Best ASIO Low Latency Sound Cards

zubacho54

Honorable
Oct 5, 2012
10
0
10,510
What are the best soundcards for Guitar Rig & Amplitube that can reach the lowest latency?

Is Asus Xonar DX one of them?
 
^^ ASUS/HT Omega/Auzentech > Creative

My main question is if you need audio input or audio output. For input, you'd be looking more at m-audio and professional grade soundcards. For output, anything with ASIO 2.0 support should suffice, so the DX should be plenty.
 

zubacho54

Honorable
Oct 5, 2012
10
0
10,510
I'll be building a gaming PC that can take full advantage of a guitar software effect processors like Guitar Rig & Amplitube; using my PC as a guitar distortion amplifier where I can plug my guitar into and hear the effects right away. In this case, I'll be needing an audio input and audio output.

I'm currently using an integrated soundcard with my old PC and I have to turn down the quality settings to meet a desired latency. Since the integrated soundcard is not an ASIO native device, I have to use ASIO4ALL driver to reduce any delays;
Guitar > PC > Speaker

I'm looking for the best soundcard that is solely built for this purpose and that I don't have to sacrifice audio quality for latency.

This is what my setup will look like:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jU5u

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor $219.99
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler $83.26
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 $134.99
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 $39.99
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM $89.99
SDD: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" $104.99
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB $413.78
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DX 24-bit 192 KHz $77.99
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower $109.99
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 850W 80 PLUS Silver $174.99
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS $19.99

Total (before mail-in rebates): $1474.94



Thanks, I'll look into this one. But 2x the price of DX. Is there any differences between them in terms of latency?



I'ts good to know that DX is plenty in terms of audio output. How about the audio input, will it affect the latency too?
 

zubacho54

Honorable
Oct 5, 2012
10
0
10,510
I didn't even know that these cards existed.
Doing some research based on your answers led me to a new kind of soundcards (at least for me) or should I say "audio interface" if that's what they call it in the home recording world. And it's exactly what I needed.

Thank you everyone