Will a first gen Audigy sound better than my onboard realtek ac97 sound?

[JonnyBlaze]

I'm using vista but I dont care about EAX or anything like that. Will it give me better output from mp3 and flac files?


I have a abit ic7-g motherboard.

 

[RiDE]

I didn't do an actual sound test but i was swapping between my onboard and audigy because I was trying to see what the problem with my A8V was. The Audigy didnt sound much better but it had more depth and less hiss. This was from GMX-A speakers. Creative just released their Vista Audigy drivers so I stuck with it.

 

[HannibalX]

Yes.

 

[LouPoir]

yes

 

[Texun]

I've found that OB is usually alright for good, basic sound, but I recently swapped my trusty Abit for an ASUS and the OB sound was very disappointing. I picked up a cheap Audigy SE and found it was MUCH better than the ASUS on-board audio.

 

[jimrev]

I just built a new system with on-board Realtek ALC888 8-channel sound (Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 m-board) and I uninstalled it and put in my 4-year old SB Audigy card. The sound is most definitely, noticeably better with the SB card.

 

[DNyholm]

Kinda off topic, but i was looking at picking up a cheap sound card for my new rig and I was kind of dissapointed in the offerings. I might be reading them wrong, but most only have one output and one input. I have front mounted inputs that I put my headset on for gaming and the rear outputs control the desktop speakers/sub. Will these cheap(er) solutions have outputs for front mounted audio inputs (mic included)??

 

[Paddington]

Check out my thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1999177&enterthread=y

I was fed up with my computer's on board AC '97 audio (distortions, inconsistencies, hiss, crackles, etc. all evident on even mediocre 2.1 speakers), that I switched it out for an old SB Live that hadn't even been used in 4 years. It was a dramatic improvement.