FFXI and maximum sound channels?

[Pikarya]

I was told my a friend that FFXI can utilize more than the default (max in tools menu. 20-21) sounds channels available. How can I check how many audio channels my PC soundcard supports?

Also is these even possible (21+ channels open or more?)

[Kryssan]

Sound channels is a bad term. More appropriate to say the maximum number of sounds (or voices) [polyphony] your card can support simultaneously.


A modern PCI sound card (like one made by Creative) with 7.1 (8 channels) could, depending on design, support up to 128 simultaneous voices, or sounds for the case of FFXI. An AC'97 internal/motherboard integrated design would probably only be able to support 9 or 16. Where you could specifically derive this data from, however, I can't honestly help you with.


I tend to reghack mine to around 30~ experiment with the number and see what you like.

[Pikarya]

Bumping this again, since I felt it would be stupid to make another thread with a similar question. I have a friend that just bought this sound card (Its not the greatest, but his old one went kaput).

C-Media Company Information

Anyways I was over at his place setting up his stuff and he asked me how high he could go with the polyphony with his new card. I'm guessing 32 max?

Also side question, is it true disabling onboard-audio and running PCI/PCI-E soundcards improves the speed of the CPU?

Thanks

[Elites]

I know for a fact that disabling sound from ffxi speeds up the game overall for some odd reason.

[Kryssan]

Bumping this again, since I felt it would be stupid to make another thread with a similar question. I have a friend that just bought this sound card (Its not the greatest, but his old one went kaput).

C-Media Company Information

Anyways I was over at his place setting up his stuff and he asked me how high he could go with the polyphony with his new card. I'm guessing 32 max?

Also side question, is it true disabling onboard-audio and running PCI/PCI-E soundcards improves the speed of the CPU?

Thanks

Doesn't improve the speed of the CPU (only overclocking is going to affect this), it allows the CPU to do more things. Everything you use on your motherboard requires CPU processing power. By splitting up applications into various daughter cards, you lighten the load of the processor more and more, thereby allowing it to do other things or more of the same things which lends to the perception of faster. Audio and Video are obviously two things you really never want to use integrated for, as they consume the most processing power. You can probably get away without buying addendum network cards and the like, but if you really wanted to get the absolute most out of your system, you'd go for them too. The increase you'd see however would depend on the situation and the results of using dedicated hardware for anything other than video and audio would be marginal at best for most end-user non-production non-serving environments.

Not enough information given on that promo page to really let me determine what you can do with the card. And my glances over the site didn't show links to PDF or other spec file links with more detailed information on the card. I'd say start at 16 and 64, then halfsplit your way down till you find a number you can work with.

[Kerberoz]

I know for a fact that disabling sound from ffxi speeds up the game overall for some odd reason.

Honestly, I think FFXI runs entirely from CPU emulation. It's just incredibly poorly coded. 29 fps without shadows, 16 with shadows. Video card fan not even spinning because it's at minimum load the entire time.

[Kryssan]

I don't really think thats the case, or possibly there are workarounds to it. I know for a fact my video cards are getting used when playing FFXI, and its a major improvement to go from integrated audio to a dedicated Soundblaster XFi hi-def gaming sound card. Granted, its not like I'm taxing my system at all... even CPU loading with FFXI never goes above 40% on my rig. My gaming PC MB is a Maximus II Formula, so its not like its lacking in the internal components. Granted, I reghack and tweak the hell out of my video cards (hell the system overall), so perhaps the settings I have applied there are the line of difference.

[Shenrien]

Honestly, I think FFXI runs entirely from CPU emulation. It's just incredibly poorly coded. 29 fps without shadows, 16 with shadows. Video card fan not even spinning because it's at minimum load the entire time.

^ This

I can hook up my old 64MB vid card, install the drivers and run FFXI perfectly fine, but my processor is what is getting killed, its the only thing in my PC I can hear running louder then the rest.

granted I leave my PC on 24/7 due to turning it on and off is harder on the hardware then leaving it on so that's to be expected but I've got a 3.2ghz quadcore and I run 29 FPS at all times, when I run shadows I drop down to 20FPS which feels sluggish.

[SephYuyX]

granted I leave my PC on 24/7 due to turning it on and off is harder on the hardware then leaving it on

This was an issue 10 years ago, not today. Leaving it on does more harm than turning it off and on.

[Kryssan]

This was an issue 10 years ago, not today. Leaving it on does more harm than turning it off and on.

Um, what? Where'd you dig up that information? Its better to leave it running. Power cycling your computer puts cyclic stresses on the hardware, and while it is compensated for and the general user will probably never see anything from it, it is wear and tear on the system. Leaving your system on continuously will not hurt it. However, MTBF for most components nowadays is around 5~8 years of continuous, uninterrupted operation. Your computer will be obsolete long before most of its hardware is dying, provided QA did their jobs at all. However, it is a good idea to reboot your computer once in a while, especially with a Windows OS, just because of the way the system handles data.

[SephYuyX]

Your computer will also be obsolete long before it dies from turning it on and off. Leaving it on and turning it on and off do the same damage over time. You get better performance and longevity if you turn the PC off over night when you wont be using it. If youre turning it on and off 5+ times a day, then yes, that is bad.