Solved Using an External Sound Card to increase game performance.

Hello everybody it's been a longtime. I recently found out a game of mine may have some stuttering problems due to it's audio being played without a discrete and/or external sound card of any type. So on your advice, i'd like to know if an external USB sound card can help with some of my performance issues for the game i'm playing.

Would a external sound card serve as well as a discrete sound for audio playback, or at-least perform better than a on-board sound card?

Respond as soon as you can, thank you.
-Arcturus Fyr

Before you go out and spend $$ on a sound card (and if you opt for an external sound card, don't go cheap or it may not help).

And, install the Windows 8.1 RealTek driver and see how it acts. www.realtek.com

Download and run the Resplendence Latency Monitor program and see what that shows you. May be some PC system issue and not the RealTek sound. Resplendence Software - Advanced System Tools and Developer Components

Thank you for the quick response, i'm unfamiliar with monitoring latency data. Is there anything I should be looking out for specifically? As for an external sound card, is there anything you can recommend at a retail outlet?

Awaiting your response.
Arcturus Fyr

EDIT: As for the Realtek software, would the software updates from my laptop manufacturer website suffice?

So, this is a Laptop and now the desktop you have in your System Specs? That changes everything.

I don't understand? My system specs "Computer Type" category has always been "Laptop".

I missed the Computer type. The rest of the specs looked like a desktop.

With a Laptop, your limited to USB connected sound "cards". I don't have enough knowledge to suggest one of those.

Stuttering problems are usually just too much going on at the same time. Sound is always on a shared Interrupt with a higher priority device. If that higher priority device needs to "interrupt" and do something, sound can get momentarily interrupted and sound like stuttering.

Wi-Fi is also known to be a source of audio problems.

It's difficult to imagine such configuration would slow down and stutter just because of sound, it's more likely it's a symptom than a cause.

fireberd said:

I missed the Computer type. The rest of the specs looked like a desktop.

With a Laptop, your limited to USB connected sound "cards". I don't have enough knowledge to suggest one of those.

Stuttering problems are usually just too much going on at the same time. Sound is always on a shared Interrupt with a higher priority device. If that higher priority device needs to "interrupt" and do something, sound can get momentarily interrupted and sound like stuttering.

Wi-Fi is also known to be a source of audio problems.

Click to expand...

The sound is fine, it's when the battle music starts and/or ends the game actually micro-stutters. Same with with NPC's talking, put 4 or 5 in same space when they talk and my frame-rate starts dipping like crazy and then come the stuttering too.

CountMike said:

It's difficult to imagine such configuration would slow down and stutter just because of sound, it's more likely it's a symptom than a cause.

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I'm inclined to agree, I guess I was just beating around the bush when I said "game" instead referring the game I was playing specifically.

The game is the Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, and the performance issues I have been experiencing have gotten so bad that my older laptop with the weaker specs is seemingly playing the game better than my newer laptop.

I was hoping an alleviate my issues somewhat with the game by using an external sound card in place of a dedicated sound card as the game has issues with an on-board sound card.

Here's a quote from Oblivion:Tweaking - UESPWiki in-regards to sound related issues with the game.

Audio"Try disabling audio and see whether it helps. This is especially true when your game stutters in combat or when many sound sources are around. Onboard sound chips (sound cards built into the motherboard) use the CPU for sound processing, even decent CPU's may experience a severe drop in performance if game sound is processed through the CPU. Purchasing a sound card that performs sound processing with its own independent processor will alleviate this issue. A good example of a sound card with these capabilities is the Creative Audigy or X-Fi series. An excellent sound card can be purchased for between $50 to $100, so it is a worthwhile purchase for users using onboard sound.
Stuttering related to audio issues can also be caused by buggy sound card drivers. Try updating your sound card/motherboard chipset drivers to their latest version if they aren't already."
"Disable sound by changing the Oblivion.ini option (in Documents and Files/MyGames/Oblivion):"

USB sound chips are even more CPU dependent, they can't do anything on their own. Maybe you can try cutting down on sound quality. CP > Sound > Speakers > properties > Advanced.

I tried doing that in the past, lowering the settings from the default 48000hz (Studio Quality 24-bit) to 44100hz (Studio Quality 24-bit) setting. Anything lower and i'd be compromising overall sound quality, still, I suppose I can try something lower. I'll try to keep this thread updated on my progress.

Well, I decided to change my audio quality to 16-bit 48000 (DVD Quality) and the game run perfectly, I even maxed out some settings I couldn't before and my game still runs fine.

Thank you CountMike for the great advice!

P.S I don't suppose there's another way of increasing sound quality whilst keeping this performance is there?

EDIT: I'll keep this thread unsolved for another day for any additional feedback (if the moderators will allow it. Thanks!)

Some games have their own settings for sound quality, don't know abut that one. Thread will not be closed even if you mark it solved, just may attract less attention.

CountMike said:

Some games have their own settings for sound quality, don't know abut that one. Thread will not be closed even if you mark it solved, just may attract less attention.

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Alright, thanks again for the help. The new setting seems to have helped a lot with another game; "Fallout New Vegas". This tweak may have saved me a tremendous amount of time and money.

Arcturus Fyr said:

CountMike said:

Some games have their own settings for sound quality, don't know abut that one. Thread will not be closed even if you mark it solved, just may attract less attention.

Click to expand...

Alright, thanks again for the help. The new setting seems to have helped a lot with another game; "Fallout New Vegas". This tweak may have saved me a tremendous amount of time and money.

Click to expand...

No problem, I don't know about state of your hearing but for the life of me I could not hear difference between 16 and 48 bit sound even with good sound system.

The only difference I notice is that the in-game sound is severely lowered, not quality, just volume. Fixable with either the in-game settings, or desktop volume control.

Arcturus Fyr said:

The only difference I notice is that the in-game sound is severely lowered, not quality, just volume. Fixable with either the in-game settings, or desktop volume control.

Click to expand...

Sound quality is also limited with original sound generated. If the sound is recorded in 16 bit for instance, turning reproduction to anything higher is not doing to help, output sound will still be 16bit.

I would set it to 16 bit 44.1Khz (CD Quality). That is what commercial audio CD's are. I have a recording studio and the 48Khz is only used for audio when it is intended to be used with a (commercial) video.