Gamers - Sound card or Onboard sound?


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I use on-board myself. Sounds good enough for me to be honest. I'm not plagued by any background noise or any of that scratching sounds so I haven't got a real reason to get a sound card.

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upgraded my PC and somehow my xtrememusic went to hell... crackling like a mother. Tried two different operating systems and still cant stop the crackling (xp and 7). Now im using onboard audio and it sounds like ****... like absolute ****. I have no idea how people put up with onboard audio. Oh well, time to get me one of these :) http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=31769 ... bloody thing is more expensive then my video card but i love audio quality more then video quality so it's worth it for me :)

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Have genuinely owned the following from Creative thusfar:

Soundblaster 16

Soundblaster Pro

Soundblaster AWE32

Soundblaster Audigy Platinum

Soundblaster Audigy 2 NX (USB)

Soundblaster Audigy 2 SE

Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS

Soundblaster X-Fi Music

Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme

And Nvidia Soundstorm on my retired Nforce 2 based Shuttle was more reliable over Digital Optical out than any Creative product I've owned so far todate.

Guitar Rig 3.0 runs better via ASIO4All 48,000Hz / 24bit on this SoundMax HD onboard (Which is limited/craptastic to say the least) than it did on my Xi-Fi Music via Creative ASIO (Which is buggy as hell, still).

Creative do some impressive hardware, always let down by their software or driver implementations.

Gaming wise, if you have a Dual Core CPU then it's not going to make a lot of difference on your FPS whether it's a modern HD onboard solution or PCI/PCI-Ex Creative (Unless a developer badly implements EAX 3.0).

I've not had access to other brands like ASUS etc so can't comment.

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I find onboard sound to be more than adequate for my needs. I've tried Creative cards previously and when compared to Realtek or ADL integrated it all sounds the same. Anyone claiming they can tell a difference is just kidding themselves.

I noticed some people in this thread saying things like 'Any real gamer would use a dedicated card to offload the sound processing from the CPU' I find such statements a bit rediculous. We live in a world with Quad core CPU's with 8 threads now. Sound processing on these CPU's barely even registers. I can play full 1080p video with 7.1 sound and still only have 1-2% CPU utilisation on my Core i7. And most of that is from the video processing not the audio.

And lets be realistic, digital is digital. If you are dealing with HDMI audio, optical or something like that then it doesn't mater you can't enter distortion in to 100% digital system. And if your using analogue connectors then sure you may get static using integrated but you may also get static using a dedicated as-well so why bother paying the extra? Fooling yourself in to believing that having the card separated from the motherboard will somehow give you EMI protection from static interference is just wishful thinking.

I'll take that ?100 that a dedicated 'decent' Sound Card costs and spend it on something else with actual benefits.

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I find onboard sound to be more than adequate for my needs. I've tried Creative cards previously and when compared to Realtek or ADL integrated it all sounds the same. Anyone claiming they can tell a difference is just kidding themselves.

I noticed some people in this thread saying things like 'Any real gamer would use a dedicated card to offload the sound processing from the CPU' I find such statements a bit rediculous. We live in a world with Quad core CPU's with 8 threads now. Sound processing on these CPU's barely even registers. I can play full 1080p video with 7.1 sound and still only have 1-2% CPU utilisation on my Core i7. And most of that is from the video processing not the audio.

And lets be realistic, digital is digital. If you are dealing with HDMI audio, optical or something like that then it doesn't mater you can't enter distortion in to 100% digital system. And if your using analogue connectors then sure you may get static using integrated but you may also get static using a dedicated as-well so why bother paying the extra? Fooling yourself in to believing that having the card separated from the motherboard will somehow give you EMI protection from static interference is just wishful thinking.

I'll take that £100 that a dedicated 'decent' Sound Card costs and spend it on something else with actual benefits.

