Why cards over onboard sound

They generally provide better quality sound over the onboard sound, and have much better connection options and lower (signal) noise which would benefit somebody who records music etc.

But the benefits only show themselves if you use good quality speakers/headphones.

I was in the same boat as you up until last week, when I bought this. Much more 'open' sounding, and I immediately noticed the better signal to noise ratio, quiet of music sound so much more...quiet :p
 
On a slightly different tack, I found having onboard sound and a standalone card meant in games that use chat (L4D, BF2 etc) I could have the games on speakers/headphones, and the chat on a separate earphone/mic - the separation of sound made it much easier to follow the chat, even with lots of game based noise going on.
 
I've found onboard cards cant always produce all the sounds within a game, so you'll miss gunshots, parts of explosions etc.
Its no game breaker but was definitely noticeable going to a dedicated card.
 
I'm thinking of grabbing one of the Asus DG cards but my onbaord audio seems to be pretty good. It's a Gigabyte UD3P Z68 board and has 192khz support.

Would it be worth getting one of these or would my board be just as good ? I'm not looking to spend a lot and this seems a good deal at under £20.
 
MOOGLEYS said:
I'm thinking of grabbing one of the Asus DG cards but my onbaord audio seems to be pretty good. It's a Gigabyte UD3P Z68 board and has 192khz support.

Would it be worth getting one of these or would my board be just as good ? I'm not looking to spend a lot and this seems a good deal at under £20.
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The 192khz support on your onboard audio is more or less pointless, it simply does not have good enough analogue components to properly render such high res audio.
 
tbh even tho im really fussy about quality gear ive never been a fan of expensive pc sound cards on board sound and gooh headset does enough for me if i want good sound i will go on the hifi or a surroiund system on a media centre

i use an on board sound chip and a set of sennheisers or razer magaladons for gaming and other pc stuff and they are perfectly adequate.

i dont think pc sound is as important as pc graphics tbh when im on pc im on headphones 99% of time if i want music or video i wouldnt use a pc anyway so sound is like a seconry consideration on a pc to me at least.
 
Installed the DG today. It sounds lovely with just my T20's really crisp dynamic sound...

Bargain really for £18 and free sweets...
 
Little story. My first X-Fi sound card.

I had been relying onboard sound on my nforce board because it was able to do DDL Live 5.1 encoding for games on the fly, meaning I could use surround sound. That was all fine, but then I upgraded to another motherboard. That meant I had 'HD' Audio and no longer used my receiver.

I randomly bought a X-fi fatal1ty fps, and didn't seem to notice any improvement in sound. I had that card for a while.. then sold it. I went back to the onboard audio and was horrified at the sound quality. I just had to buy a new card. The difference had only become apparent when I had got used to what 'quality' was meant to sound like, and I noticed all the details in music/movies.

I bought another X-fi Fatal1ty FPS soon afterwards and did pretty much back to back tests of the x-fi vs the onboard. The difference in quality was very more than noticeable.. the music was just ace in comparison.. the onboard just sounded so bland and flat. (I was not using the 'crystallizer').

Since then I simply cannot be without a sound card. I have had another two x-fi's.

Another note.. is that during game play.. postional audio is MUCH better... and critically... the system doesn't slow down during heavy audio situations like explosions, or lots of guns fire/grenades like the onboard did/does.

The sound card would be the first thing I would cut from a system spec... but would be the first purchase as soon as I could afford one.

Also.. the better the speakers.. the worse the onboard will sound in comparison to the decent sound card.
 
craarc said:
tbh even tho im really fussy about quality gear ive never been a fan of expensive pc sound cards on board sound and gooh headset does enough for me if i want good sound i will go on the hifi or a surroiund system on a media centre

i use an on board sound chip and a set of sennheisers or razer magaladons for gaming and other pc stuff and they are perfectly adequate.

i dont think pc sound is as important as pc graphics tbh when im on pc im on headphones 99% of time if i want music or video i wouldnt use a pc anyway so sound is like a seconry consideration on a pc to me at least.
Click to expand...

But why do you spank fairly reasonable amounts of money on headphones etc whilst not investing in the hardware to drive them?

The best speakers in the world will sound like **** being driven by an inferior hi fi. Good audio is an absolute must in gaming, especially games with great audio, like BF3. It pulls you into the game.

*edit*

Scougar was typing his reply whilst I was doing mine and his explains what I am trying to say perfectly!
 
OMG watching movies with headphones and the Dolby Headphone mode enabled is mind boggling. How do they get two speakers to sound like your surrounded by them.... Wow...
 
Dolby Headphone is excellent in movie watching and gaming when setup right.

I find it miles better than gimmicky "True" surround headphones with multiple speakers in them. Dolby pseudo-surround does a much betetr job of it.

I personally prefer a DH-2 soundstage or for games the Asus Xonar STX "7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter" option.
 
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