Lowest CPU usage card. Lower than Nforce2 SoundStorm.

[B.E.E.F.]

Got a Barton 3200. Looking to reduce some load from the CPU so it can do other things other than sound.

Any card that will have lower resource usage than Soundstorm on an Nforce2 chipset?

I was looking at an Audigy2... or an Audigy4. Or an Audigy2 with Audigy4 drivers.


And one more question... what's up with EAX? And why are there different versiens like EAX4.0? Any difference in 'quality' and performance?


Also, would this mean lower resource usage in general windows apps? Like Winamp with DirectSound output? Or just games that have specific hardware acceleration with EAX and etc...?

[mr_knowitall15]

The Audigy 2 ZS i had was great before it died. I replaced it with an X-fi and really love it. The thing they were really bragging about on the X-fi was lower cpu usage. Its a great card, and theyve made more budget minded models lately, like a 70 dollar edition that a friend of mine bought and its also great.

[Pinmod]

yea i'm looking at X-fi as well

my question is which card actually produces the best sound signal

my old audigy 24bit has a bit of hiss going into my Ultra 5.1s

[ROBSCIX]

I would suggest a X-Meridian 7.1 for straight sound quality. If your intersted in gaming and use EAX in your games then I would suggest the Auzen X-fi Prelude 7.1