Is there a reason for a new sound card?

Forevermore1337

Forevermore1337

New Member
I'm running off the default sound on my Asus motherboard. Will a newer sound card give me any real noticeable performance increase if i do upgrade? I'm a music enthusiast and record as well, so i do know and appreciate good sound, but, shy of spending $130 in a really expensive card, will it actually warrant the investment?
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
If it's onboard 5.1/7.1 sound, it should be fine. You'd have to spend a buttload of money on a high end Creative card to really notice any difference.
 
linkin

linkin

VIP Member
Actually i noticed a nice difference between onboard realtek and my x-fi xtreme audio which is still software x-fi but it sounds great over the onboard.

Note that with soundcard you should have any features they have enabled in the creative/whatever control panel for the best sounds...

Also for games, you need to use ALchemy (for creative cards) or whatever the manufacturer makes if you're on windows vista/seven.
 
A

astrallite

New Member
I love guys who have $50 speakers with $200 sound cards and tell me they can hear a night and day difference...

I'd offer them $1,000 if they could tell me which is which in a double blind test.
 
diduknowthat

diduknowthat

formerly liuliuboy
Usually it's hard to tell the difference with speakers unless you have fairly decent ones (no not your $50 5.1 logitech stuff). It is, however, VERY easy to tell the difference if you're using ~$50 headphones. There's a night and day difference between onboard and the card I'm using right now, Xonar D1.
 
Forevermore1337

Forevermore1337

New Member
I was sifting through all my old computer equipment and found a Soundblaster Live! 24-bit. Apparently there are some windows 7 drivers out there, so im going to pop that in a pci slot and see what difference it makes. I have a feeling that anything is going to be better than the onboard on my Asus m3a79-t deluxe.
 
Slacker7

Slacker7

Member
If for some reason those drivers don't work or the Creative card is less than what you hoped for, diduknowthat's suggestion of Asus' Xonar D1 is a very good choice.

Consider HT Omega's offerings as well. They have Windows 7 drivers.
 
Forevermore1337

Forevermore1337

New Member
Really? I wish there were some way for me to actually test this, but computers have a funky way of being pretty inaccessible unless you actually buy the product... (profound, i know)

Most of what i've seen says these improve over onboard, but then again, i have no idea what onboard they are running.
 
Shane

Shane

Super Moderator
Staff member
StrangleHold said:
None of those are really any better then your onboard.
Click to expand...

Theres some pretty decent onboard sound these days on newer mobos....but i dont think they can beat a dedicated sound card,Thats as long as its a decent soundcard.

My Mobo has Realtec HD sound intergrated,and my Soundblaster X-FI Extreme blows it away,And thats a cheaper creative card...

Creative make some great sound cards,However their drivers have been a bit shoddy recently,Theyve been crap since 7 came out imo.

Forevermore1337,Id get this.....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132007&Tpk=Asus Xonar D1
 
diduknowthat

diduknowthat

formerly liuliuboy
The Xonar DS is the best out of the bunch but I would also recomment the D1. It's a step up in every direction.
 
Forevermore1337

Forevermore1337

New Member
Thanks guys. I was able to get the Asus Xonar DS and a Creative MKII headset on sale today for like $80 total, which is exactly what i was hoping for.

Luckily Newegg always makes me feel like if i made a bad decision, i can always backtrack with an RMA.

We shall see how it goes.
 
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