i thought that some boards came with the audigy integrated oh well. But the answer in my oppinion is simply yes, if you play cs or bf2... especially bf2. I was using the integrated sound on bf2.. i then poped in an audigy 2 and put the sound settings on high and enabled eax. wow what a difference. To me, the sound is one of that games good features,, well besides the music.You can fire your gun and hear it echo for a long way, if you have a wall on one side and a field to your other, you can hear the reverberation difference n stuff.