Realtek HD onboard upgrade

kennebell347

kennebell347

Member
I just bought the Tritton AX Pro headset for my pc and I am blown away by the sound quality. I had to do some tweaking but it sounds great. I want to upgrade my onboard sound card to get as much quality out of the games I can.

What sound cards do you guys recommend for gaming use? I want the best possible but not some thousand dollar sound card. Id be willing to spend 150-200 bucks if the difference in sound quality is good.
 
I'd agree with mr glue about creative - you're pretty safe with their gear.

You're not really gonna hear any differences though - a sound card is a sound card is a sound card - they're all much the same. However, if you're gaming it's a good idea - onboard sound is just another drain on your resources.
 
I was looking at those fatal1ty cards... but I am also looking at the Razer Barracuda. I have a a Razer Lycosa mirror keyboard and Lachesis mouse and I love both. So I am comfortable with their stuff.

Do you guys have any experience with the fatal1ty cards or Barracuda?
 
kennebell347 said:
I was looking at those fatal1ty cards... but I am also looking at the Razer Barracuda. I have a a Razer Lycosa mirror keyboard and Lachesis mouse and I love both. So I am comfortable with their stuff.

Do you guys have any experience with the fatal1ty cards or Barracuda?
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No direct experience, but don't waste your money. There is zero point in spending $150, or even $100 on a sound card, because there are no gains to be had. Buy a cheap creative card, 100% the correct choice.
 
PunterCam said:
No direct experience, but don't waste your money. There is zero point in spending $150, or even $100 on a sound card, because there are no gains to be had. Buy a cheap creative card, 100% the correct choice.
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If there is no gain to be found then why buy a dedicate sound card at all? Now don't think I am arguing.... I just find it hard to believe there is no difference with the higher quality sound cards (fatal1ty, Xonar) vs a $30 creative card. I am thankful for everyone's input. Ill read up on the cheaper creative cards.
 
Also how would my usb tritton ax pro pc headphones work with a soundcard like the barracuda or xonar? would the headphones use the new sound card even if they are usb?
 
I have a SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio - it's much better than onboard realtek and it's cheaper than a lot of sound cards. there is a PCI and a PCI-E version of this soundcard. i have the PCI-E one so i can vouch for it. i got mine for $50 AU

USB headphones do not use your soundcard. You won't notice an improvement.
 
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kennebell347 said:
If there is no gain to be found then why buy a dedicate sound card at all? Now don't think I am arguing.... I just find it hard to believe there is no difference with the higher quality sound cards (fatal1ty, Xonar) vs a $30 creative card. I am thankful for everyone's input. Ill read up on the cheaper creative cards.
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It takes the strain off your cpu, and means you won't have any audio glitches during gaming.

The main differences people hear between sound cards, for the most part, are just different bits of software that get installed along with them, with different eq settings and what not. More money also means more features.

Honestly, that's about it. If I sit in front of a nice pair of speakers, and flip the audio from a Protools HD driver, with a £2000 interface doing to digital to analogue converting, to the onboard mac pro sound card, the difference is noticeable, but hardly drastic. Save your money. Differences in sound are so slight when compared to graphics cards for example. In many ways you don't get what you pay for.
 
I have an X-Fi extreme audio PCI - E and they are great, onboard chips are getting better but there is still good reason to buy a sound card you will notice the benifit most in gaming and movies with surround sound. :)
 
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