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Will Fitting a Soundcard Reduce my CPU Load?

GuruMeditationError
By GuruMeditationError
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yes, but by a tiny amount, and i dont think it should be done for that reason

not really. maybe 1%. sound really does not require that much processing power to play. 

Technically yes, but nothing noticable

So no chance of it hobbling the CPU's turbo feature and not much improvement otherwise?

 

Then I'll probably stick with the on-board sound.

 

Thanks, :0)

 

Not sure which to pick as the best answer.  :wacko:

I don't think it'd even help.... If anything it'd make it worse, sense your CPU would still be telling it what to do essentially?

Just a little. Not worth it.

 
Posted

I've got an AMD FX-9370, 8-core 4.3GHz processor (4.7GHz at maximum turbo) in a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5 AM3+ AMD 990FX SB950 DDR3 ATX motherboard.

 

I've got two Gigabyte GTX 580 SOCs that I'm going to run in SLI in the top and bottom PCIe slots (PCIe x16 (top) & PCIe x8 (bottom)) so that they're far apart enough for me to cool and over-clock effectively.

 

I want to run a PCIe x1 soundcard in the second PCIe x16 slot with the intention of taking the sound processing load off of the CPU. Is this worth doing? Will it take load off of the CPU or is that processing handled somewhere else on-board?

 

Also, will putting the sound card between the two SLI graphics cards reduce the performance of the graphics cards?

 

The processor I have has a turbo feature where if there are enough cores free to handle the extra processing it can boosts to a maximum speed of 4.7GHz . I'm thinking that in addition to taking load off of the CPU, in certain situations a soundcard might take enough load off of the CPU to enable the CPU to boost to 4.7GHz. Is this correct and is it worth adding a sound card either way (i.e. weather it'll help with turbo mode or if all it will do is reduce the CPU load? 

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yes, but by a tiny amount, and i dont think it should be done for that reason

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not really. maybe 1%. sound really does not require that much processing power to play. 

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Technically yes, but nothing noticable

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So no chance of it hobbling the CPU's turbo feature and not much improvement otherwise?

 

Then I'll probably stick with the on-board sound.

 

Thanks, :0)

 

Not sure which to pick as the best answer. :wacko:

"I try to put good out into the world...that way I can believe it's out there." --CKN                  “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” --Wayne Dyer            

[Needs Updating] My PC: i5-10600K @TBD / 32GB DDR4 @4000MHz / Z490 AORUS Elite AC / Titan RTX / Samsung 1TB 960 Evo / EVGA SuperNova 850 T2

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I don't think it'd even help.... If anything it'd make it worse, sense your CPU would still be telling it what to do essentially?

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No, sound chips don't do any processing. If anything it'd increase your CPU load because soundcard drivers are bloated piles of junk.

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So no chance of it hobbling the CPU's turbo feature and not much improvement otherwise?

 

Then I'll probably stick with the on-board sound.

 

Thanks, :0)

 

Not sure which to pick as the best answer. :wacko:

the first one is always best *wink wink nudge nudge* 

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Just a little. Not worth it.

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the first one is always best *wink wink nudge nudge* 

 

Lols. I'm now actually tempted to make that one ^ the best answer  :P:D

 

Can I select my own? I'll quote them all and select that as the best one.  ;)

"I try to put good out into the world...that way I can believe it's out there." --CKN                  “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” --Wayne Dyer            

[Needs Updating] My PC: i5-10600K @TBD / 32GB DDR4 @4000MHz / Z490 AORUS Elite AC / Titan RTX / Samsung 1TB 960 Evo / EVGA SuperNova 850 T2

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yes, but by a tiny amount, and i dont think it should be done for that reason

not really. maybe 1%. sound really does not require that much processing power to play. 

Technically yes, but nothing noticable

So no chance of it hobbling the CPU's turbo feature and not much improvement otherwise?

 

Then I'll probably stick with the on-board sound.

 

Thanks, :0)

 

Not sure which to pick as the best answer.  :wacko:

I don't think it'd even help.... If anything it'd make it worse, sense your CPU would still be telling it what to do essentially?

Just a little. Not worth it.

 

"I try to put good out into the world...that way I can believe it's out there." --CKN                  “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” --Wayne Dyer            

[Needs Updating] My PC: i5-10600K @TBD / 32GB DDR4 @4000MHz / Z490 AORUS Elite AC / Titan RTX / Samsung 1TB 960 Evo / EVGA SuperNova 850 T2

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Lols. I'm now actually tempted to make that one ^ the best answer  :P:D

 

Can I select my own? I'll quote them all and select that as the best one.  ;)

i dont think you can

-edit, i suppose im wrong

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i dont think you can

-edit, i suppose im wrong

 

It seems that as long as you're the O.P. you can select "Mark Solved" when viewing the thread.

 

Edit: Looking at it again it seems you can select multiple posts as a "Mark Solved" post. 

"I try to put good out into the world...that way I can believe it's out there." --CKN                  “How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” --Wayne Dyer            

[Needs Updating] My PC: i5-10600K @TBD / 32GB DDR4 @4000MHz / Z490 AORUS Elite AC / Titan RTX / Samsung 1TB 960 Evo / EVGA SuperNova 850 T2

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