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Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: falcon23 on April 27, 2009, 08:10:59 PM

Title: Any good USB soundcards to be had
Post by: falcon23 on April 27, 2009, 08:10:59 PM

I have a USB headset,and wondering what you all would reccomend as far as a SC with USB..

                 Thanks.. :salute

Title: Re: Any good USB soundcards to be had
Post by: wrag on April 27, 2009, 11:10:48 PM

Recommendation?

Don't use a USB headset?

Title: Re: Any good USB soundcards to be had
Post by: 1701E on April 27, 2009, 11:19:15 PM

As I understand it, USB headsets don't need a SoundCard as they have their own software/drivers and whatnot.

I may be wrong though.

Title: Re: Any good USB soundcards to be had
Post by: Skuzzy on April 28, 2009, 05:59:29 AM

USB headsets use the CPU to do all the work.  They are basically AC97 sound devices, that go through another hardware layer (USB to PCI) to finally get sounds to play.

Title: Re: Any good USB soundcards to be had
Post by: 1701E on April 28, 2009, 11:41:21 AM

Quote from: Skuzzy on April 28, 2009, 05:59:29 AM

USB headsets use the CPU to do all the work.  They are basically AC97 sound devices, that go through another hardware layer (USB to PCI) to finally get sounds to play.

If they do that Skuzzy, then how come my USB headset uses less CPU then my Soundcard when listening to music?  Not trying to say you're wrong or anything, I am really curious why it would work like that if it uses the CPU.

Title: Re: Any good USB soundcards to be had
Post by: Skuzzy on April 28, 2009, 11:44:52 AM

Crappy sound card?  How are you measuring the CPU usage?  Does it take into account IRQ overhead (that is where USB really is piggish)?  Decoding music files is very CPU intensive.  Nevermind the actual playing of them.

The USB bus is a dumb serial interface.  It has absolutely no CPU or hardware assistance at all.

Title: Re: Any good USB soundcards to be had
Post by: 1701E on April 28, 2009, 11:59:53 AM

I just use the Task Managers "CPU usage".
When using Onboard it was 5-7%
When using SoundCard it is 2-4%
With a USB Headset is it 0-2%

Is there a better way to measure CPU use?

Title: Re: Any good USB soundcards to be had
Post by: Skuzzy on April 29, 2009, 05:59:33 AM

Something is screwed up then.  You cannot decode a music file with 0% CPU usage.  The act of decoding it is going to use CPU time.

The Task Manager cannot be trusted to give actually usage times due to all the other software that may or may not be running at any given time.

There is absolutely no way a USB headset can use less CPU time than a decent sound card.  It simply cannot happen.