Bioshock Performance....

What settings do you think I'll beable to run Bioshock on? Would it help to get a dedicated sound card aswell since I run programs like TS and Skype alot in games? (On my Laptop is my question for all this...)

 

i think you should be able to run it pretty well [ please note this is only a guess since the requirements haven't been released yet ]
nice laptop btw

im not sure if ill get bioshock i saw one of the trailers [ the one where the guy gets his hand and stomach drilled through] and it looked extremely gory

 

if your laptop can't run it then I doubt that anyone else's can

 

Yeah, I just watched that. A little intense. There's been worse, they just didn't look as realistic.

 

Could ya'll send me a link to see this new trailer? The only Bioshock Trailer I've seen is the one with the maker giving the commentary. By the way do you think adding an external sound card would help performance any?

 

Note---the trailer with the guy using a plasmid to create a bee swarm + getting drilled though the stomach is just CGI--not realtime rendering.
As far as an external soundcard......soundcards only help (with game's framerates) when they are able to off-load significantly more cpu cycles than your integrated sound uses. --in my experience, external, USB cards actually slow down your laptop rather, than give a boost---although they do sound better and allow EAX 3,4 etc. Unless you're using a huge amount of 3-D sound effects (or have a poor integrated card,) I'd pass. Note--this may have changed in the last year or so, if possible, test one out. I never tried an express card/pcmcia version......only usb.

 

I've never tried external (usb) sound cards, so Tony_A may be right there. With PCI sound cards though, they do help the framerate quite a bit. Especially if you're running Skype/TS while gaming.

Also, hard for us to say what you need to run it when the game isn't out yet...

 

I would not be using usb. I would be using my pci-e slot my laptop has for external devices. Only reason I even thought of it is because I'm extremely cpu bound in almost every game I play and it's extremely anoying. Would it help my framerate much at all if I'm 100% cpu bound? (Would it be worth spending $100-$200 on or will it only give me like an extra 3fps?)

I do notice when running programs like skype and stuff they will use about 10%-15% cpu usage.

 

Well, then that's 10-15% CPU usage you can save (A good Creative sound card uses around 3% at most - And before anyone catches on to the "Good Creative" oxymoron, let me qualify that a bit. Creative is the best at making CPU-friendly sound cards. Their drivers may suck and all the other usual problems, but you won't find a sound card that uses less CPU)

Yep, I'd say it was worth it. Of course you don't need to buy the most expensive sound card. Something like an Audigy 2, which costs maybe $50 would do the trick just as well.

 

I saw a $100 creative-x fi or something like that on newegg.com I was considering ordering. Would it be good?

 

Well, it's the best sound card made by Creative, so if you're after a good sound card, yes, it 'd be good. It's not perfect (Like all Creative hardware, it suffers from pretty lousy drivers), but it's a good card, yes. You'll have to decide if it's worth $100. Also, be sure to check that it's actually compatible with your system.
I've no idea how your external pci-e slot works with it.

 

I took a look (at newegg, etc) it seems NOONE makes an express card compatible sound card (too new a standard/port?) although there are still a couple pcmcia based ones---if you laptop has one of those old slots, mine doesn't Hopefully there'll be an audigy based express card soon. Also, yes, only expect a 2-4 fps gain (vs bad integrated)

 

Than what would be the point for 4fps when your already getting 50-60fps?

 

Yes, an extra 4fps or so, isn't much. However, on a demanding game raising the minimum fps (as opposed to average fps) might be noticeable--less jerky. That said, the reason to get a dedicated sound card is to enable much better sound with hopefully, no performance hit. It makes no sense to buy one just to try to increase fps---try this---turn down sound quality (or even turn sound off) in a game's settings and see what boost you get---not much at all. Why would a dedicated card be all that different?

 

It's the minimum fps that I normally have a problem with.