sound cards we don't always get them but do we need them?

[madcatmk3]

I've bean thinking ever since I got my new computer and put the x-fi fatl1ty(you can get a card without ram in for $130) sound card in gaming has bean 10x better. It malkes so much of a differnece I was surprised. SO what do you all think do we all need sound cards?

[LP]

Doesn't it depend on what you use your rigs for?

I have a sound card in one tower that I use for playing music, but all other towers just have on board sound, and no speakers, since I only use them to run DC projects = no sound needed.

[Abdul]

Well, most people are concerned woth graphics with gaimin' i.e the visual side of gamin'... those who prefer music based games would most likely say a decent sound card is essential....

Since the average gamers budget only wants the best visual experience they tend to leave out the sound bit...untill later that is or never, 'cause a decent sound card requires a decent set of speakers thus adding to the cost!

IMO, a sound card will become more essential when the games start to emphasize more on the sound in the games. Stuff like complete silence and then you hear the pin drop of a grenade, echoin' across the room followed by a fantastic noise of clatter caused by the grenade landing somewhere, and finally the sub-woofers sound rippling thorugh your hair as you jump and hear the explosion.

I would never count out a Sound card in a gaming system, and would classify it as essesntial for gamers, but there again it falls to the consumers needs and purpose!

[robbie]

Yeah, I think it only applies if your a gammer or audiophile.

[madcatmk3]

I mean for gamming. Ya you do need good speakers but...
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=360410
and since I got it malkes a big difference when you hear the bullets hit the wall behind you instead of just hearing bullets and going around until you find out were the came from (by then you already have a few in you). it also I've found made a big difference on listening (since the x-fi can convert it to 24 bit ). DO you want me to write a reviw on the fat1ty x-fi I found it even improves frame rates.

[Chaz]

All PCI sound cards do increase framerates over on-board sound.

I'm very pleased with my Creative Audigy 2. Gaming is a lot better, but music is infinately better.

[madcatmk3]

Originally Posted by Chaz

All PCI sound cards do increase framerates over on-board sound.

I'm very pleased with my Creative Audigy 2. Gaming is a lot better, but music is infinately better.

you don;t realize it till you have one.

[benighted]

I like the on-board sound on my Nforce 3 based Epox board. It even has coaxial SPDIF out that I connect to my Sony 6.1 surround receiver with a nice set of JBL speakers. It has excellent sound, you really can hear a pin drop in a firefight.

[benighted]

136dB SNR Processing Quality for the x-fi fatl1ty... now thats impressive. You've got me thinking now.

[skool h8r]

Yeah, it really does depend what you use it for, if it's gaming like you said, then it depends on where your speakers are, i mean, i only have a £4 sound card here, it's creative but it provides great quality, shame my speakers can't handle certain things but living with my parents (And having respect for the elderly neighbours) means that i don't have it really loud (unless i'm in a very good mood and no one is in the house) but even then it's not really loud. Bearing in mind they are only multimedia speakers, they do a good job and are pretty good for gaming.

[Seperah]

Onboard 24bit sound say on the NF3 or NF4 (most popular) can sound just as good as the output of any audigy or audigy 2. The problem is, onboard is just more threads, processes and resources to be used by your cpu....lower FPS.

I personally use Turtle beach now, I found that creative's drivers for MY audigy, several friends audigy's ( even aud. 2's) crash windows XP based systems.

At first, for a year, everything was great, but then I experienced buzzing, sound hangs and a multitude of other things,including crashing my system. At first I RMA'd my speakers (X-530's).Still kept going so I removed my audigy, cleaned all creative drivers, and I havent had a problem since.

[cloasters]

Freakin' Creative's drivers. They have a LOT of nerve. Duuh, guess I need Creative's Basic soundcard drivers. 25 Mb, give me a break! Fortunately, WinXP will install its own minimal driver to run a 5.1 Live. Less weight, tastes great.

[Áedán]

Originally Posted by benighted

136dB SNR Processing Quality for the x-fi fatl1ty... now thats impressive.

And 70% of the card's power is chewed up on resampling the signal, as Creative still haven't worked around the problems that have dogged the original design of the EMU10K processor.

However, I'm not sure how useful 136dB worth of SNR processing really is, given that no-one has a system that can even come close. Being able to calculate to high precision is nice, but when you can't get the precision out of the card itself, it seems somewhat pointless.

[benighted]

Originally Posted by Áedán

Being able to calculate to high precision is nice, but when you can't get the precision out of the card itself, it seems somewhat pointless.

If you are talking about the loss from using 1/8" jacks then what about using the SPDIF output?

[Áedán]

No - the signal processing quality is the internal representation. The converters on the card can only manage 98dB SNR. The SPDIF implementation depends though. If it's standard consumer-level SPDIF, it'll only manage 96dB SNR.

[Logan]

I still have yet to hear of any one company making a dominant and impressive sound card.

True, I can hear a wierd buzz and whine when I fire a gun in CS:S...but until someone can, without hesitation, name a sound card that is worth buying and plugging in, I'm sticking with my Boston Acoustic 2.1 system and my onboard Realtek audio.

[madcatmk3]

I like my x-fi but the front frive bay broke they were helpful andd gave me an RMA number.

[Exile69]

Originally Posted by Logan

I still have yet to hear of any one company making a dominant and impressive sound card.

True, I can hear a wierd buzz and whine when I fire a gun in CS:S...but until someone can, without hesitation, name a sound card that is worth buying and plugging in, I'm sticking with my Boston Acoustic 2.1 system and my onboard Realtek audio.

Have you tried anything other than onboard? I haven't. It's funny how I hear about this all the time and could never justify buying a nice sound card. It just has never seemed worth it over say RAM or some other upgrade. I've never even heard anything other sound than onboard, so I'm still awaiting my first real sound experience.

[benighted]

Originally Posted by Exile69

Have you tried anything other than onboard? I haven't. It's funny how I hear about this all the time and could never justify buying a nice sound card. It just has never seemed worth it over say RAM or some other upgrade. I've never even heard anything other sound than onboard, so I'm still awaiting my first real sound experience.

I got a Turtle Beach 7.1 card with SPDIF optical input and output but I was never happy with it because it never had 64 bit drivers, I think I ended up donating it to my grandma's computer. The sound and performance was no better than my NF3 on-board sound that I later discovered already had coaxial SPDIF output, so no need for a sound card.