Looking for a good PCI-E sound card with optical out for Windows 10

Chaotic42

Lifer
Jun 15, 2001
33,929
1,097
126
As the title says, I'm looking for a high-quality sound card with optical out. Usually motherboards have optical out, but this one doesn't. Since it will be a while before I upgrade, I'd like to start using my home theater setup which uses an optical cable.

The problem I'm having is that it seems like Windows 10 support for discrete cards is sketchy in a lot of cases. I don't mind spending for quality, the card just needs to work flawlessly in Windows 10 and support DirectX. Something in the mid-high range or higher would be great. In a past life I worked in audio, so I know the sky is the limit on price :p

Any suggestions?
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,380
146
I've used the Sound Blaster AE-5 for about a year now (on Windows 10), and I've been very happy with it performance and driver-wise.

There are some Asus cards that are cheaper and have good specs, but the last time I looked when I was deciding on what sound card to go with, Asus wasn't releasing any new drivers. So most people seemed to use 3rd party "Uni" drivers.

http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/