Sound card or no?

[AiponGkooja]

Gaming and listening to music and watching movies. I thought I remember reading somewhere that a good soundcard actually improves your fps in games? Wouldn't want to do it if it would make my music/movies/etc sound bad though. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Aip


PS. Not looking to spend a ton of money, just something for fairly cheap (<100?) that would be worth the improvement over my on-board sound.

 

[keeleysam]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102171

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

The Audigy line is going to do the best for increasing your gaming performance.

Other cards can be better at music though. The Audigy line should be at the top of your list if you want increased performance.

Audigy2 value is a good card for $50. The Audigy2 ZS standard is the same as the gamer except it doesn't come with the games afaik.

 

[Unkno]

IIRC, there's not much improvement in fps if your using a sound card, then again, i could be wrong

 

[AiponGkooja]

Takes some of the load off of the CPU and RAM, since it has it's own, right?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Well, the load taken off is dependent on different factors.

I mean if you're playing with a lot of video settings on high, you may be entirely GPU limited and taking load off the CPU may do nothing since it isn't your bottleneck.

If you're CPU limited though with video settings low, you could have a decent increase in performance (something like 10%?)

 

[AiponGkooja]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
The Audigy line is going to do the best for increasing your gaming performance.

Other cards can be better at music though. The Audigy line should be at the top of your list if you want increased performance.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Well, the load taken off is dependent on different factors.

I mean if you're playing with a lot of video settings on high, you may be entirely GPU limited and taking load off the CPU may do nothing since it isn't your bottleneck.

If you're CPU limited though with video settings low, you could have a decent increase in performance (something like 10%?)

As long as the music quality is better than my on-board it is worth it (overall performance increase = good).

As far as the limiting, I have a amd 64 3500+ and am about to get a 7800gtx for my system, so I would probably be CPU limited with video settings HIGH, right?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

With a nice system like that, I'd say getting an audigy2 card to increase performance a little more is a good idea. Sometimes I get worried when someone has a lower end system and instead of getting a better CPU or videocard they want an audigy to increase performance when the $100 could be better spent elsewhere.

The A2 should be better than onboard for music

 

[AiponGkooja]

Didn't mention this anywhere, but it is an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo, so the onboard sound is Realtek ALC850, 8-channel. Dunno if that matters, but I thought I'd throw it in. Right now I'm definitely leaning towards the A2 zs though.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: AiponGkooja
Didn't mention this anywhere, but it is an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo, so the onboard sound is Realtek ALC850, 8-channel. Dunno if that matters, but I thought I'd throw it in. Right now I'm definitely leaning towards the A2 zs though.

It's in your topic summary

 

[AiponGkooja]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: AiponGkooja
Didn't mention this anywhere, but it is an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo, so the onboard sound is Realtek ALC850, 8-channel. Dunno if that matters, but I thought I'd throw it in. Right now I'm definitely leaning towards the A2 zs though.

It's in your topic summary

So it is...whoops...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: AiponGkooja

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: AiponGkooja
Didn't mention this anywhere, but it is an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo, so the onboard sound is Realtek ALC850, 8-channel. Dunno if that matters, but I thought I'd throw it in. Right now I'm definitely leaning towards the A2 zs though.

It's in your topic summary

So it is...whoops...

Ban!

 

[thenanyu]

ever thought of chaintech AV-710?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: thenanyu
ever thought of chaintech AV-710?

Great for 2 channel and digital out, but not so hot for gaming in analog, and it wont help you with CPU load as much as the Audigy cards.

I had it for a while and liked it a lot hooked up to my HK AVR-325 via optical.