Another hardware item I added to the testing machine an old first generation VIA Envy based soundcard to help spread the heat away from the Southbridge controller on the mainboard.
With the issuance of the December 2007 Direct X I noticed several items being replaced in direct3d, and direct sound components.
On the easily overworked box, what I have noticed is a drastically lowered CPU usage in areas with overlapped textures from different item groups along with a large number of overlapped sounds. In some instances the CPU usage would jump from lulls of 0% to spikes in the 70% for a few seconds then drop to 0%. With the Dec.2007 DX9 the 70%-80% CPU usage spikes dropped to 40%-47% in the same map areas and same number of players.
I suggest the Dec.2007 DX9 as worth the effort. You could at this point just hang out and wait for the Feb.2008 now though. For some time they have quietly put out a new version with fixes and enhancements every two months.
