Sound cards..

MooMoo444

MooMoo444

MooMoo444

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Are they worth the money? For me I guess I'm too used to onboard sound as it already sounds great to me. Also I don't have another easy accessable PCI slot on my mobo because of SLI ;s so it would be a lot of hassle if was to get a soundcard.

I'm thinking of a new motherboard at the same time though, just wondering peoples opinions on sound cards..is there a noticeable enough improvement to warrant the cost?
 
Ive just got this:

Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H AMD 780G Micro-ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

For a media centre pc, and Im blown away with the performance of both the sound and audio.. probably saved me at least the cost of the board not having to buy dedicated cards.... I have it hooked up to my projector and yamaha av amp...

It depends what youre after really.. if your a hardcore gamer.. you probably want the extra features a card will provide to enhave audio in games, such as eax (or whatever the latest variant is..)..
 
Well I've become quite fond of wearing headphones when gaming, so I probably wouldnt be able to utilise surround sound etc.. my headphones arent brilliant :D but still, I have read they make an improvmenet..

I guess it would appeal to a media/music person a lot more.
 
It very much used to be the case that onboard sound was so poor that a Creative (pretty much the only company that "the masses" knew about) card was a huge upgrade.

The seperate cards themselves are even better but it's a case that you will need a decent setup as a whole to appreciate sound quality more. So for most, now that onboard has considerably improved (but still not as good as a dedicated card), it can suffice for things which are more basic rather than games or (atm) HD stuff.
 
If you game with headphones, look out for soundcards with CMSS-3D (Creative X-Fi - Avoid the XtremeAudio though) or Dolby Headphone (Various - Asus Xonar are the best of the bunch - look for DX or D1 as they're the cheaper versions). I find they give a good sense of space or soundstage - so the sound seems like it's coming from speakers rather than in your head.

Some people find that CMSS-3D and Dolby Headphone can give a good sense of whether things are in front or behind you. I would agree for the in-front bit but think they're a bit like sitting up against a wall at the back of the cinema - nothing really sounds like it's behind me compared to speakers.

I've had an X-Fi XtremeMusic and a Xonar D2 and prefer the latter. Both implement the latest version of EAX (environmental effects) for gaming but the X-Fi does it in hardware, while the Xonar emulates it. In practice there's very little difference between the two but you may get very slighly increased framerates (not really enough to influence your choice) with the X-Fi, particularly if you have a single core CPU.
 
Uriel said:
I've had an X-Fi XtremeMusic and a Xonar D2 and prefer the latter.
Click to expand...

Agree with this, I had the x-fi for a couple of years and the Xonar is better IMO though you cant go too far with either unless of course you run in to major trouble with the x-fi.

Mine was fine unless I put my PC in to stand by mode, as soon as it came out of stand by it would be poping and crackling. So i just had to always shut it down.
 
For me going from onboard to sound card is like going from mono to stereo even my old audigy 2 zs beat the pants off the onboard on the ip-35 pro
 
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Does the EAX on the xonar work in all games, because I have not managed to set the eax option higher than 2.0.
e.g. I have not managed to enable eax 3.0 on Rome total war.:confused:
I am using vista 64 if that makes a difference.

Anyone know the answer?
 
Well the Asus card has Real EAX up to a certain build (may be 2.0 I cant remember) then it simply Emulates EAX after that.

This could be your issue ?.
 
I've just tried Rome: Total War with my Xonar D2. I couldn't enable EAX3 either.

Edit: Googling seemed to reveal problems enabling EAX3 and 4 on a few older games. I have contacted Asus Technical Suport about the issue and will let you know if they respond.
 
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I've had a response from Asus but it didn't help much. Usual 'disable onboard in BIOS', 'try older drivers' (erm no thanks), check if there' s a patch for your game etc etc.

So they responded but nothing beyond the usual troubleshooting stuff. I've asked the technical support guy to pass on my comments about Rome: Total War to the driver team. I also sent links to two reviews of the Xonar series, indicating that the same problem is found in Thief: Deadly Shadows and Call of Duty 2.

I don't expect we'll get anywhere quickly but one can try :)
 
Might be getting somewhere on that Rome: Total War issue. Asus are asking for screenshots showing the issue, saying they will test it as well.
 
I'm debating this as well :D I just got a Abit IX38 QuadGT Intel X38 as part of my new OC supplied system and the onboard sound is pretty impressive. Thing is, my last mobo had shocking onboard sound and so I bought a creative SB4. Nice card, great sounds. Being impulsive, I bought a creative x-fi gamer extreme card to slot into my new mobo but I just dont think i need it :D
Oh well, when I get some time I'll compare the two and see what bites. Need better headphones though I think.
 
More on the Rome: Total War issue. Asus have sent me the following message.

"As you mentioned, I have passed your case to our relevant colleague for test, if there are any updated news, we will let you know as soon as possible".

I shall be very pleased if it gets sorted out. One can hope.
 
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