http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102042

The above link is to a sound card I purchased when on special for a day a week or so ago for $99.

I've asked here about the idea that sound cards do or do not help with CPU load, and was satisfied with the answer I got that basically with today's versions of Windows, sound cards don't help performance but can give better quality sound.

However, this particular sound card makes a specific point of saying it does help performance. So I'm wondering (guessing this is relatively new), has anyone experienced this card yet? Do it's claims about performance sound credible given today's versions of Windows?

I am in the process of getting my old "new" computer back. It was badly damaged enroute to CA for warranty work, then the conflict started as to who was responsible, and, well, even though it was shipped last DEC 9th, I have received no compensation, new computer, nothing. So I built one to replace that old "new" one, and I'm just thinking of replacing parts one at a time when I can afford it. (OT-I've got an available camera. It's not very good quality, but I do PROMISE to post some pics of the rig GOG members largely built lol I had so much help)

Saw the deal on the sound card, thought I'd give that a try in there. But reading more about it has me so excited about it that I'm thinking of putting it in my new "new" rig lol. The one I built. What would folks think??

If I do, do I need to disable onboard sound somehow? In BIOS maybe or in Windows somewhere or both??

What would you folks think about the quality of sound of this 5.1 card versus the 7.1 HD built in sound on my motherboard??? I only have 5.1 speakers, so I was never utilizing the 7.1 capability anyway. (Thats another issue, finding 7.1 speakers for a computer is hard. Plenty of SYSTEMS, including a reciever, have 7.1 speakers. But this 5.1 Altec Lansing THX certified set I have now is just speakers, they plug directly into the sound card. No receiver. That seems to be non-existant in the 7.1 domain)

Dammit, too long again. Oh well,, sorry. And thanks again for any and all input. And I will have pics up tonight by 10:00 PM (USA EST) of the rig you folks helped me build. Won't get a chance to do it until then sorry.

ADDED IN EDIT: If you watch the newegg vidoe, within the first minute he uses the term "offloads" the CPU workload onto the soundcard. The box it came with uses that same term, which to me reads like it would improve performance since it would be doing calculations the CPU normally would have and now won't. But, I see the term "offload" doesn't exist on the page there where it is advertised. Wondering if that's because it is indeed not exactly what's happening and they changed the language to say something like this chipset will "accelerate" those calculations, rather than "offloading" them.

I preffer the Asus SoundCard. I don't like Creative...

For example, the Asus Xonar DG 5.1 is very good and very cheap.

Performance-wise, I wouldn't expect soundcards to have much of any effect on today's processors. Whatever resources audio may take up is so minimal it's completely negligible.

I also doubt a dedicated soundcard will do much for you unless you have a high-end speaker system hooked up to your PC. While in the 90's soundcards were necessary to avoid bleeps and bloops or distorted PC speaker effects, today they're really unnecessary unless you consider yourself an audiophile.

My hearing isn't all that great/sensitive so I'm quite happy that audio can be completely handled by a PC's motherboard these days.

In the old days sound might have taken up a more noticeable chunk of your CPU percentage, but that was ages ago. It's barely worth mentioning the amount of CPU used these days, especially with multi-core processors.

I have an old Sound Blaster Audigy 2, built-in sound on my motherboard, and built-in sound on my graphics card. (The graphics card sends this with the video data through HDMI.) The SB Audigy and my graphics card sound the same and I've noticed no perceivable difference in performance. I agree with "mistermumbles", and say that it's more useful to have a sound card if you have a high-end speaker system, with surround sound, etc...

Since Windows Vista, DirectAudio's hardware acceleration was discontinued, and all such processing runs on the CPU. However, if your game or application uses OpenAL or any other audio API that is not DirectX, the possibility to offload the CPU still exists.

"Hardware acceleration" and "offloading" is the same thing really (in this case), both mean that the dedicated hardware (sound card) is doing the work rather than the CPU. But, as others are pointing out, it's unlikely you'll see much of a performance gain using a dedicated audio card today (depending on your usage), as the load from audio processing is barely noticeable on today's CPUs. What you will gain (and not likely from one of those "gamer"/"home theatre" cards) is improved (lowered) latency for professional audio recording, and (perhaps from gamer cards too) slightly improved audio quality (but it's unlikely you'll notice).

Thanks for all the responses. Very, very much appreciated.

FWIW, I DO have an amazing, Altec Lansing, THX certified, 5.1 surround sound speaker system that plugs right into the motherboard (or into the sound card if I install it, but thinking now I'm not and just put it in the other one as I had originally planned).

I can't complain about the sound at all, as it's awesome IMO. The only reason I fret over performance is because I only purchase a new computer once every 10-15 years. The last new one I got was 2002 (not counting the one that got trashed by UPS).

So, it's absolutely inevitable that at some point I'm going to run up against new games that struggle running on this system. If I've future proofed it as well I believe I did, that shouldn't happend until at least 2017 or 2018, but happen it will.

And it will be at THAT point that every little bit of performance I can get might make the difference between being able to play a game in 2018 that I might not be able to play in 2018 with my current rig.

Anyway, just wanted to explain my "fetish" over performance. I did a decent job of future proofing that DELL I bought in 2002, and it didn't run up against games it couldn't handle until about 2008 or 2009. So, contrary to what many say, you CAN future proof a system SOMEWHAT, you just can't completely futureproof it.

And even if you do use a dedicated audio card, there's still the matter whether the games even try to use it (by using OpenAL) or if they don't bother and use DirectAudio because the developer feels that using DirectX for as much as possible is an easy way out since they have to do that for the Xbox 360 anyway (even if they likely use OpenAL for any other platforms they might be developing for).

As mentioned, any potential performance gains should be fairly minimal on today's hardware. Even rather complex audio processing consumes very little CPU, and the really expensive computations (such as calculating sound dampening, reverbation etc based on actual 3D geometry) is something that can't be offloaded to the card anyway. It never hurts to have a card have the ability to do certain processing in hardware though. The question then becomes exactly what those capabilities are, to know if they will ever be utilized for whatever activities one has in mind.

I read a few things about that card when I was hardware hunting a while back but I never changed my current because I didn't think it would make a difference. Now I don't know what how good my speakers are, I think they are a bit old, but probably entry-level on high-end stuff. My current sound card is SoundBlaster X-fi XtremeGamer. I don't like Creative either but I haven't had a single sound card related issue since moving to Windows 7.

What's the pros on Asus Xonar cards?

Sooooo, here are the promised pics....

Well, I just completely give up on photos.

These look AWFUL. Brand new camera. I guess it must be me.

I'm going to put them here, but a word of warning, it's probably a waste of your time to click on them. I have no idea how to take quality pictures. This brand new camera insists it's HD quality. This is the worst HD quality I've ever seen.

Probably a matter of me not knowing what I'm doing, which is the direct result of another purchased piece of equipment with NO EFFING MANUAL.

