I'm struggling with what to do about my Diamond MX300 sound card. It's a fact that the card was based on an early "Rev A" version of the Aureal Vortex 2 chip set and the MX300 tends to use a lot more CPU time than other 3D sound cards. For me the CPU hit is like 20% in UT and it makes the game unbearable. But without the 3D sound the sounds are not as good. (The underwater effect on the 3D sounds is mindblowing!). The latest review (Gamespot) of Aureal's own Vortex 2 sound card is very positive and the review states that the new "Rev B" of the chip set dramatically reduces the CPU usage to be on-par with the SB Live cards.
My question to anyone who owns the Aureal card is do you see dramatic performance degredation with the 3D sound enabled? I'm afraid that the problem I'm having may be partially due to the A3D programing in UT. The MX300 should only hit the CPU for 5-7% but as I noted I'm seeing 20%.
To test it I played a demo with the timedemo on and compared my average FPS with 3D sound on and off. (Note that you must restart the game before the changes take place). If anyone else has or can do a similar test with the Aureal card. Please let me know. If you are getting better results I might trade in my MX300 for the Aureal card.
Thanks a bunch!
My question to anyone who owns the Aureal card is do you see dramatic performance degredation with the 3D sound enabled? I'm afraid that the problem I'm having may be partially due to the A3D programing in UT. The MX300 should only hit the CPU for 5-7% but as I noted I'm seeing 20%.
To test it I played a demo with the timedemo on and compared my average FPS with 3D sound on and off. (Note that you must restart the game before the changes take place). If anyone else has or can do a similar test with the Aureal card. Please let me know. If you are getting better results I might trade in my MX300 for the Aureal card.
Thanks a bunch!