Does buying a cheap sound card make any difference when playing games?

No.

Even with a high end soundcard you wont notice a difference, game audio is not of high enough quality to warrant it.
 
I cant really answer for anyone else,
but i recently bought the Asus Xonar DG soundcard for £20 at the OcUK shop.
Then i bought a pair of Panasonic RP-HTF600-S at the rainforest place for £32,

I can really tell the difference in games, much more umph! I am very happy with them,
 
If you only have two speakers and have no intension of setting up a surround sound system then probably not.

I recently went to a LAN party and heard the new transformers movie played on a 5.1 surround sound system. It was so impressive that I started shopping and found a nice refurb Logitech 5.1 system (Z506) for 20 quid.

Now moving from a 2 speaker system to a 5.1 surround was a huge difference and that definitely immerses you into games. Feels real good using my Panasonic HTF600's too.

My onbaord uses Realtec drivers which conflicts with the battlefield series so I picked up a 2nd hand version of the Xonar DG that you linked above for really cheap.

EDIT: I'm sure there's no rush, just feel out your onboard for a while and if you're happy that's all that counts.
 
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trentlad said:
If you only have two speakers and have no intension of setting up a surround sound system then probably not.

I recently went to a LAN party and heard the new transformers movie played on a 5.1 surround sound system. It was so impressive that I started shopping and found a nice refurb Logitech 5.1 system (Z506) for 20 quid.

Now moving from a 2 speaker system to a 5.1 surround was a huge difference and that definitely immerses you into games. Feels real good using my Panasonic HTF600's too.

My onbaord uses Realtec drivers which conflicts with the battlefield series so I picked up a 2nd hand version of the Xonar DG that you linked above for really cheap.

EDIT: I'm sure there's no rush, just feel out your onboard for a while and if you're happy that's all that counts.
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Thanks for your input trentlad
 
j.col said:
I cant really answer for anyone else,
but i recently bought the Asus Xonar DG soundcard for £20 at the OcUK shop.
Then i bought a pair of Panasonic RP-HTF600-S at the rainforest place for £32,

I can really tell the difference in games, much more umph! I am very happy with them,
Click to expand...

Thanks j.col!
 
It's all relative really. Some games these days have some pretty epic sounds so having a decent soundcard and a good set of headphones/speakers can make stuff sound awesome.

Playing FPS games is always best with headphones imo since you can hear so much more of what is happening around you.

At the end of the day unless you plan on spending some serious cash on headphones or speakers then I guess any old soundcard will do... Tbh at that price range I'd probably stick with onboard sound :/
 
I personally wouldn't give up my cheap headphones (Corsair HS1As) and Xonar DG. The Xonar DG definitely sounds noticeably clearer for music than the onboard sound, also makes games sound better too.

It's also worth considering the software and compatibility. The on board on my motherboard is a pain in the rear whilst the DG works without problems, main reason I bought it. Of course, YMMV and most onboard sound cards obviously work correctly. Some of the software can be poor, however.

For gaming though, and with speakers, you really won't notice any difference at all. I can't notice a difference, playing music, with speakers, between the onboard and the Xonar DG.
 
I would give a big +1 to the Xonar DG.

It is a cheap soundcard at only £23, but it offers some nice sound quality and a built-in headphone amp.

Therefore, if you plan to use headphones then this sound card offers a real step up from the onboard.

That said, my friend who has a relatively cheap logitech 5.1 PC speaker system (X540 I think) and mainly uses his PC for FPS games and music found the increase in sound quality to be very noticable going from the onboard sound of P5Q Pro Turbo system to a Xonar DG. Therefore, I would say it is worth it - considering the cost is low and many modern games (like BF3 and L4D in my limited exerience) make good use of sound.
 
I always used to use the onboard realtek + plantronic headset for gaming and was happy enough til one day I moved the X-Fi XtremeMusic over from my old PC to my gaming PC (at which point I was still swapping between the headset for gaming and some Sennheiser HD600s for music/movies as I do a lot of competitve FPS and Eve Online both where I use voice comms) - straight off I noticed with the headset that everything sounded far crisper but then one day I accidentally left the HD600s on when playing Modern Warfare 2 and was blown away by how much more immersive the soundscape was and how much I was missing from the sound before.

Went through a massive spree of headsets and headphones after that - tried most of the mainstream logitechs, plantronics, creative, razer, etc. etc. through in some beyerdynamics, various sennheisers, etc. but never really found a clipon mic worked for me and most makes of gaming headset just sounded so lifeless and missing so much from the audio in comparision to the HD600s and finally settled with the Sennheiser PC163Ds and PC333Ds as they have enough of the detailing in the sound quality to keep me happy + decent boom mic.

