Onboard sound vs. USB sound drivers for my headset (5hV2)

hitraj 47

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Jan 19, 2008
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I've had a Steelseries 5hv2 USB for a while now and I've been using the USB drivers. It's my first surround sound headset and in my opinion, so far I think it's got very good 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound, especially for games, which is their main use.

My question is though, my motherboard's (ASUS P5Q Pro) sound drivers (Realtek ALC1200) also supports 7.1 surround sound and I'm wondering if they are better than the C-Media ones that the 5hV2 uses. If this is the case, since the headset also uses the 3.5mm jack, should I switch to the motherboard drivers and use those, or are the USB drivers better?

I'm not an expert on sound here. The reason I got the USB was because I don't have a sound card. If I did, I would be using the sound card's drivers.

I hope this is the right section of the forum to post this in.

Thanks for any answers.