I bought a headset today with both USB & jack connectors that sounds with an "innser sound card." When connected it comes up in the list of audio devices as it should so everything appears to be working fine. My only question is, whats the advantage of using the headset card over the onboard one?

less system resources possibly

but the onboard one is going to use system resources either way. Wouldn't the USB use extra resources?

If you have a really good $300 soundcard it would allow you to use this one instead of the not so good headset card. I'm guessing the headset could have better sound quality then an on board soundcard that is part of the mobo but if you do have a soundcard it could be better to use this.

Iv got an onboard soundcard, its no xi-fi extreme or anything special. So im better off using the headset soundcard for some things?

How about you do the double-blind test? Bit hard when you are by yourself though.

 

Get a nice high quality MP3, with a high bitrate, and test both sound devices.

Iv got an onboard soundcard, its no xi-fi extreme or anything special. So im better off using the headset soundcard for some things?

 

If it is just an onboard soundcard it will probably be best to use the headset sound card. You could do what S.O.P said and test to see what sounds better and if they just seem the same I would use whatever one uses less resources

Ok cheers fellas, also if I decide to use the headset one, do I select software or hardware in the bf2 audio settings?

I always use software with my USB headsets... although I guess technically it's hardware?

 

I duno.. personally can't tell the diff

I always thought software would use cpu cycles etc to create the sound. Hardware would offload some of it. That's not technical or definitive, don't quote me.

I think it would come under Hardware? Once you choose Hardware is there any other options that your driver might have added in there. I am fairly sure when I have Hardware selected I get more options. If not you can just try both and see what you prefer But I would go for Hardware first.

unless it's a really good headset l'd stick with the onboard..

haha now im confused.

 

Its working fine with hardware and its not effecting my FPS and the sound is fine so il leave it how it is.

 

There is an advanced option under advanced in sounds n audio devices named "AGC" which after research is automated gain control or something that keeps volume the same between various programs... any ideas?

I would leave it off. Don't need another piece of software interfering with BF2 or anything else you are running.

 

Example, I use ASIO on my HTPC which totally bypasses everything to do with Windows as it's a cleaner sound.

Yeah I would keep it off. If it tries to balance the sound between programs it could make PR to loud or mumble to quiet. Leaving it off will be best.

what type of headset is it Kush?

 

i have a plantronics audio 770, also if you use Fraps you wont be able to record sound while the USB is plugged in as well, Faps is a homo and doesnt like USB headsets.

what type of headset is it Kush?

 

i have a plantronics audio 770, also if you use Fraps you wont be able to record sound while the USB is plugged in as well, Faps is a homo and doesnt like USB headsets.

 

That's actually an XP fault... you'll find no stream recorder (xfire, fraps etc) will record sound on XP aside from your USB input.

 

Vista allows direct stream recording however it skips your voice in BF2 so you have to record that separately. The problem however, is that for some reason recording has been disabled on our TS server now so I can't even do that