Is a sound card better than onboard sound?

cpt_damage_1 · 17 Dec 2005 at 16:56

Hi all,
Question as title really.

I heard somwhere that if you use a sound card instead of onboard sound then you will get an increase in your FPS while playing games, is this true?

I have an Asus AN8SLI Delux motherboard.

Thanks for any info.

james.miller · 17 Dec 2005 at 16:56

yeah but not a lot. The increase in sound quality is a far bigger gain though.

techmonkey · 18 Dec 2005 at 14:16

james.miller is right. The FPS increase (if any) is so small it's not worth taking into conderation. The main reason for upgrading the Audio is to make you're music/DVD's/games sound better. There's no point in having umpteen FPS if your games if they sound crap.

Sparky191 · 20 Dec 2005 at 09:48

Some of the onboard chips are decent now. Of course it depends if you have decent speakers and decent music source (CD or high bit rate MP3's) in the first place.

Etaqua · 20 Dec 2005 at 21:11

Some onboard sound is equal to a SB LIVE-24 bit.

The MSI K8N SLI-Platinum has that onboard.

XD-3 · 21 Dec 2005 at 10:21

Etaqua said:
Some onboard sound is equal to a SB LIVE-24 bit.

The MSI K8N SLI-Platinum has that onboard.

It still isn’t going to be as good as an X-FI though I have always found having a dedicated soundcard much better then onboard TBH...

XD-3

benjo · 21 Dec 2005 at 10:58

Doesn't having a sound card take the extra strain off the CPU, causing slighty faster loading? :confused:

Sul · 16 Jan 2006 at 03:47

I have the same question as benjo and cpt

DanMc07 · 16 Jan 2006 at 05:39

My MSI P4N Diamond has Creative sound Blaster Live 24-bit. Cant see a card making much difference tbh.

james.miller · 16 Jan 2006 at 10:22

benjo1989 said:
Doesn't having a sound card take the extra strain off the CPU, causing slighty faster loading?

loading? no. soundcards can generally process requests faster than any onboard sound and use the cpu less, freeing the cpu up to do other things. That means more fps for us, but it doesnt affect loading at all.