I wouldn't play most games on speakers myself as headphones/headset give you much better directional cues and a more intimate soundscape imo.
 
MaxP779 said:
No.

Even with a high end soundcard you wont notice a difference, game audio is not of high enough quality to warrant it.
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Totally disagree. The difference is NIGHT AND DAY. I have described it before in this way and will again now in exactly the same way.

With onboard sound - Could hear the fire in a game, knew it was there - but that was about it.

With DAC/AMP + HD650 Combo - Could hear the fire, the crackling of the wood it was burning on and a whole lot more. Cleaner, crisper.

This was in WoW, hardly a game that sports epic sound clips. The difference hits you instantly. Then take a game like BF3, which, quite simply - has stunning audio and you really notice it. Do you need to spend the earth on audio gear for gaming? No. Will you notice the difference? Yup.
 
Similar question to the OP's here

I've got a set of Logitech z323's which are currently running off my P55-GD80 motherboard. My question is, would I see any improvement using a Xonar DG with these speakers? Also, I noticed on the bottom of my board there are a couple rows of tiny caps next to some text saying 'true blu-ray audio' which makes me wonder if I'm not already pushing DAQ level audio? You can see them in the bottom corner here. Apologies for the thread-jack, but it didn't seem worth having two threads asking nearly the same thing :rolleyes:.
 
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I've got a xoner DX, and im not sure if theres a difference in games tbh, but when i play music off it, it sounds so much better than when i plug my laptop into the same speakers...
 
tobsmonster2 said:
Also, I noticed on the bottom of my board there are a couple rows of tiny caps next to some text saying 'true blu-ray audio' which makes me wonder if I'm not already pushing DAQ level audio?
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I'm not sure what you mean by DAQ but it's onboard and a decent dedicated soundcard should be an upgrade - although I have no idea what kind of quality your speakers are.
 
Sin_Chase said:
I'm not sure what you mean by DAQ but it's onboard and a decent dedicated soundcard should be an upgrade - although I have no idea what kind of quality your speakers are.
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When I mentioned Digital Analogue Converters, I was referring to dedicated sound cards, as I thought that's what they were.

Thats's the problem I'm having as well. I don't know if my speakers are 'high-end' enough to benefit from a dedicated card like the Xonar. And what makes it even more tricky for me is, I don't know whether that 'true blu-ray' sound thing means I've got better than average audio built in or if it's just some marketing hype.

I'll prolly just spring for the DG and try for my self, anyway. It'll mean one less Dominos takeaway next term, but that's no major loss :p.
 
It varies person to person. Some people can hear a difference, even with PC speakers around the £40 mark. Others can't hear any difference with significantly better speakers or headphones.

It's a question of, can the user hear the difference, not a question of, is there any difference to be heard. Of course, until one has listened to a sound card, compared to onboard audio, it is impossible to tell.

As for the "True Blu-ray Audio", well that's just marketing nonsense. True Blu-ray audio, as opposed to what? Fake or false Blu-ray audio? I've never understood why they do that. Thinking about it, I do understand. It's to fool the uninformed, that their particular product is better, just because it has "true this" or "true that".

If someone bought that particular board, purely because it has "True Blu-ray Audio", then they have been fooled.

Blu-ray audio is lossless, Dolby TrueHD, for eg. Any PC that meets the HDCP and hardware requirements, to play a Blu-ray disc, has access to Dolby TrueHD, via the playback software. There is nothing special about the board in question that enables this.
 
Marsman said:
As for the "True Blu-ray Audio", well that's just marketing nonsense. True Blu-ray audio, as opposed to what? Fake or false Blu-ray audio? I've never understood why they do that. Thinking about it, I do understand. It's to fool the uninformed, that their particular product is better, just because it has "true this" or "true that".
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That bit made me chuckle :D.

I'll defo give the dedicated card a try though. You can't really go wrong with something that only costs ~23 quid :p.
 
If it's some standard pair of PC speakers then probably not.

But if you have proper speakers connected to an amp or a pair of active speakers then yes, there is a difference and games these days DO see benefit from decent speakers and soundcards even if you're not multichannel in set-up.

Battlefield 3 sounds sublime through my Tannoy V4s via the Xonar. The crystal clarity isn't as high through onboard sound on my P67A-G45-B3 mobo at all. there just is no comparison, it would be like comparing a Focus with a Porsche.

I have no idea about a cheap sound card though having never owned one so I am only comparing to a well specced mobo with onboard sound.
 
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