Soundcard for Gaming?

LukeMurtagh1995 · 16 Oct 2020 at 18:32

Hello all,

I am currently in the market for a new headset for gaming. I have at the moment a HyperX Cloud Alpha which has been fantastic for several years, however I'm looking to upgrade it to something more premium. I tried a few months back and found several of the £200+ ones to be rather disappointing in comparison to my Cloud Alpha headset. I have just ordered a SteelSeries Arctis Pro+GameDac since it was on sale at around 25% off at OcUK and I'm eager to test it.

My question is this: should I get a soundcard as well? And if so are there any recommendations? I haven't got a clue when it comes to audio devices as I have almost literally zero experience with them, and I'm cautious about getting caught up in fancy marketing.

I only use my PC for gaming so anything aimed at productivity/content creation would be wasted on me.

Many thanks for your help!

EsaT · 16 Oct 2020 at 19:19

You would have gotten proper headphones from actual audio maker and sound card for the same price as that Chinese production game brand trinket.
That's how these gaming brands make their huge profits to afford all that marketing BS and pribing.
Kingston is one of the rare exceptions actually giving some qualtiy for the price.

LukeMurtagh1995 · 16 Oct 2020 at 19:27

EsaT said:
You would have gotten proper headphones from actual audio maker and sound card for the same price as that Chinese production game brand trinket.
That's how these gaming brands make their huge profits to afford all that marketing BS and pribing.
Kingston is one of the rare exceptions actually giving some qualtiy for the price.

Okay, thanks for the tip.

What would you recommend?

crazy8s · 16 Oct 2020 at 19:32

You don't need a soundcard as it comes with a DAC.

Also, what is your budget if you're looking to change it and do you need a mic?

LukeMurtagh1995 · 16 Oct 2020 at 19:40

crazy8s said:
You don't need a soundcard as it comes with a DAC.

Also, what is your budget if you're looking to change it and do you need a mic?

Thanks for the advice.

I didn’t even know the DAC took the place of a soundcard. Shows you how little I know lol!

My budget could probably reach around £250, with £300 as a probable absolute maximum. And I don’t use a mic, although I wouldn’t say no to a good mic, as I’ve been toying with the idea of eventually using one. If it was a choice between great sound and a great mic, however, I would prioritise the sound.

EsaT · 17 Oct 2020 at 09:40

LukeMurtagh1995 said:
My budget could probably reach around £250, with £300 as a probable absolute maximum

For example little over £100 gets Beyerdynamic's DT770 or DT990 depending on do you need closed design for environment's sound isolation.
Replacement ear pads available at good price for keeping them going and Beyer also sells basically every part as spare parts.

Also if you're after maximum competitiveness for distinguishing foot steps etc AKG's K702 are available for around that. (at the expense of "fun factor"/bass immersion)
Though "automatically" adjusting head band isn't as good as good old manually adjustable in Beyers.
And AKG's replacement ear pads are more costly than Beyer's.

For sound card Creative is selling B-stock Sound BlasterX G6 for £70, making it extremely good for the money.
Also customizable "Super X-Fi" HRTF (besides fixed HRTF) including Sound Blaster X3 is now available for £95.
Though Creative has been slow to tweak that tech good for gaming and as sound card it's below SBX G6 especially in headphone amplifier and wouldn't handle demanding headphones as well.