Should I be looking for a Sound Card

[motherboard1]

right now Im useing onboard audio, and I noticed the other day that in Battlefield 1942 I can increase audio quality settings, and it sounds way better, but it also takes a silky smooth game, and lags it to death

I had no idea sound quality settings could have such a huge impact on performance

So the question is, what would a Sound card do for me?

or am I just as well to buy more RAM and stick with the onboard

[einstein2]

Definately get a new card, more ram would help as well. Depending on your budget and speaker set up, a X-fi by Creative Labs is a top card. I ordered one today :D, should get it tom :D.

[motherboard1]

do I have to consider interface? PCI E or PCI my new board will have PCI E, but my current board only has PCI

[Droban]

You're new board will have PCI slots still. And your soundcard will be PCI.

[motherboard1]

right, just figured that all out since my last post, Im thinking Ill just get a cheaper sound card, the X FI is so expensive, I cant see me paying that kind of money for a sound card, its proably more than I need anyway, its mostly just so I can play games at full audio quality settings on cheap speakers or headset

any recommendations on what I should look for? something like half the price of an X Fi, if its even worth getting a cheaper card that is

also, Id like it if I was able to run the audio out to the TV from this card

[[SaS]hornet]

i bought a sound blaster live 24 bit card for about £11. its ok for general use, but having seen and listened to a top class system with an x-fi, i will be buying one with my new system. if you can afford it, buy the basic x-fi card, if not a Audigy 2 ZS will do the job nicely!

[motherboard1]

err, maybe sometime in the future, right now Im just hopeing to turn up the sound quality settings on battlefield 1942 without takeing such a performance hit, and maybe run audio out to my TV for when I play games on it instead of my my monitor

---

just read that an AV 710 makes a good budget card, I might get one of those