Sound card

[MaSonZ]

I keep hearing all this greatness about sound cards that plug into the PCI Express slots (whether it be the Express or the X1). I have a few questions regarding them. First, and obviously, do they give you any benefit other then taking little load of your CPU? If so, is it noticable? Second, when I get a job (hoping to start getting paid in 3.5-4 months....), what should I look for, or any suggestions that run well with Win7? thirdly, do the channels matter? I got some speakers from my tech teacher, think theyre only surround sound 2.1 or whatever it is, but if I get a card with 7.1 would that be an issue?

 

[Wiley]

I wouldn't expect to notice much difference in performance unless your system is struggling already unless you're using a USB headset.  The difference might be noticable going from that to a sound card, but I still believe it would likely be minor.

Channels only matter as far as what types of setup they will support.  You can go down with your number of speakers, but you can't go up.  So if your card will do 7.1, you can set it up as 5.1, but you can't set up a 5.1 card to do 7.1.

5.1 means you've got 5 speakers, plus 1 subwoofer.  The channels are center, front left, front right, rear left, rear right, sub.  A 7.1 setup has all of those, plus an additional set of speakers straight to the left and straight to the right of the center.

edit:  In my opinion, if your PC already has onboard 5.1 or 7.1, it's not worth the cost of an additional card.  YMMV of course.

Wiley.

[Noir]

technically in windows 7 I don't understand how a better sound card can improve the performance, I am under the impression that win7 handles all sounds at a software level 

[Krusty]

Vista/7 really screwed up the sound libraries from what I understand. Changed it out of paranoia (or out of DRM paranoia I should say?) so the OS handled it instead of the program directly. --- or some such. I don't recall the exact details.

That said, a sound card used to be a good thing to have. Now? It depends.

1) What CPU are you running?
2) What motherboard do you have?


Answer those and I'd hazard a response saying "well you might benefit" or "Just stick with the onboard, your system's not going to see much benefit" but without knowing a little more it's hard to say.

On any semi-recent setup (assuming as much since you are running Win7) the answer will mostly be you don't need one. In this day and age CPUs have more surplus power and onboard audio chips are more reliable. That didn't used to be the case, but it is for now.

[guncrasher]

I think you want to know if it sounds better than built it sound.  it does, way better.  i have an msi mobo with an amazing sound and my video card still has better sound.  specially the booms.  but you need to have a good set of speakers or a good headset to really take advantage of it.

if you only have the 2 speakers that came with the computer or monitor then you wont really notice a difference.  but if you buy a $100 5.1 speaker set then you will hear the difference.

so you gonna need both if you dont have them a sound card and 5.1 speaker set.

I have an old card that may still work.  I had some issues with hissing with 5.1 sound in my old mobo but the stereo part sounded good.  I think I tried it with my current and it worked.  but I cant remember.  it's been sitting in my closet in the bag for about 2 years.  you can have it for shipping if you want pm me.  it's this one. make sure you have an available slot.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102017

semp

[MaSonZ]

Vista/7 really screwed up the sound libraries from what I understand. Changed it out of paranoia (or out of DRM paranoia I should say?) so the OS handled it instead of the program directly. --- or some such. I don't recall the exact details.

That said, a sound card used to be a good thing to have. Now? It depends.

1) What CPU are you running?
2) What motherboard do you have?


Answer those and I'd hazard a response saying "well you might benefit" or "Just stick with the onboard, your system's not going to see much benefit" but without knowing a little more it's hard to say.

On any semi-recent setup (assuming as much since you are running Win7) the answer will mostly be you don't need one. In this day and age CPUs have more surplus power and onboard audio chips are more reliable. That didn't used to be the case, but it is for now.

i7-970, Gigabyte G1.Guerilla board. 2.1 system, left, right and sub.

I think you want to know if it sounds better than built it sound.  it does, way better.  i have an msi mobo with an amazing sound and my video card still has better sound.  specially the booms.  but you need to have a good set of speakers or a good headset to really take advantage of it.

if you only have the 2 speakers that came with the computer or monitor then you wont really notice a difference.  but if you buy a $100 5.1 speaker set then you will hear the difference.

so you gonna need both if you dont have them a sound card and 5.1 speaker set.

I have an old card that may still work.  I had some issues with hissing with 5.1 sound in my old mobo but the stereo part sounded good.  I think I tried it with my current and it worked.  but I cant remember.  it's been sitting in my closet in the bag for about 2 years.  you can have it for shipping if you want pm me.  it's this one. make sure you have an available slot.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102017

semp

I MAY be able to do this, depending on shipping, assuming it still works. I don't "need" one, and my on board sound is pretty nice to begin with, but the little bit of CPU I'll free up (not that I need to based on one reply here), will make me feel better just because.  I do have a spare PCI slot, so that wouldnt be an issue.

[Krusty]

i7-970, Gigabyte G1.Guerilla board. 2.1 system, left, right and sub.

You won't see any improvement on CPU strain, as your CPU is way more powerful than the lower limit that might see benefit from a separate card. Further, with a 2.1 system there's not much need for a dedicated card. You don't have to compute surround or any of that good stuff.

On top of that, your onboard audio is:

"GIGABYTE G1.Guerrilla features X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity® and EAX® Advanced HD™ 5.0 technologies" (from their webpage)

That's way better than most add-in cards, and better than 99% of all onboard chips, to boot.


Keep what you got. If it sounds bad, get better speakers. There's a wide variety of difference in 2.1 systems. Some suck, some don't. You've got the power and the chipset, though. You should be set.

[MaSonZ]

You won't see any improvement on CPU strain, as your CPU is way more powerful than the lower limit that might see benefit from a separate card. Further, with a 2.1 system there's not much need for a dedicated card. You don't have to compute surround or any of that good stuff.

On top of that, your onboard audio is:

"GIGABYTE G1.Guerrilla features X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity® and EAX® Advanced HD™ 5.0 technologies" (from their webpage)

That's way better than most add-in cards, and better than 99% of all onboard chips, to boot.


Keep what you got. If it sounds bad, get better speakers. There's a wide variety of difference in 2.1 systems. Some suck, some don't. You've got the power and the chipset, though. You should be set.

exactlt what I was thinking too. Figured I would ask around before I threw it into my plans for the future.

[Krusty]

Truth of the matter is, the xi-fi is the modern post-win7 standard and it's not cheap. You could plop down $60 USD for a card that does exactly what you do right now.

[Chalenge]

Or you could spend $150-200 and get the top end X-Fi and the even with stereo headphones your ability to locate things like vehicles in 3D would be superior.

[MaSonZ]

Or you could spend $150-200 and get the top end X-Fi and the even with stereo headphones your ability to locate things like vehicles in 3D would be superior.

I had Turtle Beeches for a while, then they broke. That was on my low end board and I creamed my pants when I used them. The low end board I speak of was an MSI 880GM-E41.

[Chalenge]

Ewww... then please dont get a X-Fi. 

[MaSonZ]

HAD Beeches, HAD the 880GM-E41

[Bizman]

Both the onboard and PCI/PCI-Express cards suffer more or less from electromagnetic interference inside the case. There are examples of both having some kind of a shield which I've read actually seem to help a lot. The cleanest sound would still be achieved with an external sound card (USB, maybe other ports too). That doesn't affect gameplay, it mostly is an issue for those listening high bandwidth classy music with golden ears.

[Bino]

I keep hearing all this greatness about sound cards that plug into the PCI Express slots (whether it be the Express or the X1). I have a few questions regarding them. First, and obviously, do they give you any benefit other then taking little load of your CPU? If so, is it noticable? Second, when I get a job (hoping to start getting paid in 3.5-4 months....), what should I look for, or any suggestions that run well with Win7? thirdly, do the channels matter? I got some speakers from my tech teacher, think theyre only surround sound 2.1 or whatever it is, but if I get a card with 7.1 would that be an issue?

 

IMHO, you have to first distinguish between "adequate" and "optimal."  And then you need to clarify your own personal definition of "optimal."  I think we could probably all agree that *some* PCI-E sound cards will relieve *some* CPU load.  But although I have searched, I have not been able to find any measurements of how much CPU load, nor even whether that CPU off-load is actually noticeable by a human person.  With a fast enough CPU and overall system, a mobo sound chip might very well be adequate.  <shrug>  Personally, I wanted to gain every FPS increase that my budget would allow, so I have a PCI-E "Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro" card.  (Egad, what an embarrassingly silly name that is!) At the time I bought it almost two years ago, it was the least expensive true X-Fi card that I could find.  Also, there have been several posts in here (some from Skuzzy) about the negative aspects of using a USB sound subsystem.

But regarding sound quality, as has been pointed out before, a PC is not a good basis on which to construct a true high-fidelity sound system.