When you look at upgrades to increase your frame rates on your favorite games the first thing you think of is your video card, then perhaps your CPU and memory. All of those upgrades can be quite costly, after all you're typical mid range video card is going to sell for near 200.00 dollars. A simple upgrade that many people don't think about is there sound card. If you are using the audio chip that is built into your motherboard you're hurting your frame rate without even thinking about it. A decent sound card can reduce the load on your CPU by up to 15%.

For instance today we are looking at Diamond's entre level sound card the Xtreme 5.1; this is a basic sound card that sells for around twenty dollars online. Diamond or Diamond Multi Media as I remember them have been in the computer game for as long as I can remember, two decades at least, they primary produce high end ATI based video cards but they also have their hands in the sound card industry. So let's get to it, and see if this sound card does the trick. The good thing is this card is only a mere $20.00 everywhere.