Offloading sound processing from the CPU is just one of the benefits of having a discrete sound card. Also, I assure you there are people out there that can tell the difference between integrated/onboard sound vs. discrete sound – I'm one of them. I currently have a Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Platinum and I compared it to my Intel HD Audio. Even in Windows Vista/7, the Creative sound card produced noticeably better sound with superior tonal qualities and rich depth and clarity. Listening to music or watching a movie is so much better when it sounds better. The unfortunate thing is, most people are missing out because they think discrete sound cards won't provide a good enough quality boost. The way I see it, people should buy discrete sound cards if they have the money and are looking for the ultimate movie-watching/music-listening/game-playing experience.

By the way, most new sound cards have EMI shielding. ;)

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Offloading sound processing from the CPU is just one of the benefits of having a discrete sound card. Also, I assure you there are people out there that can tell the difference between integrated/onboard sound vs. discrete sound ? I'm one of them. I currently have a Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Platinum and I compared it to my Intel HD Audio. Even in Windows Vista/7, the Creative sound card produced noticeably better sound with superior tonal qualities and rich depth and clarity. Listening to music or watching a movie is so much better when it sounds better. The unfortunate thing is, most people are missing out because they think discrete sound cards won't provide a good enough quality boost. The way I see it, people should buy discrete sound cards if they have the money and are looking for the ultimate movie-watching/music-listening/game-playing experience.

By the way, most new sound cards have EMI shielding. ;)

I believe if I sat you down in front of a dedicated card and an integrated and played some audio you'd not tell the difference at all. It's all a placebo effect. Every geek on the internet believes they are an audiophile.

And again you bring up the CPU offloading. That isn't a benefit. Let's not forget your CPU still has to handle the card, map any dedicated memory it has and so forth. With processors being so fast now the 'Sound card helps with offloading CPU cycles dedicated to sound' just doesn't mater and is no longer relevant. And I think you'll find that everything claims to have EMI shielding these days. If the card is pulling power from the motherboard that is a direct electrical connection and it is going to be affected by all the power pumping around it. Be that from graphics cards or the motherboard itself.

Also this: "the Creative sound card produced noticeably better sound with superior tonal qualities and rich depth and clarity." Just sounds something you made up to support your argument against integrated sound. Why would you even test the integrated sound vs your creative in the first place. You obviously had already bought the Creative card.

Things that mater: Source Material, Medium of Transmission, Amp/Speakers.

I bet your creative card just adds some Bass or Treble to the output which makes it sound more attractive to you to be honest.

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I believe if I sat you down in front of a dedicated card and an integrated and played some audio you'd not tell the difference at all. It's all a placebo effect. Every geek on the internet believes they are an audiophile.

And again you bring up the CPU offloading. That isn't a benefit. Let's not forget your CPU still has to handle the card, map any dedicated memory it has and so forth. With processors being so fast now the 'Sound card helps with offloading CPU cycles dedicated to sound' just doesn't mater and is no longer relevant. And I think you'll find that everything claims to have EMI shielding these days. If the card is pulling power from the motherboard that is a direct electrical connection and it is going to be affected by all the power pumping around it. Be that from graphics cards or the motherboard itself.

Also this: "the Creative sound card produced noticeably better sound with superior tonal qualities and rich depth and clarity." Just sounds something you made up to support your argument against integrated sound. Why would you even test the integrated sound vs your creative in the first place. You obviously had already bought the Creative card.

Things that mater: Source Material, Medium of Transmission, Amp/Speakers.

I bet your creative card just adds some Bass or Treble to the output which makes it sound more attractive to you to be honest.

umm...yes, some of what you say makes sense, but you WILL still see a 1-3 fps increase in games using a dedicated sound card. To say they will sound the same is bull. it's not just about "adding bass or treble", there's much better op-amps in good cards, better capacitors, better chipsets, better connectors. They all make a difference in the sound. Whether YOU can hear it or not is irrelevant. A good sound card WILL sound better than a motherboard one. Is this to say somebody can't make a motherboard one that will be just as good? No, somebody easily could, but it's not feasible from a financial standpoint for them to do it.

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umm...yes, some of what you say makes sense, but you WILL still see a 1-3 fps increase in games using a dedicated sound card.

No actually you wont. my CPU is never 100% taxed when playing games. No ones is unless you are using a single core CPU these days. My CPU is usually around 45-60% while in games which leaves a whopping 55-40% free for sound processing. THERE IS NO FPS INCREASE SO STOP FOOLING YOURSELVES BELIEVING THERE IS.

