What sound card to get?

[CharveL]

Ive had a SBLive with the breakout front console for about 5 years now and I'll never buy a Soundblaster product again.

Between the crappy drivers, constant crackling, and complete disregard by support I'm done with them.

[Oldschool61]

Originally Posted by Doc_uk

any idears guys
At the moment im useing my motherboards MSI P67A-GD65 on-board sound, with roccat cave 5.1 headphones
But would like to get a proper card
regards
Doc

People still buy sound cards??? Most on board should be fine.

Save your money and put it towards something else like ram or videocard

[cre8tive Delay]

Sorry for quoting myself but it just fits:

@Oldschool61:

Originally Posted by cre8tive Delay

As to onboard sound: unless you have a decent soundprocessor on your mainboard, never go with onboard sound. The sound might be ok nowadys but the performance isn't. Your CPU has got to process sound here.
Using a soundcard frees ur CPU and that way increases your fps
Also, a onboard soundcard is most likely not capable of bringing you complex sound effects or precise surrond positioning.

[Katana1000S]

Originally Posted by cre8tive Delay

As to onboard sound: unless you have a decent soundprocessor on your mainboard, never go with onboard sound. The sound might be ok nowadys but the performance isn't. Your CPU has got to process sound here.
Using a soundcard frees ur CPU and that way increases your fps
Also, a onboard soundcard is most likely not capable of bringing you complex sound effects or precise surrond positioning.

Agreed, I've always leaned towards performance PC builds with high end motherboards, but even the best of them with on-board sound do not compare to a dedicated quality sound-card that does its own processing and leaves the CPU to do the work on the sim ... it always amazes me how some guys will spend thousands on a PC build but cut corners in this area ... one of my friends did exactly this, I asked him why he never pushed the boat and got a decent sound card and speakers too, he said he'd rather spend that money on neon lights multi colour fans and cathodes to light the inside of the PC, I just said "Oh" ... never told him it looked like a Circus for fear of hurting his feelings LoL. he's now getting an expensive custom paint job on its case done ... each to their own I guess.

[III/JG11_Simmox]

Creative XiFi external USB
plus eDimension ForceFeedBack headphones,no contest
best gaming experience ive had so far

[Oldschool61]

Originally Posted by cre8tive Delay

--
As to onboard sound: unless you have a decent soundprocessor on your mainboard, never go with onboard sound. The sound might be ok nowadys but the performance isn't. Your CPU has got to process sound here.
Using a soundcard frees ur CPU and that way increases your fps Also, a onboard soundcard is most likely not capable of bringing you complex sound effects or precise surrond positioning.

This isnt completely true. If you use software "rendering" it is but most onboard sound now is a chip just like on yopur PCI card so in reality your not losing fps. The only thing is a difference in quality and audio features from the sound chip. The term onboard sound refers to a sound processing chip just like your add in card but usually of lower quality, but still not CPU intensive. Several years ago that idea may have held true but not so much today.

[ICDP]

The difference between onboard and dedicated SC is narrower than it was years ago but the difference is still night and day. Why anyone would pay hundreds of dollars/pounds for a new rig and then use onboard SC is beyond me. "It's good enough" is the usual reply, but anyone who has tried a good SC compared to onboard usually never goes back to onboard.

I am using a Xonar DX, the positional audio and range of sounds from it compared to onboard is amazing. See this review from a few years ag o for the Xonar DX, the listening tests mostly apply to music but I found the same for games. For example in my tests on Rise of Flight the onboard sound was tinny and lacked range compared to the Xonar DX.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500/6

[kimosabi]

Originally Posted by T}{OR

The biggest advantage of a sound card is that you can pair it with good set of headphones = cheapest way to have a good sound, as some audiophiles would say.

Essence is an under priced product, for what it offers IMO. The only downside is that after trying your MP3's with this - you will be forced to switch to FLAC.

I went from the Auzen X-Fi Prelude to the Essence ST since music and movies are just as important as gaming to me, and I gotta say that the details and quality of the Essence ST is far superior to the Prelude. I don't get the same dynamics in gaming, because the Essence ST don't have EAX etc. but still, it's the best buy I've made in regards of audio.

Originally Posted by Oldschool61

This isnt completely true. If you use software "rendering" it is but most onboard sound now is a chip just like on yopur PCI card so in reality your not losing fps. The only thing is a difference in quality and audio features from the sound chip. The term onboard sound refers to a sound processing chip just like your add in card but usually of lower quality, but still not CPU intensive. Several years ago that idea may have held true but not so much today.

You still use motherboard bandwidth. Yes, you have a separate chip for processing audio but in 99% of all motherboards it's basically just one chip, no other components like powersource through extra caps etc. That's why soundcards sound better than onboard. They are designed to provide good audio, nothing else. Take a look at the new Gigabyte X58 Assassin motherboard, notice how much extra crap is on there for soundquality/features, and see how much extra space it takes to process/provide good sound frequencies.

Originally Posted by ICDP

The difference between onboard and dedicated SC is narrower than it was years ago but the difference is still night and day. Why anyone would pay hundreds of dollars/pounds for a new rig and then use onboard SC is beyond me. "It's good enough" is the usual reply, but anyone who has tried a good SC compared to onboard usually never goes back to onboard.

It is night and day, even on crappy speakers. I used to run my sound on a couple of Logitech Z-10's. It doesn't get much more plastic than those and still I noticed lots of differences and more clear sound from them when I hooked up a Prelude, instead of using the "7.1" onboard. But the better speakers you have, more easily can you discover noise. People disputing that has their ears full of wax or reduced hearing.

[Oldschool61]

Been looking this up on net and most info says with multicore cpu's and fast processors of today any drop from onboard sound is irrelevant.

[Katana1000S]

Originally Posted by Oldschool61

Been looking this up on net and most info says with multicore cpu's and fast processors of today any drop from onboard sound is irrelevant.

Sources?

These kind of arguments are futile though, for every link you find to support what you say a contrary link can be found.

At the end of the day the proof is in the listening and unless one is tone deaf the difference are there.

But no offence, folk will do what they do and want to justify what they do, so long as we are each happy with our route that's all that matters.

IMHO of course