separate sound card or onboard?

[richnsue]

in a gaming setup, is it worth fitting a separate sound card like :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...tid=11&subcat=

as far as speed is concerned, or stick with onboard? does onboard use much of the cpu power, bearing in mind that i am reasonably happy with the qualityand just want the fastest gaming performance?
and pci or pci express?

[AllGamer]

i use separate, see my siggie.

on board is very susceptible to inference and bad sounds

[richnsue]

not sure why, but i had always assumed that a separate sound card freed up the cpu, be interesting to compare benchmarks with and without. i'll have to see how the money pans out.

[Sterling_Aug]

Unless you are into gaming with 5.1 surround sound, then many onboard sound cards are perfectly usable.

[RockNRoll]

I 2nd the vote that Onboard is plenty good enough. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love Realtek HD codecs.

[cdroman]

On board is good enough for most people. I use a Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 card for my media pc that is connected to my surround sound system. Well worth it.

[AmericansRevolt]

onboard sound in xp = fairly lame. onboard sound in vista = awesome. lots has been redone in vista to allow onboard sound to shine. i used to hate it, and always ran a TB Montego DDL and was very happy. But i tell you what, in vista, ac97 onboard sounds and works just as good as many pci cards.

Just my experience anyway...

[RamonGTP]

This question is kind of impossible to answer beucase onboard sound varies drasticaly depending on what type is being used.

Higher end boards generally have very good onboard sound that not only have good fidelaty, but low distortion and low cpu overhead.

Cheaper boards tend to use cheaper codec's and are often far worse than a dedicated sound card.

So you have several options:

1) Cheap board with cheap sound
2) Cheap board with sound card
3) Good board with good sound
4) GOod board with sound card

I don't like cheap boards, so options 1 and 2 are already out of the question as far as I'm concerned. Option 3 I think is the best solution for most people, especially if you're a gamer and tweaker.

Option 4 is a waste unless you do a lot of recording, and you'd also need to invest in some pretty high end speakers to get the most out of a good sound card.

Is a dedicated card better? Yes
Is it worth it and will you notice the benifits? Not likely unless you fall into that catagory.

[RockNRoll]

onboard sound in xp = fairly lame. onboard sound in vista = awesome. lots has been redone in vista to allow onboard sound to shine. i used to hate it, and always ran a TB Montego DDL and was very happy. But i tell you what, in vista, ac97 onboard sounds and works just as good as many pci cards.

Just my experience anyway...

I've never had a problem with my AC97 in XP. Super clear, EQ is awesome.

[cdroman]

This question is kind of impossible to answer beucase onboard sound varies drasticaly depending on what type is being used.

Higher end boards generally have very good onboard sound that not only have good fidelaty, but low distortion and low cpu overhead.

Cheaper boards tend to use cheaper codec's and are often far worse than a dedicated sound card.

So you have several options:

1) Cheap board with cheap sound
2) Cheap board with sound card
3) Good board with good sound
4) GOod board with sound card

I don't like cheap boards, so options 1 and 2 are already out of the question as far as I'm concerned. Option 3 I think is the best solution for most people, especially if you're a gamer and tweaker.

Option 4 is a waste unless you do a lot of recording, and you'd also need to invest in some pretty high end speakers to get the most out of a good sound card.

Is a dedicated card better? Yes
Is it worth it and will you notice the benifits? Not likely unless you fall into that catagory.

I agree. Good boards have very good on board sound, and it is unlikely that anyone with a computer speaker setup (and many home setups) would notice any difference between on board and separate card. ( especially at anything less than lossless)
The separate card that I use with my surround sound system is very high quality, and I let it do D/A conversion to the 7.1 multichannel inputs of my receiver. In this instance, I prefer the separate card. My surround system is very revealing.