Onboard audio vs. dedicated sound card

[fastman]

It's been a while and I could find anything during a search here.

But is it preferable to use a dedicated sound card over onboard sound, I'm looking to save CPU cycles and such. If it makes a difference I'd be using an Audigy 2.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

vs which board's audio? nF2 with mcp-t has very low CPU usage and sound great especially with digital output via the S/PDIF. The Via envy on some boards is hardware audio and very good too. Even soundmax has it's fans. If you already have the A2 though I'd definitely use it since it's better overall than any of those.

 

[fastman]

It would be the ECS N2U400-A it has no -t, thanks for the input.

 

[Peter]

Anything on PCI consumes a lot more system bandwidth than stuff that comes directly from the chipset. That's the worst part. With today's CPUs, sound processing chores don't matter as much as they used to - and having a PCI sound card is no warrant for low CPU usage, neither is using onboard sound always using a lot of CPU. It all depends on how intelligent the sound engine is, not where it is.

Creative's audio card drivers have been consistently notorious for excessive CPU usage, even when not playing any sound at all. If it has to be a PCI solution, I'd choose something with VIA's Envy24 chip on - this has come down from the halfway professional arena, with much better performing drivers than Creative's overhyped toys.