Right Mark 3DS Testing

Right Mark 3DS Testing

Reference System

• CPU: C2D E8500
• RAM: 2 GB DDR2 Dual Channel
• HDD: 2 X 640 GB SATAII
• OPT: BD ROM (iHOS104)
• OPT: DVD-Ram (GSA-4167B)
• Monitor: 22 LCD widescreen

Right Mark 3DS has become a staple in our reviews allowing us to illustrate how the card uses the CPU vs. rising buffer while performing various audio task related to gaming.   We chose the PCI-E Xonar DX to show the difference between software and hardware cards although we could have chose many different ones and they would have responded in a similar fashion.

We received some very interesting results when reviewing this card in comparison to others in our reference collection.

This card while aimed at the home theater market is still armed with what many consider to be the most powerful gaming audio processor on the market.

Direct Sound 2D

Running normal Direct sound 2D tests the software based DX showed expected results but what we found very interesting is the Prelude vs. The Home Theater HD 7.1 (HTHD) seems to be faster in this test!  All cards were using the latest revisions of their available drivers. 

Direct Sound 3D

Once again, we see similar results with all cards.  The hardware cards are still showing the HTHD 7.1 is faster in the 3D audio testing also.  The software card showing expected results as all audio routines has to be processed through the CPU.

Direct Sound 3D+HW

The HTHD 7.1 is still showing minimal CPU usage in the 3D audio and EAX testing.

This makes us wonder exactly what is making this card so much faster?

After all we are really comparing the Prelude which use the 20K1 series DSP processor and the HTHD 7.1 which use the 20K2 series of DSP and while information is sketchy there is said to be some differences besides the interfaces.  We will be performing further investigations to find out why this card is flexing so much audio number crunching muscle.