Throttle application usage?

Cheezy

Oblivion uses up all of my CPU power, which usually wouldn't be an issue, but my soundcard requires at least some CPU power to function without stuttering. Anyone know of a way to throttle Oblivon's usage or how to set aside some CPU power for my soundcard?

EDIT: Also, I've used winThrottle, Threadmaster, and BES that claim to do this, but haven't actually worked.

JWFokker

It's not CPU usage that's causing your sound to stutter. CPU cycles are allocated to transferring information between your CPU and memory and your soundcard.

What soundcard is it and do you have hardware acceleration enabled in Oblivion's audio settings?

Cheezy

It's a Realtek AC'97, onboard. I've tried turning off hardware acceleration in both the audio settings in dxdiag and in Oblivion's settings.

MegaMan001

Cheezy wrote:

It's a Realtek AC'97, onboard. I've tried turning off hardware acceleration in both the audio settings in dxdiag and in Oblivion's settings.

That's the same onboard sound my girlfriend has on her motherboard (A-Bit) and it's called her no amount of problems. From cutting sound for no apparent reason and then requiring a reboot to start off again to blatantly not utilizing the correct driver package.

It's been a real nightmare.

robaal

Have you tried turning down the sound quality in Oblivion? I can't remember what options it provides, but generally, disabling EAX should help, and switching from 3D sound to 2D might also.

Updating the sound drivers might also help. Just be sure to identify the specific codec that your motherboard uses, as Realtek makes quite a lot of them (AC97 is just a standard).

Lastly, you could purchase a discrete sound card, as they tend to do more sound processing on their own - I believe the Via Envy based Chaintech card was recommended in a G&T sound card thread as an example of a cheap and decent one.


I don't think "slowing down" Oblivion will help, as I'm guessing the sound processing needed for it is seen as part of the game...

Cheezy

Bleh. Thanks for the help, people. I wanted to avoid buying a new soundcard but it seems to be an inevitability.

JWFokker

The aformentioned Chaintech AV-710 is actually quite excellent, especially given it's price. It's quite remarkable for a budget card. You might also be able to pick up an Audigy 2 for cheap since it's been replaced by the X-Fi series. Since it sounds like you'll be gaming, rathing than using it as a music/movie machine, you're probably better off with some form of Sound Blaster card simply because you'll get full EAX support and lower CPU usage.

RoundBoy

Except of course you are still buying a creative labs product.. and they dispise the gamer in general.

If the current creative labs forums about Vista are to be believed, then buying anything less then the absolute latest card will result in you being left behind.

And we know how often they put drivers out ...