Configuring Sound

[Anonymous1c4]

Well, after being fed up with this idea that my processor was not fully functional on linux, i've finally figured out why UT2004 runs so increadibly slow (and btw...i have AGP). It was because of sound... I started UT2004 with -nosound and it ran MUCH better. I also added this option to Counter-Strike Source and it ran noticably better as well. The thing is....i don't want to constantly play my games with no sound... So, i want to know if there is a way to configure my sound drivers to get optimal performance or something.

Also, i want to understand what the UT2004 readme is saying when they mention the bolded words

The game is largely single threaded, but Ogg Vorbis decoding is
done in a separate thread, and OpenAL mixes in another thread, which
means you can get a speed boost from an SMP box (currently, this is
noticable: run the game with -nosound for a framerate boost on a
Uniprocessor box to see what I mean. OpenAL and Ogg Vorbis
optimization patches are VERY welcome).

And one more thing...what is the diffrence between OpenAL and ALSA or if there is any at all?

[jimbaloo]

Have you installed the latest drivers for your video card?

[Anonymous1c4]

Have you installed the latest drivers for your video card?

yes i have (and its NVIDIA btw).