Asus P5W DH Deluxe - dolby digital live processorload

[djoekie]

Anyone also experiencing that when Dolby Digital Live is activated one processorcore is always +/-10% loaded? I had some very disappointing benchmarks scores until i figured out something was using my processingtime. It happens regardless if i am listening to music, watching a movie or doing nothing, its always taking a load on one core.

I am using an Intel pentium D 830, if that's maybe a difference. Updating the audiocard, chipset drivers (i initially used the drivers from the cd) didn't help. Bios is 0701, but i doubt that flashing to the doubtfull 0801 would solve it.

It's only the dolby digital live option, activating the dolby prologic is normal.

After deactivating the load is gone and i get the benchmark scores i expect.

[catscit]

how do i use this feature?
I'm using the onboard sound of my p5w but only with headphones.

[djoekie]

Hey catscit, mede-GoT'ter ;)

Ahum back to english, you can enable it in the realtek control panel by clicking the logo on the bottom.

[Artmic]

that would really suck if it takes 10 percent out of one processor :)
I guess it is time to get a dedicated soundcard.

[djoekie]

Well it's no biggie because my receiver does a better job upmixing stereo to 5.1 anyhow (i route the digital signal via coax directly to my Kenwood receiver). Sow i have the dolby digital live deactivated, but i wanted to test it, if it works.

But i found it strange it needs so many resources, my way old Asus P5GDC deluxe also had this feature but didn't need 10% processingtime all the time :) .

[Lestat]

yeah 10% processor is odd even if its idle.
i read your statement correctly yes ? even if the pc is idle you have about 10% load ?

this, i guess could be normal for this type of audio chipset since normally the dolby digital processor would have its own processor and the processor would be running all the time.

does it slow down your pc at all ? i dont mean benchmarks i mean like moving your mouse around or opening programs ?
does that 10% affect things or is it more of a 10% usage in the background ?

[djoekie]

No i don't see any strange behavior besides the 10% load indication in the task manager. Also it isn't a process thats taking the 10%, it's the system itself.

However it behaves like a process meaning that it uses 10% and other programs can use the remaining 90% (other core is 100% free). But benchmarks return lower scores obviously because they don't get the whole 100% (or 200% of two cores if you like).

Especially Sisoft Sandra memory benchmark went from +/-5000mb/sec to around +/-3100mb/sec. If it wasn't for that, i wouldn't have noticed it.

I'll post a screenie later to show what i mean.

[Vric]

Well it's usual onboard soundcard performance. DDL need to be always on, so it could always use 10%. When you don't use DDL, the soundcard will use about 8% of the cpu, but just when used (in game for example).

This is why some people have real sound card in their PC. There is always a performance hit with onboard sound. This is where you can gain 5% to xx% of performance. (the maximum is unknown. Take Battlefield2 for example with highest sound quality. It can make the game near unplayable with an onboard sound card. Using an X-Fi, I would say it's near a 20% fps gain)

[djoekie]

Well it's usual onboard soundcard performance. DDL need to be always on, so it could always use 10%. When you don't use DDL, the soundcard will use about 8% of the cpu, but just when used (in game for example).

This is why some people have real sound card in their PC. There is always a performance hit with onboard sound. This is where you can gain 5% to xx% of performance. (the maximum is unknown. Take Battlefeil2 for example with highest sound quality. It can make the game near unplayable with an onboard sound card. vs an X-Fi, I would say it's near a 20% gain)
No, i am fully aware that onboard soundcards can affect performance because they rely on the main processor instead of a seperate soundcard with it's own processor.

I have narrowed the problem to the dolby digital live feature. As i mentioned before, i have had a P5GDC deluxe with Dolby Digital Live and it never took 10% load all the time, when i switched it on.

I also say that when its disabled i have all the performance the system can give me. Benchmarks i used didn't use sound either...