Do sound cards matter (Gamer using speakers)

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skypine27

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Im guessing this has been covered somewhere but I thought since this forum likely isn't as busy as the others, a new thread might not hurt....

I run a high end mobo (Rampage V Extreme) + high end ?? speakers (to me they are high end, hell they costed nearly 500 USD):
http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Powered-Speaker-Systems/A5-plus-N-Powered-Speakers

I'm a gamer, and I never use headphones, except for a small foam piece + mic for TS voice comms. Yeah I watch some very occasional movies that I get from torrent and listen to a bit of music on my PC, but again, 95% game use.

Do these new high end sound cards matter (i.e. something like the Asus Strix Raid etc) these days? The last time I had a sound card was seemingly a decade ago, back when you really could tell the difference between onboard sound vs discrete card.

Are these new cards worth anything to a guy in my situation ?

Thanks for anyone with any insight.
 
What speakers? Do you have a dac or receiver?

For gaming, there is a difference in sound when you use a sounblaster Z or ZxR. The games surround sound is excellent. I just use straight stereo and still get sounds all over the room. Distinct sound behind me as well as above, beside, etc. The Z can be had oem for cheap too. Around $50 or 60.
 
Yes.

I'm using Monsoon MM-1000 speakers (lol vintage) and switching between my motherboard and my auzentech gives an audible difference.

The biggest difference however, is that the sound card produces higher volumes

Other changes include slightly less compression, slightly less background noise, and less distortion at high volumes.

TLDR: gets louder, less background hiss
 
Pick up a cheap z series and give it a try. I am impressed only with games. Other audio is ok. Nothing special. For gaming though. There is a better quality 2 speaker surround than I have heard previously.
 
I use Alesis M1 Active MK2 speakers on my 3770K with onboard sound and it sounds excellent.
When I play FPS games like counter strike and Battlefield, I can tell where players are coming from with no issue.

On my new machine I installed a Soundblaster ZX and use M-Audio BX5 speakers.
Honestly sounds the same as my other machine, but I do like the little mic/headphone jack pod that comes with it.
 
spaceman said:
What speakers? Do you have a dac or receiver?

For gaming, there is a difference in sound when you use a sounblaster Z or ZxR. The games surround sound is excellent. I just use straight stereo and still get sounds all over the room. Distinct sound behind me as well as above, beside, etc. The Z can be had oem for cheap too. Around $50 or 60.
Click to expand...

Hi dude

I said, these speakers:
http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Powered-Speaker-Systems/A5-plus-N-Powered-Speakers

are what I run. Again, I would never ever game with a headset. My question is, if you plug 2.0 (albeit expensive and heavy 2.0) speakers into a high end sound card vs onboard mobo, do you think booms sound sound better in Far Cry 4? Boost in Elite Dangerous? Fat Man in Fallout New Vegas? For a non music guy, this seems like uncharted territory.

Any advice?
 
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I tried out the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z and I didn't realize a difference. I am not sure if it had anything to do with the headphones I was using or not. It is fine though because I was forced to buy one because for some reason the audio on my motherboard stopped working.
 
I won't generalize about sound cards vs onboard, but I will say the specs and features on the Rampage V Extreme look good. Including an 120dB signal to noise ratio. Given you're using speakers, I don't think you'll see much any improvement with an add-on board unless you wanted specific DSP features. If it were me, I'd stick with your motherboard.
 
Generally speaking there are a few notable things that have happened.

Hardware 3D audio basically died. Protocols like EAX provided hardware 3D audio via Directsound. The last OS to support Directsound was XP. The X-Fi Titanium series was the last series to offer true hardware 3D audio support. With Vista and beyond, 3D audio is all done in software. The Creative Z series doesn't even support true hardware 3D audio anymore, although what it is able to do with 3D audio in software is quite amazing.

The average quality of commonly available cheap DACs increased significantly. It's no longer a given that motherboard audio will be terrible (though it very well might be). In addition, cheap external and/or USB DACs of very high quality have become very common. For most people it's more viable to plug in a USB DAC than upgrade an internal soundcard.

These and other issues really helped close the gap between generic motherboard audio, cheap USB DACs, and dedicated gaming cards. That isn't to say that there isn't still a difference when it comes to gaming, but the gap did close significantly.
 
thesecond said:
Yes.

I'm using Monsoon MM-1000 speakers (lol vintage) and switching between my motherboard and my auzentech gives an audible difference.

The biggest difference however, is that the sound card produces higher volumes

Other changes include slightly less compression, slightly less background noise, and less distortion at high volumes.

