Is it ALWAYS Best to use Add-in PCI Sound Card?

Dyre Straits · April 29th, 2008, 06:14 AM

I asked this question in another thread and will re-direct comments to here.

My motherboard has onboard RealTek Audio. One thing I do like much about RealTek is that they do keep the drivers updated. (V. 1.91 is out at this writing and they also include updated drivers for the ATI HDMI Audio.)

But, as it relates to overall PC performance, is it ALWAYS better to use an add-in card? I have a Diamond Technologies eXtreme 7.1 (XS71) card sitting here in front of me that I've had for awhile. I've used it in previous systems but didn't detect any significant difference in overall PC PERFORMANCE. (As I'm nearly completely deaf, the QUALITY of the sound isn't particularly of importance to me....only the overall PERFORMANCE.)

So, what's your opinion and the reason for voting for it?

Thanks for participating!

Kirill · April 29th, 2008, 06:41 AM

Imho,I prefer to use creative sound card instead of realtek one..
So....I'm here with good,old sblive value

Dyre Straits · April 29th, 2008, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirill

Imho,I prefer to use creative sound card instead of realtek one..
So....I'm here with good,old sblive value

I actually do have an SB Live! 16 I've had since.....good grief....maybe 8 years or so? I quit Creative a few years ago when the drivers for it wouldn't work when I updated to XP. It might work now under XP...but I've moved on to Vista.

lumo · April 29th, 2008, 08:13 AM

i have a x-fi, cause my onboardsound gave me some errors and did not support microphone boost, that way i was always too low on volume in ventrilo or teamspeak.
mate of mine has the same problem and solved it with my VERRY old soundblaster card, think its 8 years old?? but still gives better results than onboard sound (also cracky and microphone lacks the boost feature!)

so in our both cases its better to use a soundcard...
not sure about other hardware as i am no smartass

DOOMJESUS · April 29th, 2008, 01:41 PM

it seems that, eventually there is always some issue with on-board sound even with a good one and they always use a little more resources than a pci card.

also the only soundcard that never seems to cause problems is the sb-live and sb-live value....

IModAmd · April 29th, 2008, 03:00 PM

As i noticed with the time (1 year) with my X-FI XtremeMusic it's yes in an certain sence it's much better in terms sound quality but if you put all the options at the maximum like the crystaliser etc... you will have an little performance drop on games... (who is totaly normal i think).

IModIntel · April 29th, 2008, 06:45 PM

For quality, it will always be better. One of the factors is that onboard audio gets alot of interference form surrounding components on the motherboard. As for performance, if you have a really good CPU, you are not likely to notice even a small difference unless you are an FPS freak *lets not point fingers*

gen.Rage1991hrv · April 29th, 2008, 07:14 PM

sometimes is better to have realtek sound onboard than a additional sound card thats occupied pci/pcie port for nothing
creativ cards are good but drivers sux so there is no point of buying it
in most cases realtek HD sound is better than overpriced cards because more and more realtek chips are becoming stand alone (it dose not stress cpu like before)
so my vote goes for NO

Unixlord · April 29th, 2008, 10:52 PM

If you have a half decent cpu and aren't bothered with quality then adding in a sound card is not worth it.

IModIntel · April 29th, 2008, 11:15 PM

When I had my P5B motherboard, i used the onboard for a while, which was a SoundMax. The bass sucked sooo bad on it, it was worst than my 20 inch prima tv's sound. Spending 35$ at the time for an Audigy SE was really worth it. This is the only creative product that ive had no problems with the drivers.