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Has anyone upgraded sound cards and noticed a difference in the quality of sound in the sim or increase of FPS? I am looking at one of the latest sound blaster cards for my new computer and I would like to know if it would be a good investment.AEM7AC 920 How do you like your toast?
Well my ears aren't what they used to be. I guess the advantage to that is I can get by with less than top of the line audio! I used to have 2 channel sound and that was a combo card with phone modem as well. I pulled that out and put it in a box.So I got this sound card at Office Max for $29 and got a $10 mail in rebate. http://www.mdmm.com/products/audio/4channel.asp A couple new speakers in addition to my monitor mounted 2 and all set to go. I put MSTS sound option up on the top level (that was a nice improvement all by itself) with no frame rate hit at all. With the four channel sound card the surround effect is much better and quite noticeable when panning around.I leave it to you if the lastest Sound Blaster is a good investment. BK
I've played around with several sound cards, including a couple of Creative Labs (Soundblaster) and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I can't really tell any difference, except to say that as long as you have a half-way decent card and a good set of speakers that includes a sub-woofer, things should sound good in MSTS. For me, the sub-woofer makes all the difference since I get that deep rumble of the engine noise that just doesn't come in with the small desktop speakers.Not much help, huh? MC
What little experimenting I've done indicates that the better sound cards are better at playing multiple streams simultaneously... This seems to help on routes and scenarios where there is a large quantity of sounds trying to be played at once....I believe there is a semi-hard limit to quantity of sounds some what similar to the light count "undocumented feature".... However I've never been able to quantify it absolutely.... And I seem to be able to work around it like the light bug by segmenting my sounds, like I do my lights, by application. (I.E. I don't include AI sounds and Lights in Drivable engines and vice a versa) For an example look at our shark release....Chuck Schneider Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and (Virtual) CEO
I've used Creative SB Live 5.1 cards for years and never had a problem with multiple streams or sound quality as long as your CPU can handle it. The Audigy card is overkill for MSTS unless you want to also use it for other things. I run 4 speakers - not too expesive - LABTECH - and you can easily run your sound quality at the top with NS D9 sound and your route sounds with no stutter or problems . Your CPU is just as important as the sound card . It's good enough to bother the guy next door if you turn the volume up .
Thanks for the reviews I have decided to make an investment in the sound card since i also use my computer for music etc. I already have the Altec Lansing 5100 set so the new sound card should work well.AEM7AC 920 How do you like your toast?
BTW, I use an Audigy 2 with 6.1 speakers... Also there is a "hack" for the global sounds parameter that allows more sounds to be played simultaneously.... I've also adjusted this from time to time while "playing around" and have had limited success by upping the number of simultaneous sound streams played by SL5 and also increasing the amount of memory allocated to it....Disclaimer (a.k.a. lawyerly weasel words) Your results may not be the same, modify at your own risk!Chuck Schneider Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and (Virtual) CEO