Performance

I tested SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro sound card on not the most powerful system that was configured as follows:

• Intel Pentium III 1000MHz CPU;
• Chaintech 6ATA4 mainboard (VIA Apollo Pro133A chipset);
• 512MB PC133 SDRAM from Hyundai;
• ATI RADEON 9700 PRO graphics card;
• Quantum Fireball AS40 HDD;
• Creative PC-DVD Encore 12x DVD-ROM;
• Creative Megaworks 510D speaker system;
• Windows XP Pro SP1.

To check out the performance drop experienced when we enable the sound, I ran Comanche 4 Demo and 3DMark03 (Sound Tests).

The diagram is indicative of the sound processor efficiency: it occupies very little system resources: the difference in fps between the two modes is negligible. When reviewing other Audigy models I saw practically the same picture. I think there is only one sound solution that can compete with the Audigy 2 in performance hit tests. It is the APU integrated into NVIDIA nForce2 chipset (see our article called Contemporary Integrated Sound Solutions: Storm is Coming).

The difference is noticeable in 3DMark03, especially in the test with 60 sounds.