TLDR: gets louder, less background hiss
Click to expand...

Monsoon's are pure gold man. No need to laugh those babies off!
 
Zepher said:
I use Alesis M1 Active MK2 speakers on my 3770K with onboard sound and it sounds excellent.
When I play FPS games like counter strike and Battlefield, I can tell where players are coming from with no issue.

On my new machine I installed a Soundblaster ZX and use M-Audio BX5 speakers.
Honestly sounds the same as my other machine, but I do like the little mic/headphone jack pod that comes with it.
Click to expand...

I've read the pod kills the sound quality of the Z card. I bought the straight Z card because of it. Have you done any comparison?
 
GotNoRice said:
Generally speaking there are a few notable things that have happened.

Hardware 3D audio basically died. Protocols like EAX provided hardware 3D audio via Directsound. The last OS to support Directsound was XP. The X-Fi Titanium series was the last series to offer true hardware 3D audio support. With Vista and beyond, 3D audio is all done in software. The Creative Z series doesn't even support true hardware 3D audio anymore, although what it is able to do with 3D audio in software is quite amazing.

The average quality of commonly available cheap DACs increased significantly. It's no longer a given that motherboard audio will be terrible (though it very well might be). In addition, cheap external and/or USB DACs of very high quality have become very common. For most people it's more viable to plug in a USB DAC than upgrade an internal soundcard.

These and other issues really helped close the gap between generic motherboard audio, cheap USB DACs, and dedicated gaming cards. That isn't to say that there isn't still a difference when it comes to gaming, but the gap did close significantly.
Click to expand...

Microsoft screwed over an entire industry and user base when they killed DirectSound.
 
The Sound Blaster Z gets the job done. It definitely sounds better for games with my 5.1 speakers hooked up to it than it does to the onboard. Anything but games, though, like movies and music leave much to be desired. My 14-year old SB Audigy kicks the ass off anything new these days in music sound quality. Sadly it isn't supported in W8.1.

TechLarry said:
Microsoft screwed over an entire industry and user base when they killed DirectSound.
Click to expand...
Just like when they killed DirectInput and took display management away from the hardware vendors. All Microsoft is doing is trying to make Windows a closed ecosystem, and the vendors take it up the rear because of their monopoly in the consumer space.
 
Some soundcards have a 'normalizer' effect that compresses the available dynamic range quite dramatically. The result is - as soon as the game engine gives you (the protagonist) SOME sound info, like distant footsteps, the normalizer bumps it up but quiets stuff like explosions.
I have seen people getting banned for using a volume normalizer in a certain FPS.
 
TechLarry said:
I've read the pod kills the sound quality of the Z card. I bought the straight Z card because of it. Have you done any comparison?
Click to expand...

I haven't done any comparisons since it sounds fine to me. I also read some reviews that say if degrades the sound, but I got the ZX mainly for convenience, I have a hard time standing up and moving about so I figured I'd get the one with the pod so I can plug in my headphones when I needed them.

bf-hardline-setup.jpg
 
Armenius said:
The Sound Blaster Z gets the job done. It definitely sounds better for games with my 5.1 speakers hooked up to it than it does to the onboard. Anything but games, though, like movies and music leave much to be desired. My 14-year old SB Audigy kicks the ass off anything new these days in music sound quality. Sadly it isn't supported in W8.1.

Just like when they killed DirectInput and took display management away from the hardware vendors. All Microsoft is doing is trying to make Windows a closed ecosystem, and the vendors take it up the rear because of their monopoly in the consumer space.
Click to expand...

the soundblaster z doesnt work with windows 8.1 ??
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I ended up decided to not buy a sound card for now. Maybe when windows 10 is out I'll see if the audio guys release a whole new slew of latest and greatest sound cards, but still seems likely I will stick with the onboard + 2.0 speakers (maybe will go 2.1 and add a subwoofer)
 
No he said the Audigy doesn't work in 8.1
The Z is fine.
Since I now have an external amp (Onkyo) and optical I'm wondering if the Z will offer anything useful. For those who record the Z does do some decent ASIO 2 grade recording which may put it a step ahead of onboard. And the SNR of the path is often better, again something you'll notice with more high quality gear. Have to say that simply using the external amp and good speakers has put the sound miles ahead of anything I had before. The watchword here being that remember that what gets to your ears is an entire path, speakers, amp as well as your audio processing. So helps to keep in min what your weakest areas are and of course that gets balanced with budget and how much your ears really care about that sound.
 
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