Soundcard and load on PC

[cjr888]

Let's assume ASIO. Are there any comparisons on CPU usage/PC load per soundcard, whether digital out, or analog out...assuming for right now 44k output, and no software based plug-ins. Just plain ol' output.

The reason I ask is that if you look at the minimum requirements for various cards, they vary greatly. People usually list the minimum truly as the minimum...and far from recommended configuration, so I am assuming that the requirements aren't for included software per-se, but general usage of the card for audio purposes...one way or another.

For example, EM-U lists minimums for all their cards at PIII or K6 at 500mhz+, 128mb, while say the Lynx Two just wants a Pentium and 32mb of RAM.

For basic playback or digital output, are the requirements minimal regardless of the card, or do they vary that greatly? Curious if its a function of what and how things are offloaded to the card, or if its simply a matter of people writing up requirements based on when the card was released...with the Lynx being out for some time, and the E-MU cards being newer, and thus listing a reasonable minimum, more based on what will run other applications, so that if they receive a support call, they can defer to 'you have an ancient PC'.

Thoughts from those who have used various cards?

 

[Mr.Radar]

The minimum requirements are probably just the requirements for the bundled software and the fancy features of the driver. Also, ASIO does use a lot of CPU power.

EDIT: ASIO doesn't use a lot of CPU power. I remeber reading that somewhere.

 

[Edwood]

DOn't forget upsampling takes a significant amount of CPU cycles too.

-Ed

 

[lan]

I don't think ASIO uses a lot of CPU power. In pro audio apps, you need all the CPU power you can get so having a sound API which eats a lot of CPU power doens't make sense.

Upsampling isn't something the makers of the soundcard think about so it shouldn't be in the consideration for minimal CPU usage.

I don't really bother to think about the minimal CPU requirements because it's like a house benchmark.... you don't know what they're basing it on. I think any card will play a song on a Pentium but also any card will require much more power if you're doing anything greater.

 

[Reader]

ASIO has very very little CPU useage, upsample can have some CPU useage depends on what type you use. foobar2000 in upsample slow mode use about 10-15% on my PC. Also these are sound AP CPU useage not sound card CPU useage.

 

[ooheadsoo]

on my computer using asio and flac, no resampling, my cpu fluctuates around 0%-4%.