What happened to Sound Blaster?

[P A U L]

Are sound cards still a thing? Does anyone use it anymore?

 

[Woomack]

Integrated audio is so good that in most cases, you don't need anything else. There are still external cards from Creative or other brands but I wouldn't waste money unless you need something specific like additional ports or other features.

 

[EarthDog]

Exactly.

Unless you're an audiophile with pricey cans or speakers/amps, onboard audio is plenty good enough...especially the higher-end codecs and boards with integrated amps and dacs. They aren't the greatest, but you'll need to be a discerning listener with some decent hardware to really extract the difference.

 

[freeagent]

I just use my GPU. Set the amount, size, bitrate.. good to go.

 

[Culbrelai]

There are still sound cards, I think Creative still makes some. EVGA has one too (for $150 I believe oof) but yeah, like the others said unless your speakers are worth big bucks you won't be able to tell the difference between a sound card and integrated sound. I have a $200 motherboard and $500 speakers and they sound great tbh, even supposedly "low end" codecs still are good. You can also get a USB DAC instead of an internal sound card if you really need higher quality.