Sound Card Upgrade?

**Dennycrumbubble** · October 28th, 2011, 03:29 PM

I'm a bit of an audiophile and was wondering if I'd need a better sound card for some HD gaming sound. The mobo I'm getting is the Gigabyte GA-Z68P-DS3 ATX LGA1155. Is it worth buying a sound card or does this have decent enough sound?

**stroyal** · October 28th, 2011, 05:11 PM

The on-board on mother boards is very good.
If you are going to get a sound card, you will want to get high end speakers, or it would be a waste.

Sound cards, usually are not necessary, unless sound, is going to be a big part of the computer.

**RicheemxX** · October 28th, 2011, 05:15 PM

Just like JP said in your other post its really not needed. You'd be much better off spending the extra cash on a better cpu/gpu (whatever) than you would a dedicated sound card

**Dennycrumbubble** · October 28th, 2011, 05:40 PM

Alright. I was leaning away from it anyway but I just wanted to get some second opinions. Thanks guys.

**KarmaKiller** · October 28th, 2011, 05:53 PM

IMO, there is no point in getting a sound card unless you have something that can actually produce high quality sound. A nice set of speakers or even cans, you WILL be able to tell the difference.
If you don't have a good set of speakers or headphones, then there is no point spending the money on a sound card.

**bigBonehead** · October 29th, 2011, 01:02 AM

In my experience, there is a huge difference between a dedicated card made for audio production, such as with a DAW, and the average onboard/gaming add ins. The difference will only be heard on a set of studio nearfield monitors, or a set of cans designed for such work. The average set of consumer speakers are colored to tweak certain frequencies, and the headsets most gamers use are absolutely useless for production work. When you consider the fact that some Creative SB cards go for the same money as something like this, IMO there is no reason the but the SB...

**KarmaKiller** · October 29th, 2011, 01:21 AM

I'll throw out the suggestion for Asus sound cards also. The Essence is an amazing sound card, but can be pricey. Also the Creative X-FI Titanium is also an amazing card, and those are getting cheaper since Creative brought out the new line of cards.
I agree with Bonehead on the speakers though. No point in having a sound card unless you have speakers/cans that can reproduce that high quality sound.

**ShyguyXPC** · October 29th, 2011, 04:13 AM

Throw in a suggestion too, besides the Asus, HT Omega's Claro series are good cards too, Though if I remember they only have one or two PCIe cards, the rest are all PCI. Asus has several PCIe models of their PCI versions.

**SoloCamo** · October 29th, 2011, 04:32 PM

Well don't know if this matters as much these days, but I was always advised (and witnessed myself) that a dedicated sound card takes some load off the CPU. Back in the day on my older single cores I noticed the difference in the FPS for games by a 2-3 fps on average increase in frames with one (practically nothing, I know, but when you averaging the low 30's it helps

).

However, in todays multi-core world I doubt the impact is even that great. Regardless, I've still got a SB live 5.1 pci card that I throw in my rig anyways.