will sound cards REALLY improve performance?

[rwaritsdario]

Ive been hearing that quote over and over again, also how the xtrememusic has X-Fi CMSS®-3D and how creative brags its the fastest ever. Of course I know they will, but by how much? is it noticiable from card to card?
But ive looked up in the web and I cant find any direct comparison, among lets say onboard sound and different sound cards.
If any of you guys would be so kinda and shine some light over this matter it would be apprecciated.

 

[Rob423]

I Don't know exactly what you do with your system.. But i think alot of the people exaggerate and just buy things cause others say it's the best.

I've been using an Asus A7N8X Deluxe (ONBOARD SOUND)

Since that board has been out.. 2001? not sure but it's been very close to 5 yrs now.

I've had no ONE problem with the entire machine (knock on wood) And I play anything from EA SPORTS games like madden, NHL to Counter Strike and all Steam games, to BattleField 2 as well as Unreal has been played on here.

Also watched a few DVDS and listen to Mp3's all day long accompany'd by my Klipsch pro media 2.1 speaker system..


I HAVE ZERO COMPLAINTS about this audio.. it's crystal clear, sharp and it sounds excellent to me.

From what i remember the audio chip on this motherboard was compared to an AUDIGY. Either way, it rocks and that's all that matters.

 

[i_am_not_god]

well if ur comparing it to onboard mobo sound, then i wud assume it wud take load off the CPU, which might give u a little extra processing power, but i really dont think it will give u all that much. That is just theoritcally ofcourse, i dont think anyone has actually done any benchmarks to reflect that.

 

[chuckshissle]

In a way it will improve performance, since a soundcard takes the sound processesing from the cpu. But higher quality sound is achieve with a use of high quality speakers nonetheless. Soundcards is not meant to increase performance the pc but rather for accurate sound processing. I have tried this with my rig and between using and not using the soundcard (X-Fi) I didn't notice a difference in performance but rather a low quality sound.

 

[phreejak]

The X-Fi Fatality and X-Fi Platinum wll improve performance as they (unlike the other X-Fi variations) are equipped with 64mb of onboard memory.

 

[rwaritsdario]

Exactly my point, and even better in your case since you have such good speakers that wont bottleneck your sound.
I think creative and the other sound card manufacturers exaggerate on their products, otherwise, why wouldnt the have processing benchmarks liek AMD in their site??

 

[angry_ducky]

Sound cards improve performance over integrated sound in games because the CPU doesn't have to process the audio. You usually get 1-2 more FPS.

 

[SuperFly03]

It really depends on what you want to do with your system. In absolute numbers, you find a 4-5 FPS diffrence depending on the amount of audio processing the CPU has to do. However, as mentioned before its not as much about those extra FPS as it is about sound quality and accuracy.

I have a X-Fi Extreme (its over kill but go with it) and the XRam, I believe is what Creative likes to call it, makes a diffrence when I am playing battlefield 2. I am typically on a 64 person server with tanks shotting, snipers trying to catch me, artillerty being dropped and yet I still know where everything is.

If you go back to last summer when the X-Fi was released, THG did a huge break down of what the card does and why its so damned spiffy. Prior to the X-Fi if a tank was rubling behind a building the Audigy 2 kinda guessed what it would sound like, but the X-Fi knows exactly where to put it and what to make it sound like.

If you intend to just listen to music and watch a few movies now and then, I wouldn't suspect a discrete card is worth it. However, if you want to know where exactly that bullet came from you might want to consider a discrete card.

 

[rwaritsdario]

I have a X-Fi Extreme (its over kill but go with it) and the XRam, I believe is what Creative likes to call it, makes a diffrence when I am playing battlefield 2. I am typically on a 64 person server with tanks shotting, snipers trying to catch me, artillerty being dropped and yet I still know where everything is.

If you go back to last summer when the X-Fi was released, THG did a huge break down of what the card does and why its so damned spiffy. Prior to the X-Fi if a tank was rubling behind a building the Audigy 2 kinda guessed what it would sound like, but the X-Fi knows exactly where to put it and what to make it sound like.

If you intend to just listen to music and watch a few movies now and then, I wouldn't suspect a discrete card is worth it. However, if you want to know where exactly that bullet came from you might want to consider a discrete card.

