Audio Performance

Audio Performance - Empty CPU - 32 Buffers

Audio Performance - 2d Audio - 32 Buffers

Audio Performance - DirectSound 3D HW - 32 Buffers

Audio Performance - DirectSound 3D EAX2 - 32 Buffers

We limited audio testing to the Rightmark 3D Sound version 2.1 CPU utilization test. The Rightmark 3D Sound benchmark measures the overhead or CPU utilization required by a codec or hardware audio chip.

The BlueGears/HDA Mystique 7.1 Gold has the highest utilization rates of the audio solutions tested. BlueGears has confirmed a new driver release within the next 30 days that will offer improved performance in several areas. The RealTek R1.27 driver release continues to improve CPU utilization rates. The Sound Blaster X-FI has the lowest rates with the Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit and Realtek ALC882 solutions following closely. Let's find out how these results translate into real world numbers.

Game Audio Performance - BattleField 2

Game Audio Performance - Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

Game Audio Performance - Serious Sam II - Branchester Demo

Game Audio Performance - Half-Life 2 - AT Jarred Demo C17

Game Audio Performance - F.E.A.R. - Performance Test

Game Audio Performance - Call of Duty 2 - Demo 5

The Battlefield 2 numbers are very interesting as the Realtek ALC882 audio solution creates a 10% loss in frame rates compared to 67% when utilizing the previous R1.26 driver set. Serious Sam II has an average loss of 23%, Half Life 2 at 27%, Call of Duty II at 6%, Splinter Cell at 6%, and F.E.A.R. at 14%. The surprising number is the performance of the Sound Blaster X-FI in Serious Sam II with a 44% decrease in frame rates. The game actually sounded better on the X-FI and Mystique 7.1 Gold but after repeated listening, the Realtek ALC882 is correctly generating the audio streams in the game. Obviously, if you are a serious gamer, then a dedicated sound card is still a requirement to ensure consistent frame rate averages across a wide variety of games.

The ALC882 audio solution displayed excellent sound characteristics in music, video, and games throughout our testing and should seriously be considered as the main audio component if on-line gaming is not your priority. Specifications for the Realtek ALC88x audio family can be located here.

Ethernet Performance Final Words
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  • Gary Key - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    We are still working on a way to properly show this in the graph engine.

    Thank you.
  • imaheadcase - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    I saw this article 2 times put up already. anyone else seeing this?

    Last half a dozen reviews show up, i see people comment on them, then they disappear and come back latter. weird
  • wilburpan - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link

    According to your Ethernet tests:

    Gigabyte GA-G1975X: 951.4 Mb/s
    Asus P5WDG2-WS: 950.3 MB/s

    Gigabyte GA-G1975X: 16.04% cpu utilization
    Asus P5WDG2-WS: 23.78%

    And in your text:

    "The Marvell 88E8062 PCI Express Dual LAN solution exhibits slightly higher throughput along with very good CPU utilization rates. The Broadcom 5789KFB option on the Gigabyte board offers excellent throughput, but at a slightly higher CPU utilization than on other solutions."

    With the data you have, it seems the exact opposite conclusion should be made.
  • Gary Key - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    Hi,

    Unfortunately, our document engine had a mind of its own last night when the article went up the first time as it was not completed yet. The last couple of pages are correct now along with additional information that was not available last night. We had to wait on Asus to provide shipping drivers and Marvell firmware which changed the original scores (went down but stability increased). The new graphs were correct but my text changes had not caught up yet. We have been informed by Asus the 88E8066 chipset will actually be used on the board in the near future.

    Thank you.
  • BrownTown - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    interesting stuff for the Presler there, I eagerly await your new article :p
  • DanDaMan315 - Monday, December 5, 2005 - link

    yay
  • Vegito - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    Juicy.. I just need these pcix + pcie board for an amd machine.. :)
  • Gary Key - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    We highly suggested this to Asus. ;->
  • Pirks - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    Many many years from now we'll get another Asus or any other r333w1 mobo (DFI LanParty Ultra 3.0? :) with quantum 1000 GHz CPU, UltraWideFirewire 24000, USB 8.0, built in laser keyboard link and wireless 80" display link... and a LOT more... and....

    ...AND...

    ...and A FLOPPY CONNECTOR!!!
    and AN LPT PORT!!!!!
    and PS/2 JACKS!!!!!!
    AND TWO, LISTEN TO THIS - !TWO! COM PORTS!!!!

    bwahahahahahahaaaaa

    I just can't look at all the museum artefacts on these so called "professional" mobos, when Macs have only USB and FW as their standard interfaces for years!

    Yea I know Mac hardware is sucky/expensive, no cool gaming and stuff, but... I really understand well some of my Mac using buddies when they visit me while I'm working on one of my PC's "professional" mobos (upgrading heatsink or something), and they see one of these huge LPT connectors and they're like "WTF???!?!?"

    I know noone cares about this stuff, noone will ever make decent and inexpensive legacy free PC mobo, just wanted to vent it off... thanks :)
  • Saist - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link

    obviously you have never tried to run a data center, or ever bought hardware on a budget, nor that you run windows...

    or are you conviently forgetting that Windows has the worst in-box hardware support available and that to run many SATA drives requires installing drivers as though they are SCISI devices rather than on-chip devices.

    Or that not everybody can afford to upgrade to a new laser jet / ink jet / Hp OfficeJet at every new release, and that for many a business the stock dot matrix offers the best price/performance and there is no reason to replace a perfectly functioning dot/matrix printer for something that costs a lot more to run.

    or that usb support for keyboards is a little spotty in the Microsoft bootloader if you do try to run multiple versions of windows

    Or that many older devices still require the com ports.

    Sure, if you are building a brand new computer and have no hardware you ever intend to run again, running a legacy free system is a good idea.

    But, when you only have 5% of the market at best...

    it just doesn't make sense.

    Sorry, but I find the laughter and your comments to be so far off base... I can only sigh and wish I had your budget to spend.

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