A decent sound card for gaming..

blurblock

blurblock

New Member
well after getting those processor and graphic card etc .. time for a sound card .... if im not wrong im on a 6channel onboard sound card .. just wanna ask is it suitable for gaming' ? or i gonna change ?
 
Your onboard soundcard is just fine... But, if you want something else, most any of the creative labs cards are pretty good.

Do you plan on using anything beyond 2.1 channels? Because it really won't make THAT much of a difference. You might gain a couple FPS and the quality might be a bit more clear...
 
I will agree they are great cards. I had one and the quality was really nice. I'm not sure how much performace increase I got, but they sound really nice and clear.

If you get such a card, get a copy of Media Player Classic, and enable 24bit playback in the settings. It really helps!
 
it will probably be a slight upgrade, if you're looking for a big difference (only worthwhile if you have really nice speakers) look into the audigy 2 zs's or the x-fi's
 
blurblock said:
what kind of speaker do you consider it as really nice speaker ?
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probably $150 plus, but that's not necessarily the best way of measuring it, what I'm saying is unless you have some really high fidelity speakers, the speakers will hold you back and not the sound card, like I have creative megaworks 6.1 with an Audigy 2 ZS, and the card is probably more than I need
 
suprasteve said:
it will probably be a slight upgrade, if you're looking for a big difference (only worthwhile if you have really nice speakers) look into the audigy 2 zs's or the x-fi's
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i would think that any upgrade from integrated to 24-bit audio is truly a good buy and what are u sayin like i have logitech z-5300 u think i am underdoin the card??
 
I would say that if you have z-5300's with a soundblaster live, you'd see an improvement with a better card, probably won't be really obvious, but those speakers are pretty nice and would be a good match for a good sound card. Like my megaworks is a pretty good setup if I say so myself, but I bet your logitech's have higher fidelity sound, the megaworks is just to be loud in some respects. But yes, any dedicated card is probably better than integrated, but how much you want to spend on that dedicated card depends on the speakers you will be using them with
 
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Hi, im mainly a gamer, and if thats what you intend to do i would sugest paying the extra loly for a creative XFI, i like to play all my games with EAX and @ maximum quality, however unfortunately my sound blaster live just cant handle it and my FPS drops quite a bit so i end up having to turn EAX of and sound quality on medium. Some may think this is fine but if you have just upgraded everything why let something like that hold you back! Ive tried my freind's entry level XFI (the one without onboard memory) and it works a treat.
Hope this helps, at the end of the day its up to you, if you want reasonable performance and great value go for the live! otherwise pay the extra and have the best that wont hold you back!
 
i would look into the creative cards, i've had a audigy 2 value, and now my audigy 2zs. Between the two cards the only difference i can tell is $50. However, im not sure about the soundblaster live 24-bit. But im sure that if your not looking for 6.1+, it'll do you just fine.
 
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