Question about X-Fi vs. onboard HD Audio

[maverick777]

Normally I would have to say that dedicated sound cards sound better than onboard audio, but is it just me or is on board audio getting better? My Asus M2N32-SLI comes with builtin Azalia HD audio. I have it hooked up to a Creative Pro Gamer G500 system. Zero hiss/static. Sounds pretty good.

My question is will an X-Fi card make THAT big a difference? I've also been hearing a lot about the problems X-Fi cards have been having in certain games and have problems with clicking sounds.

So the $100 question is will I hear a noticeable difference?

PS: I don't have money to burn, but if it's worth the investment then I may buy it.

 

[Met-AL]

The big difference is in games that support EAX. The X-Fi can support 128 simultaneous hardware-accelerated 3D voices, where as your onboard, just a guess probably can only support 32 in software. What is the difference...it's a huge difference when a game can take advantage of that many voices such as BF2.

There is also the performance hit you will lose in gaming if you use a X-Fi or Audigy 2. It's not much, but it's the equivalent almost of buying the next speed of CPU to make up for it.

I know for myself, that after upgrading from my NF2 with SoundStorm to this ASRock board with it's Realtek codec, I couldn't stand it. I went out and spent the 130 bucks on a X-Fi card and feal it was a very worthwhile investment.

And as far as problems with the X-Fi, I have had none. But, I am not running a NF4 board, which seem to be the cause of the problems.

 

[rayman2k2]

I always thought Azalia HD was an Intel ICH tech-only? Could be wrong...

 

[hughJ]

You probably won't notice a difference in quality, but you'll definitely notice a difference in software support. Support of OpenAL is getting to be a bigger deal. Some games now won't even give you 3d surround if your card doesn't support openal.