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Assume the CPU is the bottleneck in my PC's performance (I've a great GPU and tons of RAM), and lets say I'm playing a game that permanently maxes out the CPU load.

My PC has no dedicated sound-card. Now, If I install a dedicated sound-card (something average price, nothing really fancy), will it improve performance on the mentioned scenario?

I'm not asking if the sound card improves audio quality. I'm asking if it will lighten up CPU load by a few percentage points. Given a good graphics card, most of the graphics-processing should be assigned to the GPU, but the processor still has a lot to do, is sound-processing a significant part of that? (edit)

More specifically: does sound-processing consume a significant amount of CPU time in modernd high-end games (assuming there's a good GPU to take the hit from graphics processing)?

Will a dedicated sound-card take care of it?

Does it matter if the headset is USB or audio-jack?

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@StrixVaria - It's borderline. Some people would see that you were asking about gaming and vote to close reflexively, while others would be happy about it. – ChrisF Oct 13 '10 at 20:46
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@ChrisF It's not about tuning for gaming, though. It's a legitimate hardware question that can even have non-gaming application. – StrixVaria Oct 13 '10 at 20:49
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@StrixVaria - "Borderline" was the wrong word - but some people will vote to close if you even mention games/gaming. I think it's a legitimate question on either site. – ChrisF Oct 13 '10 at 20:51
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@ChrisF Games are mentioned in one sentence, and could easily be rephrased as "let's say I'm running a program that permanently maxes out the CPU load". To me, this is really a Super User question because it is about Hardware and can be applied to any intensive program, not just games. – Grace Note♦ Oct 13 '10 at 21:09
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I think that's a good enough edit to stick around. – Grace Note♦ Oct 13 '10 at 22:57
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up vote 6 down vote accepted

Absolutely!

Check out this post over at guru3d.

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+1 Great link, Robb. I may have to get a new sound card when I go to upgrade. – MBraedley Oct 14 '10 at 11:25
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The linked post contained a big block of opinion/anecdotes. Can we get something that's more like evidence - or even just a case study? – MGOwen Oct 21 '10 at 2:35
Does this article still apply, considering that Windows Vista and 7 have already disabled hardware acceleration for sound cards (breaks EAX support, among other things)? – galacticninja Dec 12 '11 at 2:54

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