I have amateur musician friends, who use proffesional soundcards. What's the benefit? -better sound quality
- sound processing power (noise reduction, and stuff like that)
-multiple connection ports. (for using multiple microphones for example).
Multiple output ports which individual setings/equalisers. ( for enviroment sound tune) etc.
I think that the normal sound cards only offer good quality. I got a laprop with beats sound card at work, and tested it with beats headphones. They might be overpriced, but they definitely sound pretty damn awesome!