Ok, you know what we need?

[Albuquerque]

I'd LOVE to see someone with a "current hardware" rig do some benchmarking for us all.

I'd like to see a 2.4+Ghz Core2Duo or equivalent, 2gb of ram, P35 chipset system do some benches between onboard audio versus "offboard" audio. I'm not talking about SQ here; we can debate that to the end of creation and still not come to an answer.

Rather, I'd like to see how much the performance changes. We always hear about how much faster an "offboard" sound card will make games perform; the last set of benchmarks I saw on this subject where made when P4 2.4's were brand new, and even then the performance numbers were less than 5% at absolute best.

So does anyone have a few hours to do such a thing? Or want to temporarily donate me an Audigy or X-Fi and I can smack out the benches over the span of a few days? I really want to know what I'm missing, or not missing, by sticking with the 7.1 onboard audio on my Gigabyte GA-X38-DS4.

[Mpegger]

Google is your friend.

Whenever the latest sound cards are released, there are benchmarks posted on the usual sites testing just what you ask for. But sound cards arent like video cards, where theres a new standard being released every 6 months or so. Any recent sound cards being released, are usually based on spu's that have already been out for years. And as previous test have shown from other models using the same spu, the gains in performance are pratically identical.

[Albuquerque]

Google is your friend.

Whenever the latest sound cards are released, there are benchmarks posted on the usual sites testing just what you ask for. But sound cards arent like video cards, where theres a new standard being released every 6 months or so. Any recent sound cards being released, are usually based on spu's that have already been out for years. And as previous test have shown from other models using the same spu, the gains in performance are pratically identical.

I've googled for a month and found nothing. Seriously. And I'm not any sort of Google newb either; searching has become part of my job in the last few years and Google is by far my weapon of choice.

The only performance benchmark I've seen anywhere with real games is from more than two years ago. If you know of one, post it...

[Mpegger]

I've googled for a month and found nothing. Seriously. And I'm not any sort of Google newb either; searching has become part of my job in the last few years and Google is by far my weapon of choice.

The only performance benchmark I've seen anywhere with real games is from more than two years ago. If you know of one, post it...

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?/audio/auzentech_x-fi_prelude_7_1_sound_card/6

http://techreport.com/articles.x/11759/6

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read_pf.php?cID=1051

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/audiotrak-prodigy71/index.html

Those are just some that I pulled up on a quick search that have CPU Utilization tests within. A X-Fi based card, a ADI 1988A based card (with comparisons to other SPUs), a CMI8788 based card, and a Envy24HT based card.

Again, sound cards arent updated on any regular schedule as video cards are, so you wont find many recent reviews unless some new SPU is released that causes a big buzz. Hence, why years after it release, the X-Fi based cards are still highly regarded when it comes to CPU utilization, although there are a handful of other SPUs out there that compete very well when it comes to sound quality.

[Albuquerque]

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?/audio/auzentech_x-fi_prelude_7_1_sound_card/6
Where is onboard sound? I see two Creative labs products being compared in two games, with no onboard sound at all.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/11759/6
Games? Anyone?

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read_pf.php?cID=1051
Games? Anyone?

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/audiotrak-prodigy71/index.html
Games? They talked about games for a paragraph, but it's under "subjective" -- as in, they couldn't be tasked to take a benchmark run or two? And what games was he talking about?

Those are just some that I pulled up on a quick search that have CPU Utilization tests within. A X-Fi based card, a ADI 1988A based card (with comparisons to other SPUs), a CMI8788 based card, and a Envy24HT based card.
And yet, they aren't anything like what I asked for. Please see my original post for a refresher.