Onboard audio improving?

[Blazestorm]

I'm curious if the new onboard audio chipsets are any good?

I have a Audigy 2 ZS... and I'm getting an Abit IP35 Pro... was thinking of using the onboard audio, one reason is so I can use the front audio ports, unless I'm mistaken there isn't really a way to do that with the Audigy 2... It's a good card, I'm just wondering if it's really going to be a big difference?

 

[Volucris]

I was rather impressed with the Realtek HD audio on my P35 DS3L. Not as good as my Xfi, but pretty good for onboard.

 

[AMD_Gamer]

as long as you are not an audiophile onboard sound should be fine, in fact i saw a motherboard that actually uses the xfi chip as its onboard sound

 

[Blazestorm]

I'm not a ridiculous audiophile, I can't tell the difference between 192 and 320kbps mp3's... I can between 128 & 192, but it's not a huge deal.

I think the Abit has Realtek HD but I'm not positive, I see so many motherboards with 7.1 audio onboard and Asus even has a card that goes into the PCI-1x slot... I'm assuming it's getting better.

I remember having to buy USB cards, firewire cards, NIC cards... I had like 5 PCI slots at one point 4 of them filled up Soundcard, USB, firewire, NIC... I may have still had a modem too because I had the computer before we switched to Cable.

I guess I could just try on my current board and see if I can see the difference.