Yeah. I don't really understand myself, the Asus drivers page never had the SB utility for download for windows 10.
If I wanted better sound which card would you go for? Based on my mobo..and the fact I'll upgrade my mobo in less than 12 months.
Is there a card worth getting?
Asus doesn't exactly have stellar support for their older products like sound cards.
Heck, hardware wise quite nice Xonar Phoebus got ditched in under five years.
While Creative offers Win10 drivers for dozen+ years old "Why would anyone even want to use it?" cards...
Whose quality has been exceeded by integrated Realteks of all more decent motherboards.
PCI-express bus (at least in x1 slots) will be around for long time, so motherboard changes don't limit use of separate PCI-e sound card.
Separate sound card also relieves from looking that part when selecting motherboard.
Actually I've never used any integrated sound card in desk PCs.
Sound Blaster Z has very good DAC (~2 steps above Conexant of GSX) and overall features for price.
Headphone output is average/mid-level, though Sennheiser Game One definitely isn't demanding with lowish impedance and very high efficiency.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/search?ssearch=sound+blaster+z
as for longevity z-serie is half dozen years old, but unless creative's leadership goes nuts, i expect driver support to continue at least another half dozen years.
i mean that original x-fi card serie is pretty medieval by time scale of pc tech:
http://support.creative.com/kb/showarticle.aspx?sid=126331
right now £110 costing year old sound blasterx ae-5 has literally top level dac and one of the best headphone outputs of any sound card.
(that would drive pretty much any headphone without slightest sweat)
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...aming-sound-card-70sb174000000-sc-104-cl.html
Sound BlasterX G5 is near same level USB sound card.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...-card-with-headphone-amplifier-sp-183-cl.html
Though it uses TPA6120 headphone amp chip, which isn't overall greatest with average distortion to low impedance loads and other quirks.
But of course those downsides never bother marketers and fashion driven consumers.
Asus brought that chip to sound cards with big hype...
If I were right now choosing sound card for that price AE-5 would be no further thinking choise.
I mean that custom design headphone output is technically very good:
It's got very good voltage range for higher voltage needing cans.
Good current output capability for low impedance lower efficiency cans.
And very low output impedance for ideal damping factor with even lowest impedance headphones.
While there's nothing preventing some motherboard maker using AE-5 level parts in integrated sound card, avoiding EMI is lot harder on cramped motherboard.
(with PCB traces to rear connectors also going near graphics card)
And of course you'll get return for money for that expensive motherboard only for as long as you'll use it.
While sound card can be kept over PC updates keeping its value for long time.
Unless really needing all the slots or going for some extreme overclocking luxury motherboards just don't give any "ROI" for gamer over mid level/standard good motherboard.
old issue with Realtek software from awhile back hosed something audio wise on my Windows install and I didn't want to reinstall just for one little issue - I managed to work around it with my X-Fi by forcing the headphone device to exist as a separate entity but same work around point blank refused to work on the AE-5 so a lot of dabbling with repairing registry and system files by hand got headphone detection working properly.
- onboard might have the on paper stats these days but almost every implementation just sounds dry and lifeless. The AE-5 is very clear and punchy in comparison.