Sound card affecting visual frame rate?

Factual Questions
1

I seem to remember that a few years ago I solved a low frame rate in all my games by unusually upgrading the sound card.

Is it still the case that an inferior sound card (now a Sound Blaster Live) can affect frame rate performance?

I now have a comfortably high-spec PC except maybe for the sound card. I have just put a bid on a geforce FX 5900 Ultra to bring the graphics right up. Should I also think about upgrading my sound to an audigy? Or will the live card allow the gfx and cpu to provide their maximum frame rate?

Thanks.

2

Oddly enough, yes, sound can affect your overall performance in ways you wouldn’t expect.

Hunt down “Sounds and Audio Devices” in Control Panel (I’m assuming you’ve got XP) Hit the Audio tab, then Advanced… in the Sound Playback section. Then, hit Performance. If the Hardware Acceleration is not at Full, some motherboards and/or chipsets will throttle *everything * back.

3

I’ll check when I get home, but I’m pretty sure it’s at full.

If it is at full, does that mean the Sound card shouldn’t affect any other performance?