Sound Card Upgrade

[DipStickTony]

I searched around and didnt find a fairly close question such as this. I know that older onboard audio tended to be low quality, but ive heard that the CMI8738 is a good chip, its actually what the hercules Muse uses.

Heres what Im conteplating:

Im currently using the onboard sound on my kt-400 board it uses the CMI8738 chip and has a nice little spdif card with all the nice features such as optical out, component out...etc. My speakers are the z560's

I was wondering does this onboard sound card slow my computer down while playing games? The mobo manual says that this is a hardware based sound chip.

I like to play 3d games all setting maxxed including sound with eax.

Would I see any benefit from upgrading to say a santa cruz, or an audigy ? Would i get better performance or better sound quality out of any of these cards ?

I do no audio recording, midi stuff, just games and listening to music

 

[skahtul]

Don't change anything. It is hardware driven so that means that it uses it's own audio processor and none of your other resources. You might hear a differance with a new sound card, but it is not worth the cost i think.

 

[nut581]

Don't change anything. It is hardware driven so that means that it uses it's own audio processor and none of your other resources. You might hear a differance with a new sound card, but it is not worth the cost i think.

yup yup ... unless there's a problem w/ your gameplay, keep your $$ .. good to know that I'm not the only one who loves CMI8738 chip .. and I use it w/ logitech Z540 .. similar setup, eh?

 

[Akumu X]

hmm I've never listened to 5.1s (or 4.1s) on an onboard sound system, to me it just seemed natural to get the new Audigy...oh well. I don't regret. You wouldn't either, but what you do with your money is your own business.

does the CMI chip run EAX Advance HD? I'm curious.

 

[skahtul]

First off are those z560's digital speakers, if they are and they use the SPDIF out, a new will sound card can make "some" differance but if you will "actually" be able to here it is debatable.

Nut581, I do have that sound chip on one of my boards, and on my other I have an older X-gamer(pre-audigy). The audigy runs my creative 2.1 digital speakers, buy my CMI chips runs my 5.1 500watt KEnwood Receiver with a 450watt 12" kenwood sub, so comparing the sound is hard. Also, Akumu X, i do like the EAX stuff. When I installed the EAX enhancements for Jedi Knight Outcast I could REALLY tell a differance. I am sure no other sound card can run EAX since it is probably proprietary.