If anything you are wasting more resources running the extra drivers and companion software for your sound card than the actual sound takes to process.

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I believe if I sat you down in front of a dedicated card and an integrated and played some audio you'd not tell the difference at all. It's all a placebo effect. Every geek on the internet believes they are an audiophile.

And again you bring up the CPU offloading. That isn't a benefit. Let's not forget your CPU still has to handle the card, map any dedicated memory it has and so forth. With processors being so fast now the 'Sound card helps with offloading CPU cycles dedicated to sound' just doesn't mater and is no longer relevant. And I think you'll find that everything claims to have EMI shielding these days. If the card is pulling power from the motherboard that is a direct electrical connection and it is going to be affected by all the power pumping around it. Be that from graphics cards or the motherboard itself.

Also this: "the Creative sound card produced noticeably better sound with superior tonal qualities and rich depth and clarity." Just sounds something you made up to support your argument against integrated sound. Why would you even test the integrated sound vs your creative in the first place. You obviously had already bought the Creative card.

Things that mater: Source Material, Medium of Transmission, Amp/Speakers.

I bet your creative card just adds some Bass or Treble to the output which makes it sound more attractive to you to be honest.

I brought it up for a reason. Not everyone has a high-end quad-core CPU. Some people, like me, use older dual-core CPUs. In some games, having that extra bit of CPU power means I can set sound quality to 'High' without losing performance. I can't say I'd notice the difference for just about any discrete sound card because they vary in quality and features; however, I can definitely tell the difference between a true Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi sound card and your run-of-the-mill integrated sound card. I'm a geek, I'm on the Internet, and I didn't claim to be an audiophile. I don't know why you even bothered to say that. As for EMI shielding, "everything" doesn't claim to have it these days. Sure, the shielding may not be 100% effective but it sure as hell beats no shielding.

I don't make things up to support my arguments. At least, I try my very best not to (but really, I don't see the point in lying). Since you asked, I'll let you know why I compared my integrated sound with my Creative SoundBlaster. The card was in an older (and unused) PC. Since this PC was older, it had Windows XP on it. I had Windows Vista on my newer PC and with all the talk of EAX not working properly with Windows Vista, I wasn't really eager to use the card. Eventually, I decided to use it and before I did I tested my integrated sound card in order to see how it fared against my discrete sound card. I listened to a variety of music genres, watched movies (on PC and on DVD), and played a handful of games (mostly FPS titles). I quickly installed my sound card, installed the drivers, and did the same. Right away I noticed a big difference in the quality of the sounds. Everything sounded so much better.

Simply because you can't tell the difference between integrated and discrete doesn't mean that difference isn't there. I assure you, a modern discrete sound card will always be better than most modern integrated sound cards. And by modern, I mean a recent one. It's a bit ironic because most older discrete sound cards can outperform the newer integrated sound cards.

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No actually you wont. my CPU is never 100% taxed when playing games. No ones is unless you are using a single core CPU these days. My CPU is usually around 45-60% while in games which leaves a whopping 55-40% free for sound processing. THERE IS NO FPS INCREASE SO STOP FOOLING YOURSELVES BELIEVING THERE IS.

If anything you are wasting more resources running the extra drivers and companion software for your sound card than the actual sound takes to process.

This is true and you won't see any FPS loss due to audio at all even on cpu intensive resolution like 640x480 or 800x600 like anyone plays with them still anyway. The only time you may is if you're using a very old single core system, even still 1-3 fps isn't noticeable.

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No actually you wont. my CPU is never 100% taxed when playing games. No ones is unless you are using a single core CPU these days. My CPU is usually around 45-60% while in games which leaves a whopping 55-40% free for sound processing. THERE IS NO FPS INCREASE SO STOP FOOLING YOURSELVES BELIEVING THERE IS.

If anything you are wasting more resources running the extra drivers and companion software for your sound card than the actual sound takes to process.

Man, I've done this test countless times of comparing fps in onboard sound vs sound cards. You WILL see a 1-3fps increase using a sound card. It's got nothing to do with CPU and everything to do with the audio chipset

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I'm using a high-end sound card on my PC, because of what I do, and I have to say that there's a big difference between an on-board sound card and a dedicated one. It has little or nothing to do with the CPU, because the amount of processing power required to play the sound in games is very low. You CAN, however, hear the difference in sound fidelity, detail, etc. Obviously, you need a good sound system for this, because if you're using a 1000$ sound card with 30$ stereo speakers, you'd be insane. :D

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Spending ?100 for a 3 fps increase is laughable when that money could be better spent towards a CPU or Graphics upgrade for something like a ~30fps upgrade, no?

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Spending ?100 for a 3 fps increase is laughable when that money could be better spent towards a CPU or Graphics upgrade for something like a ~30fps upgrade, no?

I'm not arguing the 1-3fps increase is worth the cost. As you say, there's much bigger gains to be had for the money. But saying there is no difference is simply wrong. The sound difference is worth it to me is though.

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I use 5.1 True Sound Headset on my SoundMAX 2000B Onboard Soundcard and it sounds fantastic! The Headset has its own Amp which can control the Sub, Rear, Front etc seperately and control volume, mute volume, mute mic etc all on the Amplifier box and it sounds fantastic, audio is clear and extremely loud i have to use Volume about 26 in Windows, if i use higher it deafens me! Iv'e never owned a Dedicated Soundcard before but i can say Onboard is great for me.

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The biggest advantage to a dedicated sound card, in my opinion, is avoiding all the random hissing/popping/static associated with integrated audio. CPU activity always causes background noise, and it is especially (or sometimes only) noticeable with good headphones. My sound card doesn't have that problem at all.

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No actually you wont. my CPU is never 100% taxed when playing games. No ones is unless you are using a single core CPU these days. My CPU is usually around 45-60% while in games which leaves a whopping 55-40% free for sound processing. THERE IS NO FPS INCREASE SO STOP FOOLING YOURSELVES BELIEVING THERE IS.

If anything you are wasting more resources running the extra drivers and companion software for your sound card than the actual sound takes to process.

100% agree

This is true and you won't see any FPS loss due to audio at all even on cpu intensive resolution like 640x480 or 800x600 like anyone plays with them still anyway. The only time you may is if you're using a very old single core system, even still 1-3 fps isn't noticeable.

100% agree

Man, I've done this test countless times of comparing fps in onboard sound vs sound cards. You WILL see a 1-3fps increase using a sound card. It's got nothing to do with CPU and everything to do with the audio chipset

With any modern onboard solution & a dual core CPU, this is no longer the case. Placebo effect in all honesty.

The biggest advantage to a dedicated sound card, in my opinion, is avoiding all the random hissing/popping/static associated with integrated audio. CPU activity always causes background noise, and it is especially (or sometimes only) noticeable with good headphones. My sound card doesn't have that problem at all.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=creative+sound+card+crackling

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=onboard+crackling

The issue is due to bad/poor EMI shielding at PSU or high wattage component level and both parties are equally succeptable.

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Even on the 7.1 digital sound system, there is little to no difference. Stick with onboard audio - save yourself a hundred dollars.

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i use onboard, processors and memory are where they are where unloading to a seperate card is unnessisary anymore

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I always used a dedicated card until the on-board cards came equipped with S/PDIF connections. A simple PCM signal to my receiver and headphones was enough for me and did the trick quite nicely. :)

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I've always been able to tell a substantial difference in sound quality between onboard sound using a dedicated X-Fi soundcard. I really couldn't care less about the FPS difference, if there is one, but the improvement in sound quality is more than worth it, especially when you're using high quality headphones or speakers. Why are onboard users getting so angry at discrete card users for their claims? Have they even listened to a good discrete sound card before? People follow the maxim "you get what you pay for" for everything but sound cards, apparently.

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Sound Card for sure, I've had way too many problems with on-board in my gaming days I would never go back. I've seen performance hits, heard terrible sound and anomalies, had way too many driver related problems and even a lot of audio related crashes that was down to the on-board crap - Never again!

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