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[Solved] Huge difference having a sound card for gaming?

Forum CPU & Components : Sound Cards - [Solved] Huge difference having a sound card for gaming?

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pinoynobello   11-14-2009 at 01:07:26 PM

Ive read that having a sound card will decrease the strain on a video card and is better for gaming. I was wondering how big of an impact it has and what a few decent sound cards are for $150 dollars or less. I have like 11 dollar logitec speaker but a Alienware TactX headset that will be used 90 percent of the time.

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Best answer from blackhawk1928
If you have a very high quality audio system, a sound card will make a very good difference, if you have a crappy one then no. I've used a sound card before on my 650watt 5.1 channel surround audio system and it made a massive difference ;). And it will not decrease strain on the video card because the video card does "VIDEO" processing, not audio so it has nothing to do with it.
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Proximon   11-14-2009 at 01:30:05 PM

The soundcard will not decrease strain on the video card. It will not reduce strain on a modern CPU to any significant amount.

Most people find little to no difference using a sound card over onboard sound. A minority do notice a difference in quality, especially those with very good computer speakers.

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blackhawk1928   11-15-2009 at 05:42:32 AM
Best answer

If you have a very high quality audio system, a sound card will make a very good difference, if you have a crappy one then no. I've used a sound card before on my 650watt 5.1 channel surround audio system and it made a massive difference ;). And it will not decrease strain on the video card because the video card does "VIDEO" processing, not audio so it has nothing to do with it.

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sidsrvnn   11-15-2009 at 01:47:59 PM

whats your onboard audio like? i have anotehr post running, waiting for responses, but yeah i have an x-fi which i just removed in anticipation of getting sli, which doesnt leave room for my x-fi and switched back to onboard sound, and if im being honest, aside from the loss of cmss-3d (which is this thing where creative software makes your stereo sound play simultaeneously out the front and back speakers) i cant really make out much of a difference

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4ryan6   11-15-2009 at 04:14:10 PM

blackhawk1928 wrote :

If you have a very high quality audio system, a sound card will make a very good difference, if you have a crappy one then no. I've used a sound card before on my 650watt 5.1 channel surround audio system and it made a massive difference ;). And it will not decrease strain on the video card because the video card does "VIDEO" processing, not audio so it has nothing to do with it.




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