Why the move away from add in sound cards?

I've noticed a significant reduction in motherboard expansion slots in the last 20 years and a massive gain in the size of GPUs, so sound has been moved out of the case
 
Brizzles said:
Anyone who had to use Creative drivers over the years will tell you.
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I have had Creative soundcards since the Audigy days and am still using a Soundblaster Z that I have had since they came out and have never had a problem with Creative's drivers. I updated to the latest one a couple of weeks ago through Soundblaster Command and it was quick, easy and problem free. I have seen massive threads on many forums about their drivers but they have always just worked for me.

mattyfez said:
onboard sound is so good these days that 99% of people simply don't need sound cards or external DACs.
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Onboard sound is garbage compared to a decent soundcard. I tried it on my last motherboard thinking that it must have improved by now and always felt like something was missing from the sound so went straight back to my Soundblaster Z. It was a Realtek ALC4080 which was one of their best audio chips at the time not one of the budget ones.
 
pastymuncher said:
I have had Creative soundcards since the Audigy days and am still using a Soundblaster Z that I have had since they came out and have never had a problem with Creative's drivers. I updated to the latest one a couple of weeks ago through Soundblaster Command and it was quick, easy and problem free. I have seen massive threads on many forums about their drivers but they have always just worked for me.



Onboard sound is garbage compared to a decent soundcard. I tried it on my last motherboard thinking that it must have improved by now and always felt like something was missing from the sound so went straight back to my Soundblaster Z. It was a Realtek ALC4080 which was one of their best audio chips at the time not one of the budget ones.
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Most people aren't interested in sound, I noticed someone was watching one of the Marvel movies on his smartphone, with the speaker. I asked why didn't he watch on a big screen TV/projector and sound system.

he says the sound on the phone is fantastic :cry:
 
pastymuncher said:
Onboard sound is garbage compared to a decent soundcard. I tried it on my last motherboard thinking that it must have improved by now and always felt like something was missing from the sound so went straight back to my Soundblaster Z. It was a Realtek ALC4080 which was one of their best audio chips at the time not one of the budget ones.
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This is my experience also, I build my computers in the living room next to my main HiFi, and just out of curiosity I sometimes connect the newly built PC to my main HiFi system just to see what the on-board is like. The on-board is poor, I'm using Gigabyte Elite motherboards here, also the numbers and spec they put on motherboard audio means nothing.
 
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hornetstinger said:
That's fine if you just want two channel. I'm using asus soundcard, optical out to a AVR. I really wanted to use HDMI out on the GPU just for audio, but it doesn't work as it should.

Unless USB audio can pass DD/DTS/HD/Atmos/DTS X etc etc
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You can use an AVR?! Can you show me a picture of your setup?

I am thinking of upgrading my speakers, but I am not sure how to from the Z906.
 
I use digital audio out optical from a soundcard into a avr. Display port GPU into monitor. Speakers connected to avr.

Streamer and other things like dvd console connected to avr either coaxial or hdmi. Subwoofer connected to avr pre out

Did try hdmi out from pc into avr but had issues . If devices are hdmi 2.1 and monitor had e-arc would probably be ok.

Another method would be if avr had usb input so use that instead although unsure if that supports DD/dts

If you have z906 options would be active speakers or amp and passive speakers. Or usb dac amp . Like topping mx3
 
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