Huge difference having a sound card for gaming?

[pinoynobello]

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.

 

[Proximon]

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.

 

[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.

 

[sidsrvnn]

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

 

[4Ryan6]

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.

DITTO