Would I benefit from a sound card, if so which one?

Craig321 · 10 Jul 2007 at 22:48

My new PC parts arrived to today minus the RAM, so I can't build it yet

I just wondered if it's worth it to get a sound card for the PC? Will it take off noticeable load from the CPU & will it make my sound noticeably better?

Thanks,
Craig.

helmutcheese · 10 Jul 2007 at 22:52

Yes, sound will be better if you get a Creative card and a X-FI was shown to give FPS gains in games over a onboard set up on a Gigabyte mobo a while back as it has 2MB ram, the 64MB Xram version will do more so but not many games support it yet and ones that do probably not too well.

Craig321 · 10 Jul 2007 at 23:01

Would I be better off going for a ~£100 sound card, or are the ~£50 just as good but without the extras (remote, front panel etc.)?

Thanks,
Craig.

helmutcheese · 10 Jul 2007 at 23:07

Up to you, I have had all Creatives from Live 5.1 through to X-FI skipping crap Audigy1 (false 24bit lawsuit won).

My X-Fi Fata1ty Champion Pro somehow sounds better than my Extreme Music did (dont get Gamer as I read its got bad caps/daps), I now could not live without the Front Panel's remote funtion, using 3rd part app I can use nearly any music/movie player and sit back on settee and watch my .avis on big TV without trying to use mouse as a remote.

BlackDragon · 11 Jul 2007 at 00:43

Definitely recommend an X-Fi. When i first went from onboard to an Audigy 2 ZS i noticed a huge difference in sound quality, and a bit of a speedup in BF2 at the time as well. X-Fi is even better as you have the easy to use yet useful Audio Console to configure your sound

Craig321 · 11 Jul 2007 at 01:11

Am I right in saying I'd gain the same speed as if I was to disable sound in Windows?

I notice quite a big difference in speed when disabling sound in games/Windows, so would I notice that same difference if I got a sound card?

Thanks,
Craig.

helmutcheese · 11 Jul 2007 at 01:37

Yes, no sound obv = resources saved so more FPS lol.

I have already told you that you will gain FPS with a dedicated soundcard esp a Creative one, but you will get more FPS with no sound full stop.

Craig321 · 11 Jul 2007 at 01:49

helmutcheese said:
Yes, no sound obv = resources saved so more FPS lol.

I have already told you that you will gain FPS with a dedicated soundcard esp a Creative one, but you will get more FPS with no sound full stop.

Well obviously, but I just said the above as so many people go on about how much load sound cards take off the CPU, so my guess was it takes off the same load as if you were to disable the sound.