Thinking about getting a motherboard without a PCI slot, so I'll have to ditch my SB Audigy (which is a shame. I really like the 5.25inch bay controller). I haven't used on board sound in a while. Do you guys think it will be much worse than an Audigy?
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Creativy Audigy vs Onboard
- Thread starter lespaul50
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dragonstongue
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the current onboard sound is decent, though few onboard souynd cards will be comparable to a discrete sound card, kinda of like igp vs actual graphics card, comparable, but also nowhere near the same. Obviously there is some very high end onboard audio, however, its also on very high end motherboards 9/10
Asus, Creative, Auzentech, HT Omega all make great sound cards, for example, any asus soundcard that has an X in its name, i.e STX, DX, DGX, DSX are all pci-e based, the 2 newest ones DGX, DSX are actually apprently quite good, pure spec wise they are not quite up to the DX but in some other ways are slightly better, though the king of them all is the ST, STX, and Phobeus.
IDK up to you, the asus xonar line pci-e based sound(can be used in pci-e 1x, 2x, 4x, 16x just the same) work quite well, and if you stay in the midrange they are not that $ and will generally make any onboard sound crud(except for the high end boards)
Asus, Creative, Auzentech, HT Omega all make great sound cards, for example, any asus soundcard that has an X in its name, i.e STX, DX, DGX, DSX are all pci-e based, the 2 newest ones DGX, DSX are actually apprently quite good, pure spec wise they are not quite up to the DX but in some other ways are slightly better, though the king of them all is the ST, STX, and Phobeus.
IDK up to you, the asus xonar line pci-e based sound(can be used in pci-e 1x, 2x, 4x, 16x just the same) work quite well, and if you stay in the midrange they are not that $ and will generally make any onboard sound crud(except for the high end boards)
OFaceSIG
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People are saying the latest Realtek 898 are really really good. However it still comes down to how the motherboard makers implement it. If they use the bare bottom components it's going to sound like crap. Look at Xonar cards. Those chips on those cards aren't anything special. It's the high end DAC, ADCs, caps, etc on those cards they make them exceptional.
Just picked up a Xonar DG to see if the Headphone amp and Dolby Sound make a difference as I only game with Headphones.
I was perfectly happy with my Abit IP-35's onboard Realtek sound, but never really had any game issues with it. Installed Bioshock for the first time on this new Asrock board and for some reason cannot enable EAX like I could on my old Abit. I was also trying to work through some audio issues briefly last night with the game, but just decided this morning to just pick the Xonar DG($31) to get hardware EAX. Hopefully it will solve my Bioshock audio issues.
I was perfectly happy with my Abit IP-35's onboard Realtek sound, but never really had any game issues with it. Installed Bioshock for the first time on this new Asrock board and for some reason cannot enable EAX like I could on my old Abit. I was also trying to work through some audio issues briefly last night with the game, but just decided this morning to just pick the Xonar DG($31) to get hardware EAX. Hopefully it will solve my Bioshock audio issues.
dragonstongue
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ummm xonar emulate anything above EAX 2(due to creative liscencing) I have found with my Xonar DX there are some games it emulates well enough, others, it sounds bad 
, course, EAX was meant for XP, not vista and not 7, they have to emulate the sound stack and such, so its not ever going to be or do the same thing(which is good and bad)
The chips on the Xonar are high end, all around, not the pinnacle, but still overall quite up there, for awhile they were the only ones to use the "Oxygen" chips which do all kinds of funky tricks, however HT Omega among others now use certain models of the Oxygen chips, Asus uses the others.
The quality of sound is superior to onboard, unless you are talking top of the line onboard. SNR DB ratings and such, the Xonar are still very much up there, and only really shine when paired with equally good headsets speakers and such.
, course, EAX was meant for XP, not vista and not 7, they have to emulate the sound stack and such, so its not ever going to be or do the same thing(which is good and bad)The chips on the Xonar are high end, all around, not the pinnacle, but still overall quite up there, for awhile they were the only ones to use the "Oxygen" chips which do all kinds of funky tricks, however HT Omega among others now use certain models of the Oxygen chips, Asus uses the others.
The quality of sound is superior to onboard, unless you are talking top of the line onboard. SNR DB ratings and such, the Xonar are still very much up there, and only really shine when paired with equally good headsets speakers and such.
It still sounds like radio quality with good headsets. I am not sure if if the X-Fi Titanium HD has been de-throwned yet, but I can't really live without my custom audio mixer settings. RealTek does have decent audio contorl panel. But I still can't let my x-fi titanium HD go even now.