Sound cards?

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nbovk951

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
211
Whats the real need for sound cards nowadays?
my mobo have 8 channel sound onboard. Im sure that alot of mobos out there have even better sound. Now Im only running a 2.1 logitech system. still very nice.
But unless I was going audiophile is there really any need to upgrade my sound card?

thanks
 
Nah no need. The built in audio on most of the new mobos are pretty good already.
 
Well right now, I came from using an Audigy card to trying out the onboard sound for my new rig. I have the Logitech Z-680 which is a 5.1 surround sound speaker setup. Everything comes out in surround sound except sites that stream content such as Youtube. Nenu has been trying to help me with different things but none has worked. I'm starting to think that this is due to some kind of hardware limitation on RealTek's part.
 
When you have just a 2 channel system, you won't notice as big a difference. A dedicated sound card gets you special sound effects an onboard one won't. Onboard sound also is limited to the amount of sounds it can play back simultaneously. Certain dedicated sound cards have hardware acceleration too, which reduces the load on the CPU. And finally there is the quality of the analogue outputs (although this is more of an audiophile thing). The higher quality your speakers, the more of a difference you will hear.
 
nbovk951 said:
But unless I was going audiophile is there really any need to upgrade my sound card?
Click to expand...
If you love sound, you're already an audiophile. The literal translation of the word would be (from Latin) "lover of sound", or at least something very close to that.
 
Unless you have certain Creative or Auzentech cards you cannot get more than EAX 2.0 in games.
EAX 2.0 can be run in software on your CPU by other sound cards.
Other sound card mfrs dont have licence to implement EAX 3.0 or above and all cards that support it use Creatives hardware acceleration to implement it.
For around the same CPU use, hardware accelerated EAX gives you more in games sounds and better 3D immersion if you have more than stereo speakers.

Not to mention the sound quality difference of the Auzentech Prelude, truly amazing.
A decent soundcard is one of the longest term investments you will make in your PC so if you continually want the best, you only need to buy it once in many many years of PC upgrades.
One of the best investments imho :)
 
Really depends.

If you want ot use Vista, and want to play older games with surround sound then an X-Fi (or Prelude which is the same basic thing) is a good idea. Vista removes DS3D hardware acceleration which some older games require for surround sound, ALchemy for the X-Fi fixes that. Also an X-Fi will do hardware acceleration of a number of games, which can lead to more realistic effects and less CPU load, though just how much varies per game.

Now given that you are on 2.1, well then there's not so much reason for hardware acceleration. The main reason would be for better electronics (DACs and such). Is it worth it? Probably not with the speakers you have. The integrated chips are not bad at all these days and as such I don't really know you'd notice much of an improvement on budget computer speakers. If you get nicer speakers or good headphones or something, then maybe it is worth looking in to.

At this point, your money is probably better spent on upgrading your speakers (or ditching them for good phones) if you want better sound. Until then I think a soundcard wouldn't do all that much for you.
 
Sycraft said:
Really depends.

If you want ot use Vista, and want to play older games with surround sound then an X-Fi (or Prelude which is the same basic thing) is a good idea. Vista removes DS3D hardware acceleration which some older games require for surround sound, ALchemy for the X-Fi fixes that. Also an X-Fi will do hardware acceleration of a number of games, which can lead to more realistic effects and less CPU load, though just how much varies per game.

Now given that you are on 2.1, well then there's not so much reason for hardware acceleration. The main reason would be for better electronics (DACs and such). Is it worth it? Probably not with the speakers you have. The integrated chips are not bad at all these days and as such I don't really know you'd notice much of an improvement on budget computer speakers. If you get nicer speakers or good headphones or something, then maybe it is worth looking in to.

At this point, your money is probably better spent on upgrading your speakers (or ditching them for good phones) if you want better sound. Until then I think a soundcard wouldn't do all that much for you.
Click to expand...

As someone that went from 2.1 to 5.1 (but got dragged back to 2.1 through a dog chewing through my 5.1 speaker system's wired remote) but then upgraded from Audigy 2 ZS to X-Fi XtremeGamer while running Vista, I can tell you that there *is* a difference between accelerated and unaccelerated audio performance, even with only 2.1 speakers; however, Sycraft is right in that said difference is more noticeable with 5.1 speakers. However, the price difference between good 2.1 vs. good 5.1 speakers has shrunk to the almost-negligible (such as Logitech's X-540, which would be the bare-minimum 5.1 setup I would recommend).
 
Almost any add-on card is going to provide better sound then the Realtek sound you have onboard - you'd be amazed. Onboard stuff is good enough for the beeps and whistles that Windows does, but if you're seriously into gaming or music an upgrade could be worth while. Onboard sound generally is the cheapest thing the motherboard maker can get away with, and it shows.
 
I guess the easiest way to say it is...

If you are content with watching TV and movies with the speakers in your TV, then you would be just fine using the integrated sound. (don't care how it sounds - a mono speaker would even be fine)

If you prefer watching TV and movies in full surround sound, then you should get an add-in sound card. (prefer good quality surround sound)
 
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