Sound Card & Games

[Cheex]

1) What effect does a sound card have on frame rates?

2) What kind of difference will I notice if I were to add a PCI sound card to my rig?

3) Is the Audigy a good buy for ~$30?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Depends... if you're GPU limited due to your resolution / video settings, then getting a soundcard to free up some CPU power will not change your final results much.

The biggest difference would probably be sound quality and effects, depending on what your onboard sound is like and what kind of speakers/headphones you have

Original Audigy or Audigy 2?

 

[Cheex]

I mean the original Audigy.

These 3 models actually.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Cheex
I mean the original Audigy.

These 3 models actually.

Those are all the same. One is OEM one is low profile and the other is retail. Nothing to write home about in those cards, I would look for a used audigy 2ZS

 

[Cheex]

Which is the lowest Audigy card that is better than Realtek on-board sound?

Is it the Audigy 2ZS?

 

[Boyo]

yes. Get the Audigy 2 ZS. It's your best bet.

 

[chizow]

Regardless of how much better an add-in sound card sounds or performs compared to on-board, you need to weigh the price premium most board makers charge. Chances are you'll switch to a new motherboard before you want a new sound card, and you can just port your sound card to your new rig.

I've typically always used a Creative card though because EAX2+ is just awesome in games that support it. The closest I came to using on-board was with my A7N8X-Deluxe and its excellent SoundStorm solution. I'm not sure if there's any current on-board sound that offer the same quality, but some of the boards I looked at this time around were charging $300+ for bells and whistles I didn't really want to spend that much more for.

There's been a few boards announced that are going to have X-fi on-board, which is probably the worst solution since the price premium is pretty visible. It also seems onboard X-fi is the main reason for their delay since Vista support is still a bit rough.

 

[Cheex]

I just noticed that only the original Audigy cards are available on the egg.
What's up with that?

 

[Texun]

I just bought one of those SE cards. The OB sound on my ASUS was pretty lame even though all I have is a 2.1 system. The SE is at the low end but it has been a great improvement in music. I don't play a lot of games, but for the few games that I do play the sound is certainly better than what I was getting. I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[Cheex]

I have an Altec Lansing 2.1 speaker system so I think that the original Audigy should be fine over the OB sound on a DS3 mobo (someone confirm this please). My main reason for getting a dedicated sound card is the gaming though and the FPS increase.