Sound card advice wanted.

[BLACKWATCH]

At the moment I am using onboard sound plugged into my HI-FI amp & speakers.
I'm happy with the sound & realise that a dedicated card would maybe sound even better, but ..............................
Does having a dedicated sound card make any difference to the processor speed & running of the game ?

 

[Stationbeem]

Adding a sound card wont have any effect on the running of trainz. I first started using on-board sound but wasn't happy. Now have Sound Blaster "Audigy" installed. Its a 24-bit Advanced HD. Comes with Surround Sound options plus many more settings. One the best cards I've used from Creative Labs.

 

[johnwhelan]

At the moment I am using onboard sound plugged into my HI-FI amp & speakers.
I'm happy with the sound & realise that a dedicated card would maybe sound even better, but ..............................
Does having a dedicated sound card make any difference to the processor speed & running of the game ?

tomshardware.com did some tests some time ago. It depends a bit on your motherboard, most on board sound use cpu cycles, some ASUS motherboards amongst others have a seperate sound processor on board.

They found that up to 15% of the cpu load could be off loaded onto a seperate sound card. Since the cpu is one of the bottlenecks for Trainz the answer is if you don't have an on board sound processor then a stand alone sound card is best for performance and it didn't seem to matter which one they used.

By the way sound in Vista is different only some drivers actually off load the cpu, so do your research first.

Cheerio John

 

[collinsl]

I would definitely recommend a creative labs X-FI 7.1 gamer.

 

[BLACKWATCH]

Since the cpu is one of the bottlenecks for Trainz the answer is if you don't have an on board sound processor then a stand alone sound card is best for performance and it didn't seem to matter which one they used.

By the way sound in Vista is different only some drivers actually off load the cpu, so do your research first.

Cheerio John

I'm using XP-SP3 not Vista, so ok on that bit, but as for an "on board sound processor", I haven't a clue :'( (I don't understand most of the jargon)

Any chance you might google my MB specs & see if you can find out please ?

Thanks to all who answered.

 

[collinsl]

Most (if not all) motherboards come with onboard sound. I've looked at yours, and it has an inbuilt sound chip. This may not be the best thing for trainz, and I would recommend an upgrade.

Before I upgraded mine, I thought: What can this do to fix the sound bug?
It worked, and although I cannot guarantee that it will work for you, I still recommend it as you will end up with better overall sound quality.

 

[johnwhelan]

I'm using XP-SP3 not Vista, so ok on that bit, but as for an "on board sound processor", I haven't a clue :'( (I don't understand most of the jargon)

Any chance you might google my MB specs & see if you can find out please ?

Thanks to all who answered.

Buy a sound card.

Cheerio John

 

[BLACKWATCH]

Cheers all, looks like a trip up to the puter shop it is.

 

[collinsl]

Cheers all, looks like a trip up to the puter shop it is.

Might be cheaper to get it off the web. Esp. if going to Personal Crappy world.

 

[BLACKWATCH]

Might be cheaper to get it off the web. Esp. if going to Personal Crappy world.

Wash thy mouth out captain, you would have to hogtie me and wheel me through the doors of that store on a barrow, then un-superglue my wallet & order for me.

I use Ebuyer & the likes for my stuff.

 

[psycho_aussie]

If you had the original GA-7N400 Pro, I would have said stick with the onboard sound (it had the nVidia Soundstorm), but since you have the Pro2, buy a sound card.

Chris

 

[collinsl]

Wash thy mouth out captain, you would have to hogtie me and wheel me through the doors of that store on a barrow, then un-superglue my wallet & order for me.

I use Ebuyer & the likes for my stuff.

Sorry!

I know it doesn't have a good selection of soundcards, but for everything else I use www.misco.co.uk

 

[BLACKWATCH]

Considering I'm on a very tight budget, would a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 OEM PCI Soundcard be of any help in cutting the work load on the CPU ?

 

[johnwhelan]

Considering I'm on a very tight budget, would a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 OEM PCI Soundcard be of any help in cutting the work load on the CPU ?

Should do fine. There is no difference between cpu load reduction on any of the sound cards.

Cheerio John

 

[collinsl]

Considering I'm on a very tight budget, would a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 OEM PCI Soundcard be of any help in cutting the work load on the CPU ?

That's exactly what I have!

The one fault with it is the fact that it has a connector for the front panel headers but not for a CD-ROM drive or other internal device.

 

[BLACKWATCH]

That's exactly what I have!

The one fault with it is the fact that it has a connector for the front panel headers but not for a CD-ROM drive or other internal device.

Look what I found whilst digging around in my old stuff last night

And it has 3 headers, Aux in, Sony/IDE & Panasonic. All are 4 pin headers.
The chipset is CMI8738 & it's a 4 channel. Will this do the job ?

 

[collinsl]

Look what I found whilst digging around in my old stuff last night

And it has 3 headers, Aux in, Sony/IDE & Panasonic. All are 4 pin headers.
The chipset is CMI8738 & it's a 4 channel. Will this do the job ?

Yes, it should work fine, as long as you download and install the correct drivers.

 

[BLACKWATCH]

Sorted then, thanks to all who have helped.