In short, no. buying sound cards today for freeing up CPU resources is not a good reason to buy one because unlike 486's back in the day, a sound card won't double your performance. Like what Running said, 1 or 2 fps. An Audigy 1 for $40 is a rip-off. you might as well buy a Live! 24-bit for $25. If you want good sound quality buy at least an Audigy 2 ZS, prefferably an X-Fi.