I finally broke down and decided to get a definitive answer to a couple of questions re: onboard vs dedicated PCI audio. I installed a new Audigy II with latest official drivers and ran a comparison of performance in Audio Winbench 99: the Audigy II only used 0-2%, with an average around 0.3% CPU use during the benchmarking routine, whereas my ASUS's Realtek AC97 six channel onboard audio chip used between 4-8%, with an average of around 6%.So, we open up Task Manager Processes in Win2K, and note the CPU use dedicated to FS2002.exe is bouncing between 88 and 98% with the Realtek audio operating, and with the Audigy II we are seeing 98-100% virtually constant. This appears to be a very good argument in favor of adding an excellent audio card like the Audigy II, even to a higher end system. However, when we run FS2002 and observe effects on sim smoothness, freedom from microstutters or hesitations, and FPS counter, we find quite the opposite is true: the onboard audio produced the same degree of smoothness and lack of microstutters as the Audigy II install does, but even more interesting is that the is A MUCH HIGHER DEGREE of variability in the FPS counter with the Audigy than with the Realtek. In a busy, dense area, with my FPS locked at 25, the Audigy II system fluctuated between 14 and 25 with an average of about 23.0, but the onboard stayed virtually locked on 25 and would occasionally dip to 23.6 or so with an average of 24.6. My hunch is that the added issue of going through the PCI bus has added some less than anticipated effects that really make upgrading the audio on this system not a good idea as far as FS is concerned.I just thought others might like to know this story in case you are trying to decide. For the record also, the Realtek onboard audio really sounds no different to me on this system. I know the Audigy has far superior specs but it does not show up to my ears. I also ran Unreal II The Awakening and noted the onboard audio if anything slightly outperformed the Audigy in terms of video perf impact. The Audigy II is close to or at the top of its class in terms of CPU hit.Noel

Hi Noel,Your experiences pretty much correlate with my own. I used to run an Audigy in a PCI slot in my old system. Last year I built my current system based around an ASUS A7S333 with the C-media onboard audio. I experimented using both the Audigy and also the C-media onboard (in the latter case with the Audigy physically removed from the system). I was quite surprised to not only find that I prefered the sound of the onboard C-media sound, but that my games ran at least as smoothly - if not more so - than they did with the Audigy plugged in.As regards theoretical tests, the onboard audio barely sips any CPU power. Using an Athlon XP 2400+, the C-media didn't even get near the 1% usage mark - even at the highest sampling rate and 32 voices. Mind you, the results with the Audigy were similar. Therefore I would have to agree that the added system resource of having the card actually connected into the PCI bus might be a reason for the onboard audio performing as well as it does.I certainly have no intention of ever getting a dedicated sound card for my current system, as I don't think it will improve performance at all, and I really like the sound I have now. Also, in future PC building projects, I will be favouring motherboards that use high quality onboard audio. There is no way I would have felt this way 2 years ago, or even 1 year ago.

this all depends upon what chip the oboard sound is using, the c-media i belive sucks the most CPU power at 4-8% and an actual soundcard depending on what you buy will suck more like 0-1% and i agree with you jonP01, if i dont need a soundcard, and my motherboard has good onboard audio, there is no point in buying a soundcard unless you have something like the C-media sound chipset.

As fickled a prospect as trying to decide what is causing what in the PC/FS world, I retested the Audigy II and must conclude it is lower impact and improved performance by an arguably significant margin. I did more careful testing to get the conditions exact and would have to say there is more consistently higher FPS and smoothness in the Audigy II format vs the Avance Realtek onboard. You can confirm this by watching the "System" use of the CPU % utilization vs FS2002.exe's use in Task Manager. If you look carefully you can see when the System use goes from 0 to 6 or 8 or more % you can see FPS drop proportionally. I think my conclusion before was tainted by imperfectly duplicated test conditions. Smoothness? Audigy II comes out on top, but not dramatically so. Noel