Should I buy a separate Soundcard or stick with Onboard 7.1?

[mastag]

How big a difference is there between Onboard sound and the newer Sound cards, like the Soudblaster X Fi series?

 

[Asus]

It depends what onboard chip you have. There could either be a really big difference in sound quality or not a whole lot unless you have a well trained ear.

Where Creative sound cards really stand out is in 3D game sounds. Although I bought my Audigy 4 because it did a lot better for just stereo music than the onboard I had on my old setup.

It does help boost performance slightly since it does the audio proccessing instead of handing some of it off to the CPU. I would think it would help most in games like BF2 since there are so many sounds at once (I'm guessing).

 

[giant384]

yes it depends on what you have now, but going from ac97 onboard sound to an audigy 4 was amazing. i can hear more now and the sound is much richer.

 

[CyberPitz]

I have never bought a sound card, I've always used the onboards...maybe that's my problem

 

[NeptuneUK]

Even a cheap soundcard will be a really good addition to your PC! As long as it supports HD EAX etc!

 

[DEATH eVADER]

As a matter of fact I'm upgrading at the moment, could you tell us how well the onboard Audio of this mobo can stand up to scrutiny:

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?QuickLinx=4519&v=2#infoarea

 

[NeptuneUK]

All on board sound is inferior to a real soundcard. Disabling sound in games will give you a performance boost... Or to put it into perspective, using onboard sound will have a negative impact on performance.
Get a sound blaster audigy (like me) if you want a really cheap one that supports EAX 2.0 and HD audio (in games like PREY and FEAR)
The 3dmark03 benchmark showed a 1fps difference on the audio benchmark.

I would recommend the X-fi Music, or sound blaster audigy 4 though if you are prepared to spend. Whatever you do DONT use onboard, the sound quality is never as good as well as performance.

 

[Reaktor4]

Onboard isnt that bad. If there is noticable hiss or you want eax or something get a card.

 

[NeptuneUK]

Onboard isnt that bad.

Yes. Yes it is

 

[The Brick]

For the avarage user, no it isn't. Onboard sound has been really acceptable since a year or 2. AC97 is pretty good. Though anyone who enjoys any form of 'sound' should get a soundcard and a nice pair of speakers.

 

[giant384]

eax on the ac 97 was done horriblly. with a sound card the sounds are much crisper and doesnt sound bogged down. plus in games for example like battlefield 2 you are able to hear more sounds.

 

[The Brick]

Yeah sound cards are way superior, but compared to what onboard sound used to be, the new ones are pretty good.

 

[hungryduck]

some people say that having a sound card is like night and day - others say there isn't much of a difference....I think a lot of depends on how good your ear is.
Just like how some people are perfectly happy with a 15in LCD at 1024x768 while others swear by a 20.1 inch widescreen at a resolution of 1680x1050.

 

[The Brick]

It also depends on your speaker system.

 

[hungryduck]

It also depends on your speaker system.

this is also a huge factor - if your going to shell out for a nice sound card you might as well make sure you have a nice set of speakers or headphones.
No sense of having a Creative X-Fi playing through a set of junky $20 dell computer speakers.

 

[giant384]

certain speakers will pop if there to old with a new high end sound card.