Sound card test program
Sound card test program Note: this test program is NOT applicable to current Windows systems and WDM drivers and is now considered obsolete. It is only compatible with legacy windows 9x/Me and DirectSound.
What
is it for?
The goal of this experiment is to gather useful data about different sound
cards. This will help further developing of this software, and also help everyone
interested in real-time processing to get more clear picture of various sound
cards before choosing to buy one.
As Guitar FX BOX is real-time processing application, among standard sound card
features (s/n ratio, frequency responce, DirectX API support, etc.), special
interest here is in sound card LATENCY. More closer, it is the recording latency
that is critical. With PC's and software real-time processing, total latency
consists of: input latency, CPU time needed for processing and output latency.
Most sound cards do pretty fast DirectSound output thus achieving very low output
latency. But, for recording, delays vary a lot ( from 5ms to 0.1s or even more!).
This can be due to limitation of sound hardware - like minimal DMA sound buffer
(amount of audio data) supported, or sound card driver fault. And it doesn't
matter if the card is cheapy or expensive! Card can have superb audio quality
and very "lazy" input ( e.g. SB Live! - see tests below).
About
latency test
Program tests sound card in attempt to find initial delay and minimal audio buffer supported by the hardware/driver. Technically speaking, former is the time that passes from the moment of sending request for sound buffer to the moment of actually getting it. Later constant is rather obvious, it shows what is the minimal buffer supported by device. Also, program detects real sampling rate when using small buffers and shows difference in % from nominal sample rate. Of course, all these values are preferred to be as low as possible. About measurement accuracy, initial latency may vary 5ms, and other two should be quite accurate.
Click
here to download sound card test program SCTEST.ZIP (72k)
(see included README.TXT file for instructions)
Few
examples of my so far tests
Input (recording) latency summary:
DIAMOND Monster Sound MX300 PCI
|
Rate mono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050 M |
10.173654 |
5.834522 |
0.535944 |
|
22050 S |
10.080625 |
5.795960 |
0.530099 |
|
44100 M |
5.114903 |
5.020715 |
0.538617 |
|
44100 S |
5.428351 |
5.076843 |
0.591024 |
|
48000 M |
5.086408 |
5.038562 |
0.202665 |
|
48000 S |
5.093112 |
5.088514 |
0.214610 |
YAMAHA DS-XG PCI
|
Rate mono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050 M |
10.704168 |
5.767594 |
7.670460 |
|
22050 S |
16.294273 |
5.819624 |
4.015965 |
|
44100 M |
5.374713 |
5.334178 |
6.292837 |
|
44100 S |
10.684054 |
5.334018 |
2.614148 |
|
48000 M |
10.749426 |
5.334570 |
7.001617 |
|
48000 S |
10.759483 |
5.333088 |
3.005940 |
Turtle Beach Montego II
|
Ratemono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050M |
10.047101 |
5.796062 |
0.530967 |
|
22050S |
10.480397 |
5.796152 |
0.529223 |
|
44100M |
5.562447 |
5.021270 |
0.540063 |
|
44100S |
5.308503 |
5.020909 |
0.535725 |
|
48000M |
5.446789 |
5.021270 |
0.218848 |
|
48000S |
5.191170 |
5.020729 |
0.212568 |
Creative SB Live! value
(using standard drivers)
|
Rate mono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050 M |
58.386833 |
58.040520 |
5.018651 |
|
22050 S |
58.453880 |
58.038666 |
5.019370 |
|
44100 M |
58.581272 |
58.042854 |
10.008042 |
|
44100 S |
58.701958 |
58.041294 |
10.002841 |
|
48000 M |
53.832615 |
53.329998 |
9.999127 |
|
48000 S |
53.952465 |
53.326164 |
9.996603 |
Creative SB Live! value (using EMU APS drivers)
|
Rate mono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050 M |
10.204663 |
5.917685 |
0.629428 |
|
22050 S |
10.174492 |
