On-board sound: Performance sucker?

Nadz1lla

New member
Sorry if this is a n00b question, but someone at work mentioned that using the on-board sound from the mobo can suck the overall performance of your PC, and that offloading that duty to an external soundcard can free up system speed.
Is this correct? If so, what's the best performance-increasing sound solution? Fully external USB-connected box or an internal PCI-E card? :huh:
 
Sorry if this is a n00b question, but someone at work mentioned that using the on-board sound from the mobo can suck the overall performance of your PC, and that offloading that duty to an external soundcard can free up system speed.
Is this correct? If so, what's the best performance-increasing sound solution? Fully external USB-connected box or an internal PCI-E card? :huh:

These days, nah it doesn't cost much at all for the system to produce decent quality sound without a performance hit, id say for the average user, it's totally acceptable and no one would really notice a drop in frames per second.
 
Sorry if this is a n00b question, but someone at work mentioned that using the on-board sound from the mobo can suck the overall performance of your PC, and that offloading that duty to an external soundcard can free up system speed.
Is this correct? If so, what's the best performance-increasing sound solution? Fully external USB-connected box or an internal PCI-E card? :huh:


Would you like to tell us what your motherboard model is? Or are you just asking in general?
 
Used to be true, there even used to be a benchmark in 3DMark for it for checking the effect of having more sound channels. Very much not so with *most* onboard sound these days. Kind of depends. But it's definitely not something to worry about if it's a semi-decent gaming rig. A single/dual core low end CPU system.. perhaps... but I doubt that's a thing.
 
Thanks. Yeah someone told me the on-board can be a bottleneck, just trying to figure out ways of freeing up resources, really.
 
Nah not really having any issues that I'm aware of, I was hoping to just streamline the performance of my system enough that I could play Mass Effect: Andromeda when it comes out without having to upgrade too many components is all. I've come to the conclusion that I might have to opt for the PS4 version because the initial min reqs I've seen online would mean possibly having to upgrade my CPU as well as my GFX card (which I was going to upgrade at some point anyway). But I only got this current CPU last year and it's still around £200 so anything better is an expenditure I can't justify at the moment.

Here's my spec though, for everyone's scrutiny:

Asus Z170-A
i5 6500
8gb Corsair Vengeance (will be doubling this at some point)
GTX 650 ti Boost (this is the oldest part of my rig from my last PC and is the next component in line for an upgrade).

Basically the mobo, CPU and RAM were a Scan 3XS bundle deal I bought last year and thought it would do me for a while, but I didn't realise how resource-hungry newer games are these days, so I may not have future-proofed myself all that well. :/
 
Nah not really having any issues that I'm aware of, I was hoping to just streamline the performance of my system enough that I could play Mass Effect: Andromeda when it comes out without having to upgrade too many components is all. I've come to the conclusion that I might have to opt for the PS4 version because the initial min reqs I've seen online would mean possibly having to upgrade my CPU as well as my GFX card (which I was going to upgrade at some point anyway). But I only got this current CPU last year and it's still around £200 so anything better is an expenditure I can't justify at the moment.

Here's my spec though, for everyone's scrutiny:

Asus Z170-A
i5 6500
8gb Corsair Vengeance (will be doubling this at some point)
GTX 650 ti Boost (this is the oldest part of my rig from my last PC and is the next component in line for an upgrade).

Basically the mobo, CPU and RAM were a Scan 3XS bundle deal I bought last year and thought it would do me for a while, but I didn't realise how resource-hungry newer games are these days, so I may not have future-proofed myself all that well. :/

Could do with an extra 8GB of Ram at some point, but you mainly just need a new GPU if anything.
 
Could do with an extra 8GB of Ram at some point, but you mainly just need a new GPU if anything.

Very much this. Games are now pushing that 8GB barrier, and any modern AAA title will see the 650Ti pushed hard.

On the plus side, being on a Z170 system, there is plenty of head room for a future CPU upgrade. But the i5 will serve you well for a while yet.
 
On the plus side, being on a Z170 system, there is plenty of head room for a future CPU upgrade. But the i5 will serve you well for a while yet.

This pleases me, hah! I was looking at some min reqs, looked at my CPU with a forlorn expression and thought "But.... but I only just got it..." :sad:

:D
 
If you want budget 1080p performance, a RX470 is the best GPU to be looking at.
In addition since it is using the Frostbite engine last I checked, it is pretty well optimized. So a 470 at 1080p for example in Battlefield 1, had an average FPS of 74.7(link: here). Pretty impressive considering it's price. That isn't what you'll get in ME:A most likely, but same engine and all that, shouldn't be too far off:)
 
If you want budget 1080p performance, a RX470 is the best GPU to be looking at.
In addition since it is using the Frostbite engine last I checked, it is pretty well optimized. So a 470 at 1080p for example in Battlefield 1, had an average FPS of 74.7(link: here). Pretty impressive considering it's price. That isn't what you'll get in ME:A most likely, but same engine and all that, shouldn't be too far off:)


Thanks, I'm probably going to hold off for a little bit because at some point I'm going to be obtaining a 4K TV and will likely look at GFX with 4K capability.

My short-term plan is get ME:A on PS4 for the first playthrough, and later on re-buy on PC when my TV and GFX / RAM have all been upgraded to get the enhanced experience, heh. I know there aren't many 4K optimised games out yet, but by the time I get all my hardware sorted they'll probably be in abundance. ^_^
 
Thanks, I'm probably going to hold off for a little bit because at some point I'm going to be obtaining a 4K TV and will likely look at GFX with 4K capability.

My short-term plan is get ME:A on PS4 for the first playthrough, and later on re-buy on PC when my TV and GFX / RAM have all been upgraded to get the enhanced experience, heh. I know there aren't many 4K optimised games out yet, but by the time I get all my hardware sorted they'll probably be in abundance. ^_^

FYI, there isn't any hardware out right now that can do 4K flawlessly. Also I think current 4K TVs at 4K don't have great latency.
 
Aye, which is why I'm going to hold off for a little while. It's all new and even though a few Nvidia cards say they support 4K, I'll wait until the technology has had time to bake. :)
 
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