EPoX EP-9U1697-GLi: ULi M1697 Goes Mainstream

Audio Performance

We limited audio testing to the Rightmark 3D Sound version 2.2 CPU utilization test and tested with sound enabled to show the performance effects on several games. The Rightmark 3D Sound benchmark measures the overhead or CPU utilization required by a codec or hardware audio chip.

The Realtek ALC-655 AC97 audio codec was tested with the recently released 3.84 driver set. The Realtek DirectSound audio drivers do not support more than 26 hardware buffers and the OpenAL 1.1 drivers do not support more than 23 hardware buffers at this time, so the scores cannot be directly compared to the HDA Mystique 7.1, Realtek ALC-882, and Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI audio solutions in the benchmarks. The Realtek OpenAL 1.1 driver increases CPU utilization up to 8% more than the Realtek DirectSound drivers.

The Realtek ALC-655 AC97 audio codec has average CPU utilization rates with reductions of up to 4% in the 3D tests compared to the previous driver release. The HDA Mystique 7.1 Gold has the highest overall utilization rates of the audio solutions tested. The Realtek ALC-655 performance is good, but it does not match the audio quality of the ALC-882 HD audio codec. The Sound Blaster X-FI has the lowest overall rates as expected. Let's find out how these results translate into real world numbers.

The audio performance numbers remain consistent as the Realtek ALC-655 generally finishes near the HDA Mystique 7.1 and SoundBlaster X-FI. Serious Sam II suffers a loss of 43%, Splinter Cell at 1%, Battlefield 2 at 21%, Call of Duty 2 at 2%, and F.E.A.R. at 4%. The output quality of audio with the Realtek ALC-655 is good and continues to improve with each driver release, but in no way compares to the HD audio codecs or most discreet audio solutions. The majority of home/office users should have no issues utilizing the ALC-655, but we would not recommend it as the primary audio solution for a gaming or HTPC system, considering the overall quality of audio. In fact, the audio quality in most applications sounded flat and lacked clarity.

If you are a serious gamer, then a dedicated sound card is still a requirement to ensure consistent frame rate averages across a wide variety of games. We noticed in previous testing of our Battlefield 2 and Half Life 2 benchmarks that the Realtek AC97 audio codecs would cause stuttering in intensive scenes. The 3.84 driver release does not have stuttering in our current benchmarks while improving performance across the board.

The Realtek 3.84 driver installation installs a basic control panel that features a built-in 10-band equalizer along with the standard mixer and speaker controls. We found the control panel to be user friendly and a definite improvement over the standard Windows audio properties application.