PutridPestilence666 Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 I read a post about how when they turned off sound it greatly improved performance and virtually removed stutters. Doing this also had the same result. Well I have a lot of mp3 tracks from other game soundtracks because I get tired of the same old music when playing Oblivion even though it is one of my favorite sound tracks. I also have a mod installed called Enhanced Music and Control 2 ( https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45925 ). I was wondering if there was a way to either get custom music to perform better or something. If not that is fine. I will probably just play with the music turned off and see if that helps. Hopefully I can at least play with sound enabled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Striker879 Posted May 24, 2020 Share Posted May 24, 2020 Are you using a discrete sound card or onboard sound? One of the downsides of onboard sound is all it really does is provide someplace to plug in your speakers/headphones ... all of the audio processing is passed off to your CPU. Discrete sound cards do all of their own sound processing (after the CPU off-loads the task to the soundcard). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PutridPestilence666 Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 Are you using a discrete sound card or onboard sound? One of the downsides of onboard sound is all it really does is provide someplace to plug in your speakers/headphones ... all of the audio processing is passed off to your CPU. Discrete sound cards do all of their own sound processing (after the CPU off-loads the task to the soundcard).I am using a usb DAC/amp so I am actually not sure which it would be considered. Here is the one I am using. https://www.amazon.com/SMSL-Optical-Coaxial-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B06VSVSCF9 I guess this would still be using the motherboard maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Striker879 Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 (edited) I'd need to see some specs (chipset info etc) ... the board looks like more than a simple pass-through though. I'm guessing you're on a laptop (notorious for using onboard chips like Realtek). As much as it sounds counter to mt advice that you really need a discrete sound card I'd do a test that doesn't have the SMSL M3 plugged in (so using whatever sound outputs come on your machine) to see if that makes any difference ... looking to determine whether or not the SMSL M3 is part of the problem or part of a solution. - Edit - According to this page from the manufacturer it uses a Cirrus Logic CS4398 chip, and according to this Cirrus Logic page it sounds like more than something from Realtek et al. I'm not super well informed on what all of the components on a discrete sound card are and what they do but at least the SMSL M3 does sound like a step in the right direction. I would still do the test to see what (if any) effect it is having. I don't see any info on what USB version it is using ... there's a pretty big throughput difference there between versions of USB. Edited May 25, 2020 by Striker879 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PutridPestilence666 Posted May 26, 2020 Author Share Posted May 26, 2020 I'd need to see some specs (chipset info etc) ... the board looks like more than a simple pass-through though. I'm guessing you're on a laptop (notorious for using onboard chips like Realtek). As much as it sounds counter to mt advice that you really need a discrete sound card I'd do a test that doesn't have the SMSL M3 plugged in (so using whatever sound outputs come on your machine) to see if that makes any difference ... looking to determine whether or not the SMSL M3 is part of the problem or part of a solution. - Edit - According to this page from the manufacturer it uses a Cirrus Logic CS4398 chip, and according to this Cirrus Logic page it sounds like more than something from Realtek et al. I'm not super well informed on what all of the components on a discrete sound card are and what they do but at least the SMSL M3 does sound like a step in the right direction. I would still do the test to see what (if any) effect it is having. I don't see any info on what USB version it is using ... there's a pretty big throughput difference there between versions of USB.Well, I'm actually on a Desktop. But either way I think the performance loss was due to something else. Because I just checked my frames with and without sound and there was no difference. I also removed all of the other mp3 files and returned the default soundtrack. Also removed that music mod. It may have had something with the mp3 tracks I was using or something. As they were some pretty big and high quality files. Or it was just a coincidence that my game started performing better once I disabled the audio. Either way sorry for the confusion and thanks for all the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Striker879 Posted May 26, 2020 Share Posted May 26, 2020 No problem ... gave me something to look into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbyskel78 Posted June 8, 2020 Share Posted June 8, 2020 just out of curiosity, when ya say 'checked w/ and w/o sound' did ya actually disable the sound:bDSoundHWAcceleration=0bSoundEnabled=0 ... i don't particularly care for this one, but worth testing as ya say ya got a tower and could add an audio card.bMusicEnabled=0 ... i do use this one.for music, and hopefully your running x64 platform, just run a slim-line music player and some of your fave tracks. that is if you notice an improvement w/ the 1st or 3rd suggestion, the second would imply a separate card.this is the ini in your default directory where your save games are stored ... could just change em both. one on my sys, oblivion directory and the other documents/my games/ oblivion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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