Another onboard sound vs sound card question

[Roll]

The motherboard I'm using at the moment is fairly basic and has onboard Realtek AC97 audio which I would guess is fairly pants, but as I don't play all that many games I'm still I still struggling to justify spending to upgrade to a sound card.

If someone could quicky give the pros and cons of onboard sound vs sound via a sound card that would be great.

Thanks for replies

 

[akira666]

When I upgraded my PC back in 2005, my Mobo had a onboard 5.1 sound card. As I was still using my old SB Live Value! card (pre-millenium) I assumed the onboard sound would be far better, being 5.1 and 6-7 years newer in terms of technology, so I switch to onboard for a bit.

Here is what I found:

The sound quality produced on my SB Live Value! was significantly better than the 5.1 onboard sound, but just lacked the 5.1 surround capability. I'm not a guy that's into "sound" tech, but even I was able to instantly tell the difference.

Secondly, using onboard sound means that your CPU would have to process all the sound as well - this translated in a noticeable FPS drop in games. My sound card, despite being old, was dedicated to processing all the sound relieving my CPU of additional processing.