Thread View: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.tech
9 messages
9 total messages
Started by Andy Evans
Fri, 19 Mar 2004 16:10
Poor performance of Audigy LS?
Author: Andy Evans
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 16:10
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 16:10
38 lines
3064 bytes
3064 bytes
The performance of my new Audigy LS card is very poor, even given its role as Creative's "lower-priced" card. Games like URU and Simpsons Hit & Run show noticeable slowness when the sound is enabled at its default settings. URU is virtually unplayable unless I turn off EAX and reduce the number of sounds to low or medium. I understand that this is not a true relative to the Audigy line of products, and that EAX (at least) is not hardware-accelerated on this card, plus I am using this on a low-end PC (1.4 Ghz Celeron, 640 MB, Win XP), but it still shouldn't be this bad, should it? In testing, Audio WinBench 99 (v 1.0.1) reports between 32% and 55% CPU utilization, depending on the severity of the test. RightMark 3D CPU utilization test reports between 20% and 40%. This seems unbelievably high! The one LS review I found, from a non-mainstream site, was seeing the expected 2-5% (which is what I get with my old Diamond MX-300 Aureal card), so I wonder if there's some incompatibility with my PC setup. I have tried turning off all non-essential tasks and background processes, with little improvement. I fully uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers, and saw little if any improvement. I also tried the recently released drivers, with no improvement. I've also tried removing some of my PCI cards, moving the Audigy to a new slot that sould lessen the need for sharing IRQs, as suggested by Creative Tech Support, and disabled every device except the Audigy and the video. (Although I do wonder whether turning off a device in the Device Manager is the same as removing the card from the slot...) I get some slight improvements, but still see the same problems in games, and get 20% or worse CPU utilization in all Audio WinBench 99 and RightMark 3D CPU utilization tests. Even basic, non-EAX tests show this, and even when the Audigy card IRQ is not shared with anything else. Are these consistent with any other owners' tests, or is there something that can fix this problem? Has anyone with this card run either or both of these benchmarks? If so, can you post your results?
Re: Poor performance of Audigy LS?
Author: Andy Evans
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 06:58
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 06:58
35 lines
2773 bytes
2773 bytes
elric2176@evanses.com (Andy Evans) wrote in message news:<bb2a3139.0403190810.6a9428c8@posting.google.com>... > The performance of my new Audigy LS card is very poor, even given its > role as Creative's "lower-priced" card. > > <snip> > I understand that this is not a true relative to the > Audigy line of products, and that EAX (at least) is not > hardware-accelerated on this card, plus I am using this on a low-end > PC (1.4 Ghz Celeron, 640 MB, Win XP), but it still shouldn't be this > bad. > > In testing, Audio WinBench 99 (v 1.0.1) reports between 32% and 55% > CPU utilization, depending on the severity of the test. RightMark 3D > CPU utilization test reports between 20% and 40%...I wonder if there's some > incompatibility with my PC setup. > <snip> I did some more testing, and determined that the problem is my Gravis GamePad Pros plugged into the Audigy's game port. If I have them in the special "GRiP" mode (even if only 1 is attached), my CPU utilization is terrible. If I unplug them, or use 1 in "4 button" mode, or 2 in "2-button" mode, my test results are normal. I did not have this problem with my old Diamond MX-300 (Aureal) sound card's game port. I tried using the Gravis Xperience 4.5 software, rather than using the default XP drivers, but this didn't help. I also tried turning on the (poor quality) on-board sound just to use its game port while trying to disable the sound portion. I'm not sure if set this up entirely correctly, but I was able to get sound to go through the Audigy while the pads were functional in the on-board game port. I still got bad readings, though. I could try asking both companies' support departments, but I have a feeling that they'd just point their fingers at the other company.
Re: Poor performance of Audigy LS?
Author: Slug
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 23:39
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 23:39
25 lines
2180 bytes
2180 bytes
On 20 Mar 2004 22:58:46 -0800, elric2176@evanses.com (Andy Evans) wrote: >I did some more testing, and determined that the problem is my Gravis >GamePad Pros plugged into the Audigy's game port. If I have them in >the special "GRiP" mode (even if only 1 is attached), my CPU >utilization is terrible. If I unplug them, or use 1 in "4 button" >mode, or 2 in "2-button" mode, my test results are normal. I did not >have this problem with my old Diamond MX-300 (Aureal) sound card's >game port. > >I tried using the Gravis Xperience 4.5 software, rather than using the >default XP drivers, but this didn't help. I also tried turning on the >(poor quality) on-board sound just to use its game port while trying >to disable the sound portion. I'm not sure if set this up entirely >correctly, but I was able to get sound to go through the Audigy while >the pads were functional in the on-board game port. I still got bad >readings, though. > >I could try asking both companies' support departments, but I have a >feeling that they'd just point their fingers at the other company. Or you could just buy yourself a nice new USB gamepad and say goodbye to this issue.
Re: Poor performance of Audigy LS?
