Should I get a sound card?

[Firestrider]

I'm not much of an audiophile at all as I've been using onboard sound forever and I think it sounds great. But now I'm starting to hear some popping in Crysis and I'm wondering if getting a sound card is a worthy investment. I do listen to music but usually at 192kbps; not 320kbps. What I'm most concerned about is the performance in games. If it helps offload the calculation done by the CPU for sound I'd rather have that than quality.

My speakers are Z-5300 and my onboard sound is Realtek ALC888 HD Audio.

[nd4spdbh2]

if you went from your onboard sound to even an old Audigy 2 Value (frys has oem boxes of them for 20 bucks) the difference would be night and day.

If i were you i would grab the X-Fi XtremeMusic from Dell. it can be had for 80 bucks.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=313-4369&cs=19&c=us&l=en&dgc=SS&cid=25682&lid=585550

[Stillhouse]

The amount of load placed on modern CPUs by onboard sound is negligible. The main benefit to a dedicated sound card is better sound quality and less chance for interference.

Even though you may not consider yourself an audiophile, you'd probably still notice a world of difference with a new card.

[Firestrider]

That audigy 2 value looks like a steal, but I don't understand all the specs.

What is EAX 4.0 Advanced HD? What is SNR? What is DTS-ES 6.1?

I'm just wondering how I can determine how much better it is over ALC888 in games, dvd movies, and voice recording/playback. Also I was thinking of getting a Hauppage TV-Tuner in the near future also, would it improve sound there?

[Firestrider]

Ok I just picked up that Audigy 2 Value from frys.com and after testing with it a bit I noticed: I could hear voices better in Crysis, high volume to low volume (and vice versa) in a song sounded better, and playing multiple channels sounded better.

[Jeepson33s]

they are the ****...i like mine alot

[reclaimer122]

Keep in mind this was like 5 years ago...

I went from onboard sound to an Audigy 2 ZS and even the music in RuneScape sounded better. :)

This seems like a good time to ask it, would I notice any difference with a 2.1 setup by going from my Audigy 2 ZS to say, that X-Fi ExtremeMusic? I have no desire to do surround sound as it is just too much hassle for me.

[rainless]

I'm not much of an audiophile at all as I've been using onboard sound forever and I think it sounds great. But now I'm starting to hear some popping in Crysis and I'm wondering if getting a sound card is a worthy investment. I do listen to music but usually at 192kbps; not 320kbps. What I'm most concerned about is the performance in games. If it helps offload the calculation done by the CPU for sound I'd rather have that than quality.

My speakers are Z-5300 and my onboard sound is Realtek ALC888 HD Audio.

Doesn't sound like you need a sound card. I've got the same onboard audio that you do and I don't get any popping in Crysis. You probably just need to upgrade your driver.

Having a decent sound card is nice if you're, say, making tracks in Reason, or you watch a lot of movies or HD-DVD or Bluray on your PC. But if you're just listening to 192kbps audio and playing games then it's really not worth it. Just upgrade your drivers.

[Stillhouse]

Keep in mind this was like 5 years ago...

I went from onboard sound to an Audigy 2 ZS and even the music in RuneScape sounded better. :)

This seems like a good time to ask it, would I notice any difference with a 2.1 setup by going from my Audigy 2 ZS to say, that X-Fi ExtremeMusic? I have no desire to do surround sound as it is just too much hassle for me.

Most people have noticed a nice difference when upgrading from Audigy to X-Fi, myself included. Good headphones or speakers(stereo or surround) will make the difference even more apparent.

[Jeepson33s]

does it still use cpu for the sound processing?

[Stillhouse]

No, the XtremeMusic is fully hardware accelerated. The only X-Fi that still uses software acceleration(CPU processing) is the XtremeAudio.