What's the difference between sound cards for audio and for games?

PC eye · 01-30-2008, 11:06 PM

I think what PunterCam is trying to get at there is that you would need professional equipment to actually distinguish the actual tecnical differences between the different model cards like spectrum analysis or whatever. Generally different models simply see different software as well as patch in options for input and output. One card will see a separate line in from the mic jack while the new models see a flexi jack for both types.

PunterCam · 01-31-2008, 11:31 AM

I made perfect sense!

Basically no matter how the card is advertised, and no matter what the price ($30 - $150) it will sound rubbish if it's outputing through a minijack. These cards aren't physically big enough to have good DAC's, so buy any of them, they will all sound 'fine'.

If you want to listen to an uncoloured sound as it sounds sitting on your hard drive, then you have to take the digital out and convert it elsewhere.

I'd be surprised if there was one physical difference between the gamer and music card.

PC eye · 01-31-2008, 11:02 PM

I didn't notice any actual difference between two models here namely the Audio and Gamer. Ar first it looked like the software that came with the Xtreme Audion model was bad until seeing the same Vista drivers downloaded onto XP!

The installer, the MS update site with the custom option for optional hardware/software updates, and even when selecting "XP" as the version of Windows Vista drivers still went on! Lately Creative finally added release notes when selecting XP and seeing two updates with the same stating on the second that it is for XP!

Between the Audigy 4 Pro and the current Gamer model I yet have to see more then simply being Vista ready and now seeing the flexi jack that eminates the need for two by tying the mic and line in to one. For WMP and most other players the software and new OpenAL to replace EAX plays a larger role there. The rest is marketing for the most part.

01-30-2008, 11:06 PM	#11 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 18,669	I think what PunterCam is trying to get at there is that you would need professional equipment to actually distinguish the actual tecnical differences between the different model cards like spectrum analysis or whatever. Generally different models simply see different software as well as patch in options for input and output. One card will see a separate line in from the mic jack while the new models see a flexi jack for both types. __________________ Users Fight to Save Windows XP! http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=4646547 Microsoft Not Ruling Out XP Extension http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=4716159

01-31-2008, 11:31 AM	#12 (permalink)
PunterCam Gold Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 367	I made perfect sense! Basically no matter how the card is advertised, and no matter what the price ($30 - $150) it will sound rubbish if it's outputing through a minijack. These cards aren't physically big enough to have good DAC's, so buy any of them, they will all sound 'fine'. If you want to listen to an uncoloured sound as it sounds sitting on your hard drive, then you have to take the digital out and convert it elsewhere. I'd be surprised if there was one physical difference between the gamer and music card. __________________ 2006 Mac Pro Dual, dual core xeons @ 2.0Ghz each 2Gb Ram (I'm too poor) NVidia Geforce 7300Gt 256mb Onboard Sound - optical out to Logitech Z5500 Digidesign MBox2 output to PMCs 250Gb Drive running both Mac OSX and Windows on seperate partitions, 400Gb Drive for Windows, 400Gb Drive for OSX 24¨ Acer AL2416W (not nearly as bad as you'd think) Various Lacie external drives

01-31-2008, 11:02 PM	#13 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 18,669	I didn't notice any actual difference between two models here namely the Audio and Gamer. Ar first it looked like the software that came with the Xtreme Audion model was bad until seeing the same Vista drivers downloaded onto XP! The installer, the MS update site with the custom option for optional hardware/software updates, and even when selecting "XP" as the version of Windows Vista drivers still went on! Lately Creative finally added release notes when selecting XP and seeing two updates with the same stating on the second that it is for XP! Between the Audigy 4 Pro and the current Gamer model I yet have to see more then simply being Vista ready and now seeing the flexi jack that eminates the need for two by tying the mic and line in to one. For WMP and most other players the software and new OpenAL to replace EAX plays a larger role there. The rest is marketing for the most part. __________________ Users Fight to Save Windows XP! http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=4646547 Microsoft Not Ruling Out XP Extension http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=4716159

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