5.777804 |
0.545180 |
|
44100 M |
5.124122 |
5.126616 |
0.497758 |
|
44100 S |
5.132503 |
5.046052 |
0.052207 |
|
48000 M |
5.074675 |
5.025004 |
0.125501 |
|
48000 S |
5.072160 |
5.070667 |
0.502492 |
Aureal Vortex2 Superquad
|
Rate mono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050 M |
8.836052 |
5.818168 |
0.648911 |
|
22050 S |
8.950032 |
5.786021 |
0.556446 |
|
44100 M |
9.219900 |
5.039514 |
1.022407 |
|
44100 S |
9.059823 |
5.040293 |
1.000040 |
|
48000 M |
9.125195 |
5.040678 |
0.757067 |
|
48000 S |
9.074909 |
5.040839 |
0.748898 |
Creative Sound Blaster
PCI 128 Vibra
|
Ratemono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050M |
20.192259 |
13.199827 |
0.331364 |
|
22050S |
20.327192 |
19.952000 |
0.335552 |
|
44100M |
20.260983 |
17.502947 |
0.119339 |
|
44100S |
20.483917 |
19.993910 |
0.156880 |
|
48000M |
0.004190 |
10.261654 |
-1.270555 |
|
48000S |
0.004190 |
10.260859 |
-1.264262 |
Creative AWE 64
|
Rate mono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050M |
62.730686 |
62.604580 |
2.941660 |
|
22050S |
62.801086 |
62.604195 |
2.945348 |
|
44100M |
62.831257 |
62.616711 |
2.957036 |
|
44100S |
62.941048 |
62.620758 |
2.968012 |
|
48000M |
62.941048 |
62.620758 |
-5.613048 |
|
48000S |
62.941048 |
62.620758 |
-5.613048 |
Creative AWE 32
|
Ratemono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050M |
62.731525 |
62.496468 |
3.110728 |
|
22050S |
62.853046 |
67.708000 |
3.111377 |
|
44100M |
62.842152 |
62.506779 |
3.133323 |
|
44100S |
63.096096 |
62.503422 |
3.165660 |
|
48000M |
63.096096 |
62.503422 |
-5.397921 |
|
48000S |
63.096096 |
62.503422 |
-5.397921 |
Creative Sound Blaster 16
|
Ratemono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050M |
62.750801 |
62.499760 |
3.108857 |
|
22050S |
62.838802 |
62.502598 |
3.111094 |
|
44100M |
62.890762 |
62.512218 |
3.130290 |
|
44100S |
63.149734 |
62.516407 |
3.159314 |
|
48000M |
63.149734 |
62.516407 |
-5.404828 |
|
48000S |
63.149734 |
62.516407 |
-5.404828 |
VIA Audio (WAVE) (integrated
on MB ga7zm)
|
Ratemono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050M |
0.007543 |
9.999544 |
0.981415 |
|
22050S |
0.006705 |
9.997021 |
0.967770 |
|
44100M |
0.007543 |
9.991241 |
1.770132 |
|
44100S |
0.006705 |
10.003949 |
1.858342 |
|
48000M |
0.006705 |
10.003851 |
2.573323 |
|
48000S |
0.006705 |
10.001161 |
2.578985 |
ESS AudioDrive integrated on MB Compaq 5190
|
Ratemono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050M |
0.006705 |
9.929318 |
3.207669 |
|
22050S |
0.009219 |
12.124680 |
5.049119 |
|
44100M |
0.006705 |
9.849174 |
2.951263 |
|
44100S |
0.006705 |
10.061009 |
2.912287 |
|
48000M |
0.007543 |
10.070976 |
1.925894 |
|
48000S |
0.006705 |
10.062143 |
1.738268 |
OPTI Sound System
|
Rate mono/stero |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050M |
58.900585 |
49.848995 |
0.979826 |
|
22050S |
59.104244 |
46.440090 |
3.785686 |
|
44100M |
59.354832 |
49.358017 |
6.017507 |
|
44100S |
59.550949 |
46.455875 |
4.080863 |
|
48000M |
48.693409 |
43.880405 |
2.082562 |
|
48000S |
25.484838 |
21.938480 |
2.004146 |
Ensoniq Audio PCI
|
Ratemono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050M |
62.683754 |
62.413242 |
3.243481 |
|
22050S |
62.803600 |
62.413948 |
3.248249 |
|
44100M |
62.835449 |
62.431484 |
3.272935 |
|
44100S |
64.510803 |
62.196682 |
3.353347 |
|
48000M |
61.961315 |
61.496593 |
7.781361 |
|
48000S |
62.416401 |
61.661831 |
7.562616 |
ESS AudioDrive
|
Ratemono/stereo |
Init.Delay[ms] |
MinBuff[ms] |
RateDifference[%] |
|
22050M |
10.068892 |
5.785515 |
0.998087 |
|
22050S |
10.092359 |
5.884282 |
0.768810 |
|
44100M |
5.507970 |
4.972455 |
0.618301 |
|
44100S |
5.125798 |
4.982908 |
0.431494 |
|
48000M |
5.125798 |
4.982908 |
-8.373884 |
|
48000S |
5.125798 |
4.982908 |
-8.373884 |
Thank you for your support!