How's the quality of onboard motherboard sound nowadays?

Zbornak

Zbornak

Zbornak

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Basically, I'm building a new gaming PC after my 5 year old was written off a few weeks ago. In my 5 year old one, I had Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio (model SB0790). My question is, is it even worth the effort of taking the card out of the old system and put it in the new system, or is the sound quality of motherboards pretty decent nowadays?

Note that I'll be buying a good pair of headphones in the coming months.

Edit: Massive fail and didn't put what my new motherboard is. Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H.
 
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Always have a dedicated sound card over any onboard in my opinion.. especially if using headphones as most MB ones dont have good amplifiers

Also if you have been listening to XFi it has a very distinct sound to it. you might not like the sound of other types now.

Spend 10 mins installing it. Its not really an effort :) shame on you
 
onboard sound isn't bad at all on z77,even better on higher end gigabyte boards

try onboard first and see what you think,i prefer windows/Microsoft drivers compared to realteks

better bass
 
Onboard audio has definitely improved. Some people find it good enough not to bother with a sound card. That's something that can only be decided by the user in question. I'm of the same opinion as Efour; a decent sound card is always preferable. Headphones or speakers play a much larger part in the over all sound quality than any sound card. £100 sound card isn't going sound as good as it can with £20 headphones. £100 headphones and a £20 sound card are going to sound infinitely better. Always best to spend as much as you can afford on the headphones first. Use the X-Fi Xtreme Audio as a stop gap until you can afford a higher sound card, or you could, as dacads said, get a DAC/headphone amp.
 
Well it does rather depend on the board, the main reason to go for a dedicated card to external solution is if there's interference which is a big problem inside a PC, or for features and connectivity. A DAC is very basic, there's very little difference between a £15 and a £1500 one. Same goes for amplification, and the majority of headphones now are designed with low impedance and high sensitivity so you can enjoy them from any source without needing any sort of amplification. Your speakers/headphones account for 95% of the sound (more tbh), you only need a source that isn't faulty or wrong for them.
 
All helpful, thanks. I think for I'll save for a decent pair of headphones and not bother with a sound card for the foreseeable future.
 
AbsenceJam said:
Well it does rather depend on the board, the main reason to go for a dedicated card to external solution is if there's interference which is a big problem inside a PC, or for features and connectivity. A DAC is very basic, there's very little difference between a £15 and a £1500 one. Same goes for amplification, and the majority of headphones now are designed with low impedance and high sensitivity so you can enjoy them from any source without needing any sort of amplification. Your speakers/headphones account for 95% of the sound (more tbh), you only need a source that isn't faulty or wrong for them.
Click to expand...

So with that in mind (about interference) is worth buying a usb sound card?
 
interference is really only an issue when using front panel connectors in a case and the internal cables are crappy. plugged into the card/mobo at the back, you shouldn't have any problems.

a few years ago i always thought onboard was terrible even compared to the audigy2 i had at the time. but i have an el cheapo board now (in sig) and the onboard is perfectly fine. i do EQ it a bit to suit my tastes but i certainly have no plans to get a sound card now. admittedly, i do use cheap headphones. i might think again if i was spending 100 quid or more on some. :p
 
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I agree that modern motherboards do provide decent sound but from my personal experience even my 3-4 year old soundblaster X-Fi extreme music is far better than the sound coming from my P9X79 motherboard solution. Maybe the very high end motherboards provide a better or same sound experience than a dedicated seperate sound card?, but for a £300+ motherboard you would expect a very decent sound?, too expensive for me to test just for the sound.
 
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