You are talking about the newest EAX feature??

 

[Heyyou27]

If you're simply looking for a performance improvement, spend your money elsewhere.

 

[rwaritsdario]

If you're simply looking for a performance improvement, spend your money elsewhere.

I know I know, i wouldnt get a sound simply based on performance boost. But since some ppl and creative keep on saying I thought it had to be a significant amount.
Sound cards are to improve your Sound accuracy and clarity, i know... lol

 

[phreejak]

Here, read these reviews about the X-Fi line of products:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/multimedia/display/creative-soundblaster-xfi.html
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/soundblaster-x-fi/index.x?pg=1
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/18/creative_x/
http://www.anandtech.com/multimedia/showdoc.aspx?i=2518
http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/soundblaster_xfi/index.shtml

 

[battousai831]

Ive been hearing that quote over and over again, also how the xtrememusic has X-Fi CMSS®-3D and how creative brags its the fastest ever. Of course I know they will, but by how much? is it noticiable from card to card?
But ive looked up in the web and I cant find any direct comparison, among lets say onboard sound and different sound cards.
If any of you guys would be so kinda and shine some light over this matter it would be apprecciated.

uh yeah probably a little tiny bit but thats a bad reason for getting a sound card. you should be getting a sound card for audio reasons only because the proformance diff is so minimal.

 

[SuperFly03]

There is more to it than just the new EAX features. Phreejak provided some good articles to check out. I suggest reading one or two rather then I try to explain a 15 page review in one post hehe. 8O

 

[halcyon]

I also hope the OP understands that its only a Creative-based soundcard that's going to offload the CPU and get him/her that coveted extra 3-4fps. TBH with today's CPUs and GPUs I'm not sure how important that extra 2fps really is, like Stranger said, that's personal preference. I'd say the latest renditions of EAX would really be the gaming reason to go with a Creative card. If music and movies are your thing there are A LOT of good choices out there. Many believe the X-Fi to be the best card out there. However, when you read the reviews often-times you'll see that they're reviewing the X-Fi Elite Pro version which is considerably better than the Extreme Music, Platinum, and Fata1ity versions in terms of DAC, THD+N, and S/N ratio...but at $400, it damn well should be, eh?

Unless you really want the latest EAX, and the other toys the lower-end X-Fi's bring to the table you can get a wonderful soundcard for a lot less $$ than you'll pay for an X-Fi. However, if you go for an X-Fi, you'll have a nice Jack-of-all-trades-Master-of-One.

If you've got onboard sound with a digital output, its a different story. In my personal experience I've found my onboard sounds fine when connected to my Z-5500's via Optical. ...but it should. If I were a gamer though, I'd still just use a Creative card, why take any performance hit at all? Why lose out on EAX 3-5? Why put so much into my rig just to neglect audio? I've yet to hear analog output from onboard sound that competes well with even an old SoundBlaster Live! and I'm using a fairly contemporary mobo with contemporary onboard audio chipset myself.

...but I imagine if you have poor speakers analog onboard sound is just fine.

 

[Tom_Tuttle_of_Tacoma]

I Don't know exactly what you do with your system.. But i think alot of the people exaggerate and just buy things cause others say it's the best.

I've been using an Asus A7N8X Deluxe (ONBOARD SOUND)

Since that board has been out.. 2001? not sure but it's been very close to 5 yrs now.

.

I have to agree, but you have to understand that the Soundstorm audio Nvidia had was a rare case. I had the same motherboard the first month it came out and just upgraded two weeks ago. I loved the onboard sound but I am a gamer and also had an Audigy 2 zs. Onboard was for Teamspeak. The new system has crappy onboard sound, which is very typical.

There is allot of good advice for you in this thread Halcyon, unless you are a gamer or love your music then onboard sound works for most people.

 

[Tom_Tuttle_of_Tacoma]

lol, i really don't think halycon is in need of advice. i think you meant the OP of this thread.

LOL, thats possible. I wrote it half asleep.

 

[halcyon]

lol, i really don't think halycon is in need of advice. i think you meant the OP of this thread.

LOL. Heck, I need lots of advice and you guys give some of the best...so I keep read'n your threads, learn'n a little day by day.

