Creative Labs Audigy2 NX Review - Gaming Performance
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The benchmarks were run with the Audigy2 NX, the ASUS L5GA's internal AC '97 sound card, and my desktop's Audigy2 Platinum. The Audigy2 NX and the L5GA's sound card were obviously run on the ASUS L5GA. The Audigy2 Platinum was run on my desktop machine to compare the NX to a regular desktop Audigy2 sound card. Unfortunately the L5GA and my desktop have significantly different system specs. The L5GA has a Pentium IV 2.6 GHz processor with a RADEON 9600 video card and the desktop has a Pentium IV 3.0 GHz @ 3.5+ GHz with a GeForce 6800GT.
The Audigy2 NX was run with CMSS on and CMSS off. CMSS is a mode that the Audigy line of sound cards use to emulate 3D sound on 2 speaker systems. The Audigy2 NX detected it was using a 2 speaker system and liked to enable CMSS by default.
Novalogic's Comanche 4
The Comanche 4 demo has become one of my favorite for getting an idea of a sound card's CPU utilization. The demo is almost entirely CPU and memory dependent, not video card. The demo lets you disable audio with a checkbox. CPU usage by the Audigy2 NX was significantly higher than the L5GA's sound card even with CMSS off. Turning CMSS on caused a 3.7% drop in framerate.
FutureMark's 3DMark03 - Sound Tests
The results here indicate the Audigy2 NX is still notably affecting the frames per second with CMSS being an additional hit.
With 60 sounds the frame rate is cut by more than half on the Audigy2 NX. While 60 sounds are more than you will run into in most games it is interesting to see the hit the Audigy2 NX takes.
It is rumored that the cause for the high CPU usage is due to the Audigy2 NX not having a dedicated sound processor. That does not make a lot of sense; it is unlikely the drivers alone are applying the sound processing algorithms, and the Audigy2 NX is little more than some DACs. It may be the case, but it is more likely the higher CPU usage is caused by the USB 2.0 connection. Almost all USB devices have higher CPU overhead than internal devices as well as additional latencies.
The sound quality while gaming was very good. The rocket fires and explosions sounded much crisper than the Realtek sound card used in the ASUS L5GA. The sound was also fuller, more immersive.
Next: Listening Tests and Conclusion >>
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