Why buy a sound card?

[Moses08]

Sound cards can speed up your computer since if you don't have one sound processing happens on your processor. Then again, a lot of new games (Half Life 2 and Doom 3 for example) are doing sound on the processor anyway.

 

[rollincatera]

i say scratch the soundcard and buy a pair of plantronics dsp500's

 

[YourPrinter]

i say scratch the soundcard and buy a pair of plantronics dsp500's

YES!

 

[vance43211]

You don't buy a $200 sound card to play games. You buy that when you do heavy sound editing, producing, mixing, stuff like that. If you purchased it to hear clearer MP3s and are upset that the games don't need such a card then thats your fault for not knowing what hardware suits your needs. That's why I don't judge what I buy by price, but rather 'Do I really need it?' I have a $30 Philips Audigy soundcard which I bet produces just as good as sound.

Like I said the only people who need expensive cards like that, are those people who are plugging in midi controllers, mixing tables, using software like Cakewalk (which is a basic sound creation tool), sound forge, stuff like that. That's the only time when you need an expensive sound card. Just like if you're a gamer you need an expensive graphics card.

you forgot audiophile listening? you will never get true sound for a mobo even if it is 8.1 a sound card is made strictly for sound

24 bit (from a cd) will give 120 db signal to noise ratio as oppose to 90-95 for 16 bit. most people won't notice that difference. I do. audiophiles do

it won't improve your mp3 sound. but it will your wave

 

[Nubius]

you forgot audiophile listening? you will never get true sound for a mobo even if it is 8.1 a sound card is made strictly for sound

What are you talking about, I was talking about audiophiles referring to you really only need soundcards in those instances. I wasn't supporting the onboard sound if you use heavy sound editing and such things like that.

not that i care, of if its worth it, but...

i think it was mentioned somewere that having a sound card is just slightly better then onbourd sound, cause it takes away a little bit of overhead off the cpu(or whatever). better as in, a slightly faster system, not better sound. but i wouldnt know if it applys to new systems now, since there fast enough.

You're absolutely correct. On earlier system onboard sound was shakey, would easily fail or produce a crappy and choppy sound. But now the motherboards are quite better and with ABit I believe they've routed different ways in which the CPU talks with the sound so that you don't lose that performance. The onboard sound is getting better so for games and normal listening it's perfect. If you are a crazy sound advocate then more than likely you'll need that card for multi audio device input, midi controllers and things such as that

 

[vance43211]

I actually typed that wrong (I do that a lot).

I was agreeing with you but I just wanted to add my "audiophile comments " with your post.

I'm not the best typer. I'm probably the worst

 

[Harper]

I did buy a little too much of a sound card, but I do notice quite a richer, fuller sound than I did with my onboard.

What he sead. Same here with my 2 computers.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Still I think motherboards should have audigy chips on them, then there wouldnt be a need for a sound card.

 

[RangerX]

I like having a separate sound card even though I have a creative CT500 chip on my MB for sound. I have a SB Live 5.1 X-Gamer and it's great. If it goes, or my needs change, or we all get Win XP 64 bit and my card is not supported, I can upgrade the sound card without a new MB. That's the reason I don't like integration, you can't upgrade components seperately. I guess all MB come with integrated sounds nowadays so there's no avoiding that.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

agreed