 

[reaper]

I Don't know exactly what you do with your system.. But i think alot of the people exaggerate and just buy things cause others say it's the best.

I've been using an Asus A7N8X Deluxe (ONBOARD SOUND)

Since that board has been out.. 2001? not sure but it's been very close to 5 yrs now.

I've had no ONE problem with the entire machine (knock on wood) And I play anything from EA SPORTS games like madden, NHL to Counter Strike and all Steam games, to BattleField 2 as well as Unreal has been played on here.

Also watched a few DVDS and listen to Mp3's all day long accompany'd by my Klipsch pro media 2.1 speaker system..


I HAVE ZERO COMPLAINTS about this audio.. it's crystal clear, sharp and it sounds excellent to me.

From what i remember the audio chip on this motherboard was compared to an AUDIGY. Either way, it rocks and that's all that matters.

Just based on your experience, I already knew you have no knowledge at all about onboard sound and discrete sound card, because you haven't bought one yet. Of course onboard sound works ok, if not, then why manufacturers put it on? You are making comparison like between a civic and a ferrari. If you plan to run about 60mph then both will work almost the same, but nobody use a damn civic to race. Same analogy with sound card. Onboard sound have a SNR (signal to noise ratio) about 86 for the cheap one, and 92 DB for the expensive mobo, whereas the card like Audigy 2 ZS has 108 DB. And you will surely notice the difference. You have a 2.1 speaker and didnt even turn it on max, how can you tell the difference (like 60mph)? If you use an expensive speaker set like Z-5500 or Gigaworks, then why dont you spend extra bucks for a good sound card? Also, the X-Fi pro can produce 116 DB, and of course, it's for serious music (gamers dont need that much) and lots of review site advise you not to upgrade it from an Audigy 2 ZS if you just plan to play game and casual music.

 

[Grizely1]

Ouch... I had to use my A7N8x onboard sound now for awhile and man, im sorry to say but it is horrible... even compared to my aging soudn blaster LIVE gamer card.

 

[halcyon]

Na, its not quite that bad. I hear the difference easily with lower-end speakers like the Logitech Z-5500's, Bose Companion 3's and, Creative iTrigue L3800's. You don't really need to spend $500 on speakers to appreciate a good sound card, IMO.

 

[SuperFly03]

It really is a dilema. You buy a high-end sound card and and you'll be force to buy high-end speakers as well to hear the difference.

Me? I'm still using SB Live! 5.1 and speakers from my stereo, good enough for me to annoy the F*ck out of my neighboors in the dorm. :lol:

Hey Griz, good to see you back!

Well I had Logitech Z-680's when I was in the dorm 3 years ago ... man people hated me, but then you realise that Imanaged to fit a dual cooling loop into a Dell XPS case so I was kinda of a bad ass (just let me think that ok! lol). Acctually fried my 9800 Pro's transistor OC'ing that way.

Back to case research

 

[aonhagen]

I rather buy some really good earbounds with that money than buy an audio card again.


When i bought the audigy 2 i was like "wel..it sound a little better but not that much" and i had the creative 4.1 speakers setup

when i upgraded my speaekrs with a very cheap sound theater of sony 5.1 (like $250) i was like "WOW" super upgrade.

And to be honest i dont like change often the "EAX sound" to "rock sound" every time i switch aplications

 

[Harrison486]

Figured this is a good topic for my question...

I own a Dell Dimension 3000 (I know I know... keep laughing)

Anyway, its currently running off of onboard sound and onboard video. Although I rarely play games, it is a minor concern. The main thing is that my computer is my stereo and I am ALWAYS playing music. My speakers are the logitech Z-2300 2.1s. So my question is, with those speakers, would I notice any beneficial difference if I were to buy a sound card over using just the onboard sound?

 

[JonathanDeane]

The best example I can give of improved perfomance is BF2. I have an X-Fi Fatal1ty and there was actualy a notacible difference in frame rates on my machine when I turned it on (you have to tell BF2 to use OpenAL....) anyway it also got rid of the stuttering sound when loading a level it only happens when I load a level and only then for 2 seconds but its still anoying !

I use my headphones alot so for me the virtual surround sound on the X-Fi was totaly worth it (it realy works but sometimes its freaky I will think my speakers are on and take off my headphones to make sure they are not !)