Audio

[Jaffa]

I have recently noticed that my computer is lagging heavily when complex sounds are on.  

For instance:

PM2 Concorde at Charles de Gaulle, perfectly smooth with sound off, but very choppy sound on.  Same goes for basically all other aircraft.

So it comes down to, what card shall I get?  I am thinking Audigy 2.  I prefer to have price low(<$70)

[congo]

Hi Jaffa!

If this is only a recent thing, maybe try reinstalling your soundcard drivers.

Some soundcards use more CPU resources than others, particularly onboard sound with a slower or weak CPU like a celeron.

If it has always done it, maybe your cpu isn't fast enought to handle it.

[Jared]

hmmm..what kind of system memory are you running??? I had some problems similar to this until I added 512MB to my previous system...

[Jaffa]

I'm running(love to brag )

P4 1.6(overclocked to 2.3)
512mb DDR PC2700
Asus P4S333
Radeon 9700pro

And yes, it has been a problem in that past.

(It was much better when it had a sound card - It used to be my brother's computer but he built a new one for college and took his Audigy Gamer with him! )

And I'm definately thinking about adding another 512 of ram.

[congo]

Did the overclock stop or improve the problem? It's not a RAM shortage.

Overclock to 2.3ghz should have sorted out any CPU weakness,  maybe it is a nasty onboard soundchip.

The onboard sound on my last two mainboards has been pretty good quality, except they don't support my joystick.  

I used a soundblaster live 5.1, cheap and not too bad. It took some load off my system which was good.

[Jaffa]

It's much better with the overclock, but hitting sound off in the sim makes it seem like it runs slightly smoother.  The extra ghz makes a massive difference in the sim.  However, fir the sake of quality, I still want a sound card.

[congo]

A soundcard will probably relieve the CPU a but more as well, they differ though, in the Amount of resources they use.

Since I got my XP 2600+ CPU, and an nForce2 mainboard, I haven't been able to see any difference at all between using a sound card or not in my frame rates.

But, my onboard sound is a bit better than the Soundblaster Live 5.1 card I had.

[Delta_]

I use on-board sound.  I have Avance AC'97.  This has excellent sound quality and is 5.1.  It does not even lag on my system slighty.

[_526th_Fireman]

A Sound Card and good set of speakers is the only way to go. Let your sound card handle the sound issues and save the processor for other things.

Sound Blasters are very good cards, tend to a little more expensive when compared to other manufaturer's sound cards of similar quality. This is usually because SB offers so many added features to their sound cards, like Wave Studio, EAX and so on. If you don't need or want all the added goodies, then check into Turtle Beach cards. I have heard they are excellent sound cards also.

[Pcyco]

I long ago disabled the on-board sound on my motherboard and put in an audigy 2 with 7.1 surround sound. Not only did it make the processor run smoother, but sounds a heck of alot better also.