Should I Use on-board audio or my sound card

[wmcguire93]

I just installed a DFI nF3 UT 250Gb Motherboard and I was wondering which is better the on-board audio or my soundcard. Currently I use a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and I really like it.

Any opinions?

 

[Odeen]

The Santa Cruz has MUCH better sound quality. CPU utilization when rendering 3D audio is lower with the Santa Cruz, since it has an onboard DSP.

The only downside is that it doesn't support 5.1 rendering of 3D audio, and doesn't support 7.1 at all. Assuming your speakers are 4 channel or less, there's no reason to use noisy and slow onboard audio.

 

[BW86]

I have the Santa Cruz. It's A LOT better than my VNF3's onboard sound.

 

[wmcguire93]

10-4 Thanks

 

[keeleysam]

 

[keeleysam]

Whats better:

1. MSI K8N Neo2 Onboard sound
2. Sound Blaster Live! PCI card

I am using this with 2.1 speakers so channels arent a problem

 

[BW86]

Originally posted by: keeleysam
Whats better:

1. MSI K8N Neo2 Onboard sound
2. Sound Blaster Live! PCI card

I am using this with 2.1 speakers so channels arent a problem

Pop in that SB Live if you have it. Don't go out and buy it though.

 

[kindest]

im in the same boat. i dont really have room for a pci slot
on my neo4 board.. the onboard realtek is pretty decent.. it has support for 7.1, coax dig out, and optical out.

i have an audigy2.. still havent made up my mind if i want to put it back in or not.

 

[Odeen]

Originally posted by: keeleysam
Whats better:

1. MSI K8N Neo2 Onboard sound
2. Sound Blaster Live! PCI card

I am using this with 2.1 speakers so channels arent a problem

If you have 2.1 speakers, I'd use ANY sound card as long as you don't have to use the POS Realtek.

Basically, the Realtek chips sound tinny, with hollow midrange and no bass to speak of. Also, since the CPU has to manually render 3D audio (note - even if you have just two speakers, gaming audio coming from a 3D world has to be properly processed, which takes a lot of CPU cycles)

The Live! is an okay sound card. It's not famous for its sound quality, but at least it can do most 3D audio tasks in hardware, without burdening the CPU, and it sounds better than anything Realtek puts out.

The difference in performance is easily a CPU grade or more in newer games. If you spend the big bucks for a 3800+, you're cheating yourself out of the price difference between a 3800+ and a 3500+ by running software audio... If you spend the time to tweak your overclock to achieve another 50 or 100mhz, all that difference is wasted by you using software audio.

Note: Sound cards based on the Via Envy and cMedia chipsets do not support 3D audio acceleration either. Don't buy them expecting your frame rates to improve.