Author: Andy Evans
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 23:48
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 23:48
26 lines
2250 bytes
2250 bytes
Slug <slug@no_email.here> wrote in message news:<0t9s50d3j7bfc3lhkjs1p14nnhl2umupf3@4ax.com>... > On 20 Mar 2004 22:58:46 -0800, elric2176@evanses.com (Andy Evans) > wrote: > > > >I did some more testing, and determined that the problem is my Gravis > >GamePad Pros plugged into the Audigy's game port. If I have them in > >the special "GRiP" mode (even if only 1 is attached), my CPU > >utilization is terrible. If I unplug them, or use 1 in "4 button" > >mode, or 2 in "2-button" mode, my test results are normal. I did not > >have this problem with my old Diamond MX-300 (Aureal) sound card's > >game port. > > > > > >I could try asking both companies' support departments, but I have a > >feeling that they'd just point their fingers at the other company. > > Or you could just buy yourself a nice new USB gamepad and say goodbye > to this issue. Unfortunately, adding the cost of 2 USB gamepads will bring my total cost to more than an Audigy 2 ZS. I was trying to keep costs down by going with the LS. If the ZS doesn't have this problem, I'd be better off getting the ZS, returning the LS, and staying with my existing gamepads.
Re: Poor performance of Audigy LS?
Author: Slug
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 00:33
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 00:33
13 lines
1696 bytes
1696 bytes
On 22 Mar 2004 15:48:45 -0800, elric2176@evanses.com (Andy Evans) wrote: >Unfortunately, adding the cost of 2 USB gamepads will bring my total >cost to more than an Audigy 2 ZS. I was trying to keep costs down by >going with the LS. If the ZS doesn't have this problem, I'd be better >off getting the ZS, returning the LS, and staying with my existing >gamepads. Two Logitech gamepads should only run you about $40.00. Trust me, you want to go USB. Some people put in an old soundcard like a Sounblaster Live! disable the sound and just use the gameport on it.
Re: Poor performance of Audigy LS?
Author: NightSky 421
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 05:40
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 05:40
23 lines
2140 bytes
2140 bytes
"Slug" <slug@no_email.here> wrote in message news:6b1v50hd6elp8kq35eg9i632vkg1hohg7e@4ax.com... > > Two Logitech gamepads should only run you about $40.00. Trust me, you > want to go USB. I'm not familiar with the pricing of the Logitech gamepads in question, but I wanted to interject by saying that I agree making the transitition from gameport controllers to USB is very worthwhile. I wouldn't say the change was dramatic, but I noticed somewhat better overall control when I went USB for gamepads and joysticks. > Some people put in an old soundcard like a Sounblaster > Live! disable the sound and just use the gameport on it. Oh boy, these comments really make me feel good about the SB Live! Value card that I'm currently running in my main computer. Not! :-) Yeah I plan to change sound cards soon, but the Live! was brought into service a couple of weeks ago to resolve performance problems that I was having with the Fortissimo III.
Re: Poor performance of Audigy LS?
Author: Slug
Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 04:43
Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 04:43
15 lines
1875 bytes
1875 bytes
On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 22:40:46 -0700, "NightSky 421" <nightsky421@no-email-please.com> wrote: >Oh boy, these comments really make me feel good about the SB Live! Value >card that I'm currently running in my main computer. Not! :-) Yeah I >plan to change sound cards soon, but the Live! was brought into service >a couple of weeks ago to resolve performance problems that I was having >with the Fortissimo III. > Yea, I saw your post above. I used to have a FortissimoII and SB Live!, I also had a Santa Cruz which was quite good. But I'm now using an Audigy2 and am happy with it. For gaming it's the best card out there and it does a good enough job with music and DVD too.
Re: Poor performance of Audigy LS?
Author: NightSky 421
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2004 00:41
Date: Sun, 04 Apr 2004 00:41
18 lines
2249 bytes
2249 bytes
"Slug" <slug@no_email.here> wrote in message news:q2gs605rfu8cvi259atldifc1ihbvja8t5@4ax.com... > > Yea, I saw your post above. I used to have a FortissimoII and SB > Live!, I also had a Santa Cruz which was quite good. But I'm now using > an Audigy2 and am happy with it. For gaming it's the best card out > there and it does a good enough job with music and DVD too. I picked up an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum a few days ago and love it! I also did a total OS re-install too. I especially like the internal I/O drive and the remote control. It's also nice to have a sound card with bass and treble controls again, and just the overall control of audio is phenomenal on the Audigy 2 ZS. I waffled for the longest time on the price of the Platinum version but I decided that I wanted something I would be happy with for the next few years. Considering that the Live! sound card is still kicking around out there, I think it's safe to say that the Audigy series will also have longevity.
Re: Poor performance of Audigy LS?
Author: tq96
Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2004 16:48
Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2004 16:48
7 lines
1340 bytes
1340 bytes
> from gameport controllers to USB is very worthwhile. I wouldn't say the > change was dramatic, but I noticed somewhat better overall control when > I went USB for gamepads and joysticks. For me it was very worthwhile. I went from having to deal with numerous installation and calibration issues all the time to true plug and play operation. I will never get another gameport controller again.
Thread Navigation
This is a paginated view of messages in the thread with full content displayed inline.
Messages are displayed in chronological order, with the original post highlighted in green.
Use pagination controls to navigate through all messages in large threads.
Back to All Threads