How good is onboard HD audio compared to a decidated sound card?

431 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Prideless, Dec 4, 2009

Prideless

Discussion Starter · Dec 3, 2009

I have an Audigy 2 4 years old, was great on my old rig, I am having trouble getting it working on my new rig, the volume seems so low... yes all volume is at 100%. the knob has to be halfway to hear sounds at earshot.

I plugged in to the onboard its working pretty good.

I want to know if there is a difference between an oboard HD 24bit sound card and a dedicated HD 24bit sound card like Creative's cards.

Thanks In Advance.

I will be using 2.1 speakers.

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meticadpa

· #2 · Dec 3, 2009

There is a huge difference from onboard sound to a dedicated soundcard. At least, there was for me.

I'd probably recommend an ASUS Xonar DX or D1 over most Creative cards, however.

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sccr64472

· #3 · Dec 3, 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prideless

It's not just the sound quality that improves, but also the amount of sounds that you hear. Your onboard audio isn't capable of decoding EAX 4.0 and above. As an example, EAX 5.0 can have 128 simultaneous sounds. Lastly, I find system performance slightly improved during massive events. As an example, I usually play with 4 people on Company Of Heroes and I've found that when someone lands a German Nuclear bomb, there is a millisecond pause due to the massive sounds, visual effects, and modifications to all surrounding pieces that puts a huge load on the cpu for an instant. Even though the sound calculations aren't very large, it's just the straw that broke the camel's back and you'll witness a very quick pause. I've noticed with dedicated sound cards, we no longer have that pause. Obviously, this was a specific example at particular settings, so it will vary for others, but you get my point.

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egerds

· #4 · Dec 3, 2009

I went from onboard 680i lt, to audigy 2, to x-fi extreme music, and its night and day with my 6.1 logitec speakers, and 4 speaker 1k watt (using inline splitter). and your Gigabyte has nf4 chip, not sure the quality of your 2.1 but with decent speakers / headphones would notice quite a difference for being able to have 128 simultaneous sounds that can have 4 effects applied to each really lightens the load off the cpu to the soundacrd. (stoped using the the audigy 2 on basement 1 rig b/c microphone didn't work correctly and i use skype for main ph line)

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psi_guy

· #5 · Dec 3, 2009

i went from on-board audio to a creative sound works x-fi xtrememusic and it is a night and day difference. you will be really happy with a dedicated sound card.

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Prideless

Discussion Starter · #6 · Dec 4, 2009

wow had no idea that it would be such a huge difference despite them both being 24bit.

ok thanks, guess ill try to get my sound card working, or go pick up another one then.

i have logitech x-230.

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