Do I stil need the Asus Xonar DX with new motherboard

[davidst99]

Hi,

I just purchased the Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 7 motherboard. It has the new Relatek ALC1150 audio chip plus whatever Gigabyte added to improve the sound. It is worth keeping the Asus Xonar DX? I'm not sure if I can tell the difference. Thanks.

David

 

[mfenn]

If you can't tell a difference, then the answer is no, you do not need it. If you can tell a difference, and the Xonar sounds better to you, then there's no harm in keeping it.

 

[mistersprinkles]

DX is pretty low end. If you had the D2 then I'd say keep it. Honestly onboard (especially good onboard) is so good now that it doesn't really make a difference to use a sub $200 sound card.

 

[krnmastersgt]

I only use on-board to power one of my speaker set-ups to be honest lol, but that being said there's typically close to no difference in sound quality of a current gen on-board audio solution as companies, mainly Realtek I suppose, beefed up their work on the audio. If you have some really high end audio equipment you might notice the on-board doesn't do as well as a strong discrete card in certain ranges, but typically for a gaming and basic movie experience there's no added benefit of a discrete compared to current on-board solutions.

 

[oynaz]

2 sound cards can be nice if you have an app which takes exclusive access to the sound card. Mostly digital audio workstations and other audio editing software.

 

[Tsavo]

there's typically close to no difference in sound quality of a current gen on-board audio solution as companies, mainly Realtek I suppose, beefed up their work on the audio.

That's not close to being true. The quality of the output with the same chip can vary a great deal from board model to model and from manufacturer to manufacturer.

If one is using $10 speakers, then yeah, the onboard sound doesn't matter.

 

[hurrakan]

I think the Asus Xonar DX is definitely a massive improvement over Realtek ALC892 (although I don't know anything about ALC1150).

I used to play Guild Wars 2 and at first I was only using onboard sound (because I was in the middle of upgrading my system) but when I started using my Xonar DX I immediately noticed how much better the sound quality was (warmer, more depth, more detail). It sounded so nice that I spent some time running around the game just listening to different sound effects e.g. footsteps over a wooden bridge etc. I also showed off the sounds to my brother and he agreed it did sound very realistic.

But how good the sound is will also depend on each specific game/application - I've come to realise that the audio production in Guild Wars 2 is actually very good - I haven't noticed as good sound effects in other games that I've played since.

Obviously you also need half-decent speakers too.

BTW, if you are using Asus Xonar DX, I think the official drivers are junk - it's much better to use the unified drivers: http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/

Found this thread: http://www.overclock.net/t/1404699/realtek-alc1150-or-xonar-dx
The concensus there seems to be that Xonar DX is better.

 

[BrightCandle]

SNR and various other measures of accuracy show that the Realtek chipsets are much improved but still lagging from even basic sound cards, and if sound quality and reproduction is the goal then a sound card is better. Certainly if you have high enough end headphones and speakers there is potentially a difference, although as Tomshardware recently reviewed its not a very big difference and most people couldn't tell on music.

However with games its a bit different. If you are going to use virtual surround for your headphones (you should) then you will find Dolby Headphone from 7.1 source is vastly superior to Realtek's equivalent in its drivers. Dolby Headphone is also better than the virtual surround that comes with most games when you choose headphones in the options. There is a significant advantage to having good surround sound accuracy and its here where I still think sound cards shine, not because of the hardware but because of the software they come with. My own experience is that the Soundblaster Z implementation was the best for my ears and headphones and if you search on youtube for CMSS v Realtek v Dolby in Battlefield 3 or 4 you'll find some comparison videos that you can try with your existing headphones to work out if you can tell a difference and to what extent.

 

[lehtv]

Unless you're intent on using Dolby Headphone or other post processing effects unavailable to the onboard chip, it's probably not worth the bother to install the Xonar; unless the onboard chip is low end, which the ALC1150 definitely isn't.

 

[Poco468]

David,

You didn’t specifically mention it, but your choice of motherboard alludes your priority is gaming – Z97 Gaming motherboard. And, if so, I think BrightCandles’s post is a good argument regarding the expanded capabilities of a dedicated sound card for gaming.

But, if music is a larger priority or it doesn't matter, a quick Google for the Realtek ALC1150 datasheet shows it has a good DAC capable of 24 bit/192kHz and 115 dB SNR. The Xonar DX has the same 24/192 and 116dB SNR capabilities. Therefore on paper, I think it is safe to assume the ALC1150 and the Xonar DX should be audibly identical. If music is the priority, then you could go either way – swap them and see which you like best.

The ALC 1150 would be simple and require fewer resources.

If you are interested, here is the link to the Realtek ALC1150 data sheet.

http://www.realtek.com.tw/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=28&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=328