Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: JimmyC on May 18, 2017, 01:17:06 AM
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would a USB sound card be better than a generic motherboard inbuilt sound card for use in the game?
Cheers
Jimmy
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It depends.
First, it will add to the USB devices which you already have quite a number.
Second, there's quite a variety of USB sound cards. The most simple ones are small plugs with jacks for headphones and microphone, sold for as little as $5. Supposedly USB headsets have something similar inside them. Then there's DAC's which may cost $1500.
The most important question is, what are you trying to achieve. For gaming, the onboard one is at least as good as the $5 plug. For serious music listeners a DAC is highly preferred.
If you have a desktop, a dedicated sound card inside the computer would take some of the load from the rest of the system and possibly improve the directionality of the sounds. That would be my option for improving game sounds. So far I've been happy with the onboard audio, but there's many, especially tankers, who say that a good sound card has made spotting the enemy by ear easier.
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Personally, I would never run audio over a USB port. It is far too CPU demanding as compared to a sound card or even an onboard sound ship.
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I was wondering, with windows 7/8/10 isn't all the sound handled in a 'software' manner, making the type of sound card irrevelant performance wise?
A good basic usb sound card is the fiio k1, its dac is of high quality. the sound blaster e1 is good aswell a'd more adapted to gaming with its microphone input.
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I was wondering, with windows 7/8/10 isn't all the sound handled in a 'software' manner, making the type of sound card irrevelant performance and quality wise?
A good basic usb sound card is the fiio k1, it's dac is of high quality. the sound blaster e1 is good aswell a'd more adapted to gaming with its microphone input.
The software is nothing without the hardware to process it
Edit: add...the better the hardware the better the processing
Hope this helps
TC
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I was wondering, with windows 7/8/10 isn't all the sound handled in a 'software' manner, making the type of sound card irrevelant performance and quality wise?
A good basic usb sound card is the fiio k1, it's dac is of high quality. the sound blaster e1 is good aswell a'd more adapted to gaming with its microphone input.
It all depends on the sound device. The problem with USB is you still have to get all the data to the sound device, via the USB bus. Where any other type of sound device has a much more efficient bus (PCI-E, PCI, memory bus...) so they incur less overhead.
Now, if the sound device has hardware CODEC's onboard, then the CPU is doing even less. How many sounds, which can be played simultaneously, will depend on the number of channels/voices the sound device will support and if this is handled in hardware, then the CPU is doing even less.
For each byte of data, the USB bus must interrupt the CPU. During the interrupt processing, all the cores of a CPU are stopped. Any other bus will have a significant number fewer interrupts. The smarter/better the sound card, the fewer the interrupts on top of that.
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I understand the overhead associated with usb transfer. However aren't hardware codecs a thing of the past? I'm thinking EAX
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I understand the overhead associated with usb transfer. However aren't hardware codecs a thing of the past? I'm thinking EAX
EAX is a thing of the past. Hardware CODEC's are still very much in play. PCM, MP3, and AAC hardware CODEC's are alive and well.
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ok lets take PCM then, to summarise my simplistic view, nowadays windows generates PCM 'packets' using your system ressources and sends them to an audio output, using pcie, usb, etc. What the sound card only does is convert the pcm signal to analogue waves correct? That means that all the 3D positioning and filters of the game's sound is done by the main cpu and that the quality of the sound card has zero impact on the number of fps you get?
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ok lets take PCM then, to summarise my simplistic view, nowadays windows generates PCM 'packets' using your system ressources and sends them to an audio output, using pcie, usb, etc. What the sound card only does is convert the pcm signal to analogue waves correct? That means that all the 3D positioning and filters of the game's sound is done by the main cpu and that the quality of the sound card has zero impact on the number of fps you get?
That is not entirely accurate. You are forgetting the number of interrupts involved in all of that. Each interrupt causes a context switch. Interrupts is what a good sound card saves you. That is where the gains are made. In the end, all sound is simply converted from digital to analog, regardless of the bus.
Before it gets to that conversion is where CPU savings can be made. The dumbest sound device is simply an A/D converter with the CPU doing all the heavy lifting. The smartest sound device just needs parameters filled out and it takes care of the sound work, including positioning.
For instance, we say we need this stream, played at a specific level, over a specific channel, at this sample rate, at this bit depth and hand the sound driver a raw sound packet. After that, the division of labor depends on the intelligence of the sound device as to how much is done in the driver.
Does this mean you will get a significant boost in frame rate? Probably not. It does not mean there is nothing to be gained from an intelligent sound card. For example, you have no idea if a sound is not played due to the limitations of the hardware.
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For example, you have no idea if a sound is not played due to the limitations of the hardware.
ok that may explain an issue I am having with overwatch. Thank you for the explanation! I now need to do some testing to see if my external k1 dac really beats my internal asus dgx card sound quality wise.
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I am definitely not a computer/tech geek. If I am using sound from the mother board or video card via a USB headphone, could that be causing pauses and stutters? All the gaming controls are also on USB as well as back up drive. and other stuff :old:
I currently have 4 devices on a powered USB hub and six items plugged into the computer, including of course the USB Hub with four.
If I go back to the mini plug type headphone, could that possibly improve performance?
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Tried one out...
Sounded pants compared to the onboard card
Thanks for help
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Dumb question from a confused person: I thought with the introduction of Vista "smart" DSP sound cards instantly became "dumb" DACs as Vista required all sound to be done in its software to stop those nasty evil pirates from copying music, basically audio DRM? Did that go away with later versions of Windows?
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Dumb question from a confused person: I thought with the introduction of Vista "smart" DSP sound cards instantly became "dumb" DACs as Vista required all sound to be done in its software to stop those nasty evil pirates from copying music, basically audio DRM? Did that go away with later versions of Windows?
That was never true. The DRM garbage rides above the sound driver. It is embedded in the Windows sound function calls the application make. It just added more overhead for all audio, regardless of the sound device.
I am definitely not a computer/tech geek. If I am using sound from the mother board or video card via a USB headphone, could that be causing pauses and stutters? All the gaming controls are also on USB as well as back up drive. and other stuff :old:
I currently have 4 devices on a powered USB hub and six items plugged into the computer, including of course the USB Hub with four.
If I go back to the mini plug type headphone, could that possibly improve performance?
The USB bus was never really designed for heavy data usage. Originally it was designed to replace the quagmire of low speed usage I/O ports on the computer (parallel port, serial port, game port, midi port....).
It did not take long for manufacturers to realize they could build cheaper I/O storage devices using that bus. It made the members of the USB design committee cringe.
It is possible for it to cause stutters in an application, but it would be very dependent on how the hardware was organized as it relates to the USB hubs and interrupt sharing between other devices.
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When I get a new headset to plug into my SB card, I will reinstall the card and software and see it that helps the "stutters" in DX11 and let you know. May take some time though :aok
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When I get a new headset to plug into my SB card, I will reinstall the card and software and see it that helps the "stutters" in DX11 and let you know. May take some time though :aok
Worth a shot, but I am pretty sure it will not help. I would like to be wrong.
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I plugged in a USB headset yesterday for a conference call and tried them out in AH.
Rosewill RHTS-8206
They are neat as they vibrate as I'm getting shot down but I've had to crashes to desktop - more like a alt tab as AH just minimizes and stays running - I can get back into AH in time to see myself die :)
Is there something I can check IRQ wise to see if I have a conflict? Haven't messed with any of that in years.
I'm using the DX 9 version.
TIA
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Eagler, if the game appears to be minimizing on its own, there is another program asserting itself as the primary Windows application which causes Windows to minimize the game.
You need to track down whatever program is doing that. By the way, whatever program is doing it, remove it from your computer. It is an ill-behaved piece of software which asserts itself as a primary application without regard to what is being run.
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Eagler, just to narrow your search, if the ctd's started after you plugged the Rosewill headset in, it might be their software. It's amazing in a negative way how many companies include a "customer satisfaction survey" program in their default installation package.