Build or Buy Continued

[HeyYou]

Both are hardware accelerated, so, good to go no matter which route you choose. Don't forget to run alchemy as well, so that your nice hardware accelerated sound card actually WORKS the way it is supposed to.

[vometia]

Some games are just more visually demanding than others. Beth games notoriously so. (not to mention poorly coded.....)

 

Say it ain't so.   Even though I know that, it's surprising how much various games seem to differ in that regard, and how little connection there seems to be to visual detail sometimes.  I think variable framerates are often a bigger headache than consistent but not-very-high ones too.

[donnato]

Thanks HY ... I`m getting the feeling that my car may be wanting a battery soon, so, I might have to wait a week or two on the sound card. I`m kinda leaning more towards the second linked one since I like the front panel controls, and I won`t be doing pro stuff anytime soon.

Hiya Vom... I know,right? 

EDIT: ...Ok...I couldn`t help it...I ordered the item in my second link.   ... Hy...I tried doing a web search for Alchemy but didn`t find what you spoke of. Linky?

Edited October 10, 2013 by donnato

[HeyYou]

Here ya go. First download link.

[donnato]

Wow HY ... alot of stuff under those tabs to see...namely , in the store ,  specifically... headphones. Thank you so much for the link.   I chose free shipping sooo...it`ll take a few says to get my new card....next week. I`m pretty excited. I`ll be curious to see how much load it takes of my CPU too.

[HeyYou]

You will see some load taken off the CPU, in the form of slightly higher framerates, biggest thing though is, better sound quality. Going to want to make you buy better/more speakers. (yes, voice of experience. )

[Arion]

I'd be interested in finding out if the Alchemy auto-detects your games and if not when you manually add them that it doesnt' crash your games like mine here. Only game detected was Morrowind and manually adding Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas started crashing the game(s)... Everything went back to normal when I removed them from the list. I'm using a SB X-Fi Exterme Audio and my sounds normally sound pretty good either with my surround sound speakers or my headphones.. Earbuds are the worse thing for quality sound reproduction

[Jac]

I use a Recon 3D and haven't had any issue with Alchemy crashing games. Then again, I only add games that are on its list and don't add ones that aren't. Right now I only have Diablo 2, Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, and Neverwinter Nights 2 on there and all four work just fine outside of the usual issues with MW.

[donnato]

Lots of interesting stuff here folks, thank you. HY, any load I can take off my cpu is good. My on - board sound...sounds pretty amazing but, I`m sure that once I hear the new card I`ll be floored. Arion...I`ll be sure to check that out but, reading Jac`s post...I doubt that I`ll tempt the fates too much. Jack ... great add, thanks.

To all..

[Jac]

Alchemy was designed so that games that use and older version of EAX can use the newer version. If your game isn't listed, I wouldn't add it unless you're having problems getting EAX to work right.

[donnato]

It looks like my new card will be comming in early this week. Tried to deliver saturday but, I have stuff sent to my work and we were closed. I`m hoping they`ll try again monday but the tracking notes say that I have to call some unspecified post office to pick up or try rediliver.

Jac...what is EAX? I just thought I`d linky to the official site for the card I`m getting.

Edited October 13, 2013 by donnato

[HeyYou]

Environmental Audio Extensions.

 

Basically, surround sound.

[donnato]

Ah, thanks HY. I was hoping fed-ex would make a second attempt at delivery today but, no soap.

[Jac]

Today's Columbus Day, Donnato. You'll probably get it tomorrow.

[donnato]

also Turkey day in canada .. Can`t wait till ours ..

[donnato]

Yaayy...I finally got my card. i`ve been reading on-line about installing a sound card and I saw where we were instructed to go into BIOS and assign an IRQ...??? Nothing about that in the cards install directections. I read on-line further that IRQ is an Interrupt Request . If I read it right, it`s to stop an existing instruction line to the cpu in order to replace it with the new source...(did I say that right?) ?

[Arion]

You go in the BIOS and disable the onboard sound and then plug in your sound card. You dont' need to play around with IRQs. The system will do that automatically...

[donnato]

Thanks Arion..that was the jist of what I got on line.

Edited October 16, 2013 by donnato

[donnato]

Wow .. that was as beautiful of an install as I ever could have wished for. Too bad it`s too late now to play and test.

[Jac]

Yaayy...I finally got my card. i`ve been reading on-line about installing a sound card and I saw where we were instructed to go into BIOS and assign an IRQ...??? Nothing about that in the cards install directections. I read on-line further that IRQ is an Interrupt Request . If I read it right, it`s to stop an existing instruction line to the cpu in order to replace it with the new source...(did I say that right?) ?

Back before Windows got its act together and started assigning IRQs automatically, you had to do that manually via the device manager. Now it's just plug the card in, install the drivers, and test it to make sure everything works properly.

[HeyYou]

"Prug and Pray".

[donnato]

Heheh... so far it`s working beautifully. Lots of adjustments to sort through. I`m finding simpler is better there though. I`ll most likely have to change everything once I get the new headset.

[Jac]

"Prug and Pray".

It's not as bad as it used to be.   

[HeyYou]

It's not as bad as it used to be. 

True, true.

 

Ah, the bad old days.

[donnato]

Woohoo...I got my new headset ... Bummer, it isn`t sounding so good. Woohoo...in the window$ sound panel, the tests sound crystal clear. Ok cool...getting things better. Played some MP3s in adobe Audition...almost too good. Let`s see how the games sound.

Edited October 22, 2013 by donnato