Is a separate soundcard necessary for competitive FPS gaming?

[Phokus]

Hey guys,

It's been a while since i used to game, i used to be in the competitive Quake/CS/TF2 scene. I'm getting back into the scene and I settled on the Audio-Technica AD700's headphones, seems it's universally regarded as the best in terms of giving you positional audio in FPS games.

I was reading some reviews and some people suggested getting a gaming sound card to go along with your headphones. Is that necessary? And if so, what advantages, if any does it give you? Better positional audio?

A lot of people recommend Xonar soundcards too...

 

[The Boston Dangler]

how are you getting more than stereo with headphones?

i use the on-board realtek with dolby digital live and a receiver with 5.1 channels. the sound positioning is superb. i also liked the performance and software of the cmedia 8788. asus has either acquired or branded newer cmedia products as xonar, although not all carry ddl.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Its not necessary but can help. There's a lot of junk to wade through, but games now implement audio themselves versus relying on stuff like Creative's EAX like they used to (the reality is Creative manages OpenAL which I believe most games use unless they do their own system). Most of the features on cards are just stuff like pseudo surround modes (Dolby Headphone or Creative's CMSS Headphone might be things you would like), EQ, and the like. You might like those features but I doubt they'll help you game much.

Oh, forgot, if you're getting into older games then it will matter some if you want the good features. Creative and ASUS both have software that helps with that.

The Xonar cards are ok (they have like 3 higher end ones with nice components and even a headphone amp chip), the X-Fi Titanium HD is the only Creative card I'd really recommend, or you could grab a USB DAC/amp (Fiio E10 or E17, there's a ton of others depending on size and price and what you want, like Schiit Magni/Modi combo).

 

[darkswordsman17]

how are you getting more than stereo with headphones?

i use the on-board realtek with dolby digital live and a receiver with 5.1 channels. the sound positioning is superb. i also liked the performance and software of the cmedia 8788. asus has either acquired or branded newer cmedia products as xonar, although not all carry ddl.

Positional audio is very possible with just stereo (really even a single channel can impart some positional "data"). There's a lot of "binaural" positional audio things on Youtube that show you what's possible.

It really depends on the game as to how good it is. Its kinda a pain in the ass, but you can try out different things to see what works best. For instance, some games you might be better off choosing a headphone setting if they have it, others you might want to set to surround (5.1-7.1) and then have your audio processor manage the downmix (IIRC Dolby Headphone and Creative's pseudo surround headphone actually wants you to set the game to surround).

 

[Phokus]

Its not necessary but can help. There's a lot of junk to wade through, but games now implement audio themselves versus relying on stuff like Creative's EAX like they used to (the reality is Creative manages OpenAL which I believe most games use unless they do their own system). Most of the features on cards are just stuff like pseudo surround modes (Dolby Headphone or Creative's CMSS Headphone might be things you would like), EQ, and the like. You might like those features but I doubt they'll help you game much.

Oh, forgot, if you're getting into older games then it will matter some if you want the good features. Creative and ASUS both have software that helps with that.

The Xonar cards are ok (they have like 3 higher end ones with nice components and even a headphone amp chip), the X-Fi Titanium HD is the only Creative card I'd really recommend, or you could grab a USB DAC/amp (Fiio E10 or E17, there's a ton of others depending on size and price and what you want, like Schiit Magni/Modi combo).

Yeah i'd mostly be looking into newer games, so i guess a soundcard doesn't really give me any additional advantage then?

 

[sandorski]

A Soundcard might be necessary to power certain Headphones.

 

[HeXen]

Just because an audio signal is positioned correctly and presented accurately, doesn't mean the user will actually listen properly to react appropriately. We all hear differently and focus on audio also differs. You still have to develop acute listening skills for it to really matter, but most people just go into an online game and run n gun while worrying about how many kills they get, not survive which is what listening could help on a well made game.

This is apparent by how many people listen to crappy small speakers and think they sound awesome because of the brand or something.
I'd like to see more online games where survival is more key than how many dog tags you get. But games like BF3 and MW don't really matter how great your audio is if you are out to kill and no so much to survive.