Performance - Benchmarks

Benchmarks

There's a couple of caveats about using the Entertainer for gaming. First is you have to reboot into 'Immerzio 3D' mode. This is provided by Sensaura3D, so the Entertainer supports all API's under it, including EAX2. The second caveat will present itself shortly. Let's give this dog a whipping.

Halo

The demise of nVidia's SoundStorm may have been a bit premature. We reran this series at least six times, because the results are very unbelievable. Not because the Entertainer is dead last, but because the SoundStorm is on top. It may be sunspots or something. There is a petition to help nVidia to reconsider giving this APU the chop, which you can sign here.

Call of Duty

It might look impressive that nVidia's SoundStorm took top dog in the CoD, Redsquare1-"Suicide Run" map. I re-ran the test five times. However, what became apparent is that SoundStorm would stick and pop its sound and skip frames.  It had a good sound field when it came to 3D placement, but the jerky sound left me unimpressed. Other notables are the Audigy2 ZS with EAX3 which actually outran the EAX2 implementation in this round of benchmarks. The Audigy2 ZS also has the best presentation of sound, with lots of sound details that were not audible in the other cards tested, including footsteps and gun sounds. The Entertainer was the least impressive of the bunch, turning in fair numbers, a fair soundfield, and the dialog voices were inaudible over the massive firefight on this map.

Tron 2.0

In a surprise turnaround for the Entertainer with the "Thorne's Internal Partition" map, subjectively speaking, the Immerzio3D provided a spooky ambiance that really added to the experience. What was even more impressive was the DMX 6-fire provided a truly convincing (or suspension of disbelief) environment with reverb and effects. The SoundStorm did very well, too, providing a very good balance with directional and environment sounds. The Audigy2 ZS and the Prodigy 7.1 just had too much reverb in EAX mode, and was too plain in non EAX. We only noticed the differences in immersion when comparing the other cards against them; they actually provided the least amount of immersion.

UT2004

Oh, the mayhem! Derailing review deadlines all over the web, Unreal Tournament 2004 is here. We used the ONS-Torlan map with 11 bot players and 1 human. Anyone spot the trend? At least the Entertainer isn't at the very bottom.

Far Cry Demo2 'Research'

Because we like to surprise our readers with little extras every now and again, we the include current darling, Far Cry. The resolution with the demo was locked at 1024x768x32. The results show pretty much the same trend with all of the benchmarks: SoundStorm on top, and the Entertainer on the bottom.  In the ephemeral immersion context, the Entertainer did very well with Far Cry. The SoundStorm and Prodigy 7.1 sounded pretty much alike: lifeless. The DMX 6-fire was also a little dry, but better than the last two. The Audigy2 ZS added reverb. I am sorry, but adding reverb to an outdoor environment is just plain dumb and killed any sense of immersion. PC graphics are almost getting to the point of messing with your mind and are starting to encroach on SGI and Pixar territory.  But, the sound aspect is crucial to the suspension of ones disbelief. You can fool the eyes, but the ears do not fool easily.

While it is true the Audigy2 ZS had some of the best game sounds and speedy performance, the nVidia's SoundStorm is whipping some tail here too. The Entertainer 7.1 did have some pretty good sounds for games. However, it goes home with its tail between its legs for being outperformed by the DMX 6-fire, which isn't aimed at gamers at all. Certainly, don't believe the hype.