So I got it installed and setup yesterday and went up some. The first thing that I noticed is how much better and more real the game sounds, even the vox is clearer and easier to hear. The second thing that I noticed is that when I get real low near a city and in a fight, my framerate doesn't drop into the 30s anymore. I couldn't get my framerate to drop last night, it was great!
I hadn't disabled the onboard card when I was using the usb card also, so I guess it was robbing my computer of a good bit of resources. Now, however, with a good sound card installed and the onboard card disabled and no usb card, I'm rocking and rolling.
Now if I could only fly worth a crap...