skuzzy on August 13, 2004, 07:06:49 AM

My guess is you would not see much benefit due to other limitations in your system.  You might see some, but not as much as others would.

Title: SB Audigy v. SB Live
Post by: Captain Virgil Hilts on August 13, 2004, 12:58:47 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
My guess is you would not see much benefit due to other limitations in your system.  You might see some, but not as much as others would.

Upgrading a sound card will affect the framerates (I think that is what he means by FR)? Seriously?

Title: SB Audigy v. SB Live
Post by: Edbert on August 13, 2004, 01:23:06 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
Upgrading a sound card will affect the framerates (I think that is what he means by FR)? Seriously?

http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=126847

Title: SB Audigy v. SB Live
Post by: Captain Virgil Hilts on August 13, 2004, 01:41:21 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Edbert MOL
http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=126847

Thanks. I did upgrade from onboard AC97 to an Audigy (I swappped back and forth actually) and saw no difference in framerates. I guess because my frame rate bottleneck is my GeFarce 3 Ti 200 card.

Title: SB Audigy v. SB Live
Post by: Skuzzy on August 13, 2004, 02:13:02 PM

It will normally have the greatest impact where a video card is waiting on the CPU.  In that case, when you free up CPU cycles, the video card is able to do more.
However, if the video card is already saturated, then it will not make any difference in the frame rates, but it will help in other areas, such as Internet connection handling.

Bottomline, anything you do to free up CPU cycles is a good thing.

The other part of the sound card equation is the driver.  If you simply disable the onboard sound and install a new card, you will not gain much and could possibly cause instabilities in the your system.  You must remove the drivers for the old sound card first.

Title: SB Audigy v. SB Live
Post by: Edbert on August 13, 2004, 02:23:49 PM

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
If you simply disable the onboard sound and install a new card, you will not gain much and could possibly cause instabilities in the your system.  

Whoa! I was starting to freak out reading that until I got to this part.

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
You must remove the drivers for the old sound card first.

I never had the on-board enabled, ever...whew!

Title: SB Audigy v. SB Live
Post by: FBScud on August 13, 2004, 04:32:37 PM

Thanks for the info Skuzzy!  I was afraid that was the answer.  Ok...enough about components.  Time to seriously consider whether a new puter is in my future.  Not something I wanted to do right now.  I'll wait until September and see what we can find.  My PC runs AH2, just not at the detail levels I want.