onboard 1150 vs xfi xtremegamer

[Xarick]

So.. I see no reviews of purity sound, or the new alc1150 chip. But my 4670k is coming and I still don't have a MOBO. Because my x-fi is a pci card. I can't afford a new sound card. However, I cannot find any reviews from any websites on how the new onboard sound solutions compare to discrete cards.
I realize my xfi is pretty old, but in games like BF4 is sounds amazing still. So I have resigned myself to keeping it even though creatives drivers blow chunks.

But if I dump it I have more board options.

Thoughts?

 

[fralexandr]

onboard sound is pretty good now. Good enough to not need a sound card unless you need something like headphone amps, or dolby encoding for optical out.
the x-fi sounds different/"better" due to the crystallizer/equalizer settings and supposedly the opamps they use.

there have been a few recent threads about similar stuffs
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2366663&highlight=
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2366072

 

[BrightCandle]

Watch this Youtube video link with your headphones on (and CMSS off in your sound settings): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BxO9cd-sYA

The onboard sound chips are typically Realtek based and they have that in the comparison, and your card is CMSS based. Personally I would take the CMSS surround sound effect over and above the Realtek anyday of the week although I prefer the SBX pro of the latest Soundblaster cards.

Of course that only really matters if you use headphones and not if you use a 5.1 speaker system. There are some real measurable quality differences, but you need good kit to be able to hear the difference, a Realtek chip is only really the bottleneck once you start spending >$200 on headphones or a lot more on speakers but there is certainly a difference in the SNR and the crosstalk and such as measured by plenty of tools.