Benefits of a Sound Card?
- Thread starter daniSAUR
- Start date
Yes they do produce better sound, but you also have to consider the speakers as well. If you're using a budget pair of stereo speakers, you will not be able to experience a big difference apart from using the onboard sound. With the newer motherboards, they offer a really decent onboard sound already, so no it's not necessary to have a sound card installed for general use, regular media or gaming.
daniSAUR
New member
I see, I have pretty decent speakers (Acoustic Energy Aego M) but I'm assuming by the general usage you're implying are like music production etc to use for sound cards? How is it that a lot of people who use their PCs have sound cards for gaming purposes?
Thanks for answering CocaCola.
Thanks for answering CocaCola.
equk
New member
I don't think there's a huge amount of difference for general use tbh, especially when comparing more recent high end motherboards.
Depends on what you're using it for (eg: recording music)
For gaming, people used to say soundcards took strain away from the cpu but I don't really think it makes much difference with recent cpu's
Altho years ago onboard sound was pretty horrid
Depends on what you're using it for (eg: recording music)
For gaming, people used to say soundcards took strain away from the cpu but I don't really think it makes much difference with recent cpu's
Altho years ago onboard sound was pretty horrid
Ya93sin
New member
My mate gave me a SoundBlaster USB thingum, and that has allowed my 2.0 speaker setup to sound nearly twice as good, I can feel the bass better now. The speakers are about 10 years old though, I think they have an amplifier. With headphones the difference is less noticeable to me.
For whatever reason, my G510 keyboard has a sound card, and it is far better than the onboard sound I have (ASUS P8Z68V-PRO motherboard)
For whatever reason, my G510 keyboard has a sound card, and it is far better than the onboard sound I have (ASUS P8Z68V-PRO motherboard)
equk
New member
I still use a x-fi XtremeMusic for gaming as I can set it for 5.1 > stereo for cs:s etc
Does anyone know if the drivers utilize the 4mb of RAM on the x-fi's anymore?
I'm pretty sure someone said everything on windows7 is now software driven so RAM etc on soundcards don't actually get used.
Does anyone know if the drivers utilize the 4mb of RAM on the x-fi's anymore?
I'm pretty sure someone said everything on windows7 is now software driven so RAM etc on soundcards don't actually get used.
I see, I have pretty decent speakers (Acoustic Energy Aego M) but I'm assuming by the general usage you're implying are like music production etc to use for sound cards? How is it that a lot of people who use their PCs have sound cards for gaming purposes?
Thanks for answering CocaCola.
Oh wow, nice speakers. Yeah, and it's also great to have a sound card just to give that extra edge to sound experience when you're watching movies. I guess you could say you'll have a much better experience with a 5.1 enabled sound card compared to the 5.1 or 7.1 onboard audio because a sound card is dedicated to defining the audio. It gets its own power source so you get less interference and overall better sound quality.
Those who have sound cards most likely will have something like a 2.1 or 5.1 speaker system. 5.1 is good for movies mostly in my experience. If you have a movie that has Dolby 5.1, your sound card will correctly direct the sound to each of the different channels from your 5.1 speakers. I think for gaming it's slightly different because the sound cards will simulate a surround sound to the user instead of natively supporting it if the game does not have that surround sound aspect. I'm not exactly sure about this. I think it all depends on the sound drivers and game software as well.
I honestly think it's user preference. It's definitely not necessary to have a sound card like I mentioned earlier. And, if you're not too picky about sound, the onboard sound on current motherboards is all you'll ever need and especially if you already have a decent speaker system (like yours). I hope this makes some sense? Please forgive me for not being professional enough on the subect.
cbiltsouris
New member
well if you have a good sound card such as the stx or st then of course your going to get much better sound but coca cola is right you have to have some decent speakers for anything to sound. for example I bought my z5500s in which I thought sounded pretty amazing for 5+ year old speakers, However when I paired it the my stx the sound was on another planet. I would defiantly recommend anyone who wants better sound to get one
daniSAUR
New member
well if you have a good sound card such as the stx or st then of course your going to get much better sound but coca cola is right you have to have some decent speakers for anything to sound. for example I bought my z5500s in which I thought sounded pretty amazing for 5+ year old speakers, However when I paired it the my stx the sound was on another planet. I would defiantly recommend anyone who wants better sound to get one
Yeah I'm quite the audiophile...
Yeah I'm quite the audiophile...so I love to have my sound quality at it's best. Think I may have a little look around on these.
Creative released its new X-Fi Titanium HD sound card. It's for the high end range. It's a very good sound card for its price.
cbiltsouris
New member
Havent those sound carda had.major driver issues?
KING_OF_SAND
New member
A dedicated sound card for starters will relieve stress from the CPU, on board audio uses more CPU than a dedicated card does.
Now time for the tech stuff. On board audio almost ALWAYS has a 16bit 96,000hz peak, which is just above the 16bit 48,000hz which is DVD quality. Most Creative sound blasters have a max of a 24bit 96,000hz which is a larger bandwidth, thus better audio but not a larger range than 16bit 96,000hz. A sound card such as a Xonar DX will do 24bit 192,000hz which is as high as you can go, which is the same bandwidth of the 24bit 96,000 but has a larger range for creating more realistic sounds. The larger range means you can reproduce more sounds. BUT a good sound card is deprived without a good sound system.
Now time for the tech stuff. On board audio almost ALWAYS has a 16bit 96,000hz peak, which is just above the 16bit 48,000hz which is DVD quality. Most Creative sound blasters have a max of a 24bit 96,000hz which is a larger bandwidth, thus better audio but not a larger range than 16bit 96,000hz. A sound card such as a Xonar DX will do 24bit 192,000hz which is as high as you can go, which is the same bandwidth of the 24bit 96,000 but has a larger range for creating more realistic sounds. The larger range means you can reproduce more sounds. BUT a good sound card is deprived without a good sound system.
daniSAUR
New member
Awesome, thanks guys! and yeah I did read that Creative had really bad issues with sound drivers. As it'll be my first sound card, I don't need anything too expensive.
The house I live in isn't exactly made of stone and lined in soundproofing
so I don't want to have the neighbours knocking at my door to keep it down. Anything good sub £100?
The house I live in isn't exactly made of stone and lined in soundproofing
KING_OF_SAND
New member
Awesome, thanks guys! and yeah I did read that Creative had really bad issues with sound drivers. As it'll be my first sound card, I don't need anything too expensive.
The house I live in isn't exactly made of stone and lined in soundproofingso I don't want to have the neighbours knocking at my door to keep it down. Anything good sub £100?
Xonar DX by ASUS.
Yup Xonar DX is definitely at the top of the list to get for sub $100. It's a very good sound card.
Rastalovich
New member
Eek, some quite old onboard info there.
Realtek (for example) have been very decent spec-wise and performance (from their processors not the cpu, the cpu will handle the windows' codec end as with all codecs from anything) since... atleast ALC888. (http://realtek.info/pdf/ALC888_1-0.pdf [page 10 for the breakdown]) I'd favor ALC888/889/889a.
What you plug the sound into, e.g. as KING_OF_SAND mentions the sound system, is very important as they molest what the output device is producing into what you hear. Without the molesting of the output, and the ability to output, you'll think even the most expensive of soundcards/players are utterly crap.
There's not alot of big science these days with sound, but I will say that games benefit from the effects soundcards can recreate over most onboard sound.
For music tho - there's nothing in it for recent(ish) hardware.
