CPU usage and audio

Cluent said:

So would a dedicated sound card take over the Wow effects and reduce CPU usage?

No, the windows media player effects are software based so it will pretty much be the same no matter the audio device being used.

The three enhancements that would use CPU are:
SRS Wow effects, Play Speed Settings and Graphic Equalizer.

Ap

Any reason at all to buy a Soundblaster?

Cluent said:

Any reason at all to buy a Soundblaster?

Guess it depends on what you want to do with audio?

Perhaps some others can chime in here.

Ap

Cluent said:

Any reason at all to buy a Soundblaster?

To have headaches. I joke but it produces better sound for some who are more audio savy (I noticed my audio sound worse with onboard but not so bad). I switched to my on-board because my sound-blaster was a piece of crap and would not mute if I plugged in headphones but thats another thing.

For video games it might help offload cpu usage that could be otherwise used for intense processes and or by video editing, encoding. Besides the occasional pop crack in my audio it is alright.