Poll: sound card worth it or not

[Kosmiche]

It obviously depends what onboard sound you have, but it will always be worth it imo.

I lived with the realtek sound on my socket 775 asus for a while when my old xfi stopped responding, it was definetely a downgrade although not as pronounced as I had feared. The sound lacked depth and fullness though so I then got another soundcard and I was happy with the enhanced fullness of sound and superior soundstage.

 

[llamadal]

the entry level xonars are great and only cost £20 odd quid, for that you really cant go wrong.

 

[pitchfork]

Almost always worth it if you care about sound quality IMO

Running an maudio delta 24/96, run it through a mixer so I can have my bass pod, pc output and microphone running into it, but also channel the sound through the pc to my amp, the monitors, my stereo or the cans. Or just bypass the pc and run straight through.
And the clarity is just off the hook compared to onboard.

 

[Zero Pope]

Yes, I found even the cheap Xonar DG made a huge difference the first time I p[lugged it in and fired up BF3. Gunfire was crystal clear, explosions were really heavy and directional sound was fantastic.

 

[LizardKing]

Well got round to comparing my onboard ALC889 to my X-fi Elite pro.
And i can say the onboard was definitely the better of the two. Sound positioning in games was better and music sounded clearer (Crystalizer on or off).

Admitidly i didnt do any indepth testing and was using the latest Creative drivers but the difference was quite noticeable! i will try the latest PAX at some point.
The thing with the x-fi is its so unreliable i find myself having to reset it to defaults every so often otherwise it sounds flat.

 

[bru]

Voted yes but in all honesty it all depends on the speakers, have a quick look at OCUK range of speakers, if your using anything similar to those under about £30 than you probably wouldn't notice the difference between onboard and dedicated sound cards.

 

[fdxd]

Well got round to comparing my onboard ALC889 to my X-fi Elite pro.
And i can say the onboard was definitely the better of the two. Sound positioning in games was better and music sounded clearer (Crystalizer on or off).

Admitidly i didnt do any indepth testing and was using the latest Creative drivers but the difference was quite noticeable! i will try the latest PAX at some point.
The thing with the x-fi is its so unreliable i find myself having to reset it to defaults every so often otherwise it sounds flat.

The ALC898 on my board is nicer than X-Fi Xtrememusic. I am shocked at how good motherboard sound is nowadays.

 

[BananaDunka]

Decent speakers or headphones? Yes. Otherwise, no.

 

[danceMB]

As it goes, if the have a decent speaker setup (2.1+) and use a decent pair of headphones, then you would notice the difference going for dedicated sound card, even though the onboard has gone up in quality over the years

I have Sennheiser HD600's and Logitech Z-2300, lived off onboard but am now climbing over to the Asus soundcard, as there is always that niggling (what if) in the back of my mind that I am now going to silence come monday

 

[synixx]

Well got round to comparing my onboard ALC889 to my X-fi Elite pro.
And i can say the onboard was definitely the better of the two. Sound positioning in games was better and music sounded clearer (Crystalizer on or off).

Admitidly i didnt do any indepth testing and was using the latest Creative drivers but the difference was quite noticeable! i will try the latest PAX at some point.
The thing with the x-fi is its so unreliable i find myself having to reset it to defaults every so often otherwise it sounds flat.

Did you disable CMSS-3D? That adds a horrible echo effect that ruins it for me. Also, run it in entertainment mode.

When I did testing between my x-fi xtreme music and the ALC889A I found they were pretty similar. The 889 is amazing compared to other realtek chips!