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On board sound -VS- PCI sound card

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paupton

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2002
Location
southwest louisiana
Should I use the onboard sound or PCI sound card?
I understand that the PCI bus must share the same bandwidth with however many cards are plugged into the PCI bus. I also understand that on board sound uses the CPU to process sound. Which would improve system performance the most. I guess the on board Lan would apply to this question as well.
My mobo is the new Asus A8N SLI Deluxe with 8.1 sound. The sound is good enough for me. I am wondering about performance issues.
 
Normally PCI soundcards are better quality, but onboard LAN is better since it does not utilize any PCI bandwidth.
 
depends on which sound card you intend to use in the PCI slot. Not all pci sound cards accelerate everything and many still require the cpu to do the work.

If you're happy with your onboard sound, i wouldn't worry too much about the performance hit, it is very small overall. Maybe a few frames on average.

Onboard LAN is fine, no need to go with a PCI card.
 
Your onboard sound is manufactured by Realtek which is an exceptionally good company. Unless you buy an Audigy2 or better you will not see a difference of any sort. I simply would suggest you use the onboard solution unless you are a hardcore audiophile.
 
i can hear the difference between my onboard and my sound card, but i do have a decent card, and it also has to do with the set of speaker you have to :) if both is up at a certain standard, you'll deffinitely hear the difference :). if you're not picky about sound, then onboard will do, if you are, get a good PCI one.
 
can someone plz clear something for me??? is it less work for the cpu to have pci sound card or use onboard?? i wold think pci but im not sure!!!
 
If you are a hardcore audiophile you wouldn't use a pc for listening to music or movies at all.

I'm sorry but that is the worst statement I have ever read, if you are a hardcore audiophile why wouldnt you use a pc for it?
 
Prodigious said:
If you are a hardcore audiophile you wouldn't use a pc for listening to music or movies at all. :rolleyes:
There are a lot of hardcore audiophiles using computers as source, with cards like the EMU 0404, and if you are really serious, some of the RME or Lynx cards should be good enough.
 
If you are just going to play games and maybe watch some DVD movies I would suggest staying with your onboard sound unless you want to have all the features of DTS and such, but most new DVD programs now decode DTS in software. I just recently upgraded to the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and I can hear a major difference between my onboard sound and the Audigy 2, but for most people onboard should be fine if you get a good quality motherboard with a sound chipset made by realtek (I don't know of any other good onboard sound manufacturers). The only problem you may run into is if you listen to your music really loud, then you may get noise from other electrical circuits in your mobo. I know I did.
 
paupton said:
Should I use the onboard sound or PCI sound card?
I understand that the PCI bus must share the same bandwidth with however many cards are plugged into the PCI bus. I also understand that on board sound uses the CPU to process sound. Which would improve system performance the most. I guess the on board Lan would apply to this question as well.
My mobo is the new Asus A8N SLI Deluxe with 8.1 sound. The sound is good enough for me. I am wondering about performance issues.

I honestly think the new realtek 97 audio is great. Unless you plan on spending 200.00+ on a new sound card...where else can you get a set up for the new dobly 8.1 surround sound ;)...

The only downside to using the OBS is...it does take away framerates in games, but if you have a good enough card you wont even notice it...Now if you are benching...definetly disable the OBS because this can matter with certain benchmark programs...
 
My Abit OBS was nasty and made me go out and at least buy a SBLive mp3 card.
My Asus sound is so nice, I've passed that card on to my son's computer. I've even had to turn down the base amp halfway too because the output was so strong.

Unfortunately, both computers make a sound with my Belkin USB scrolling mouse...the speakers squeek each time I scroll, so I just leave the sound off unless I'm actually playing some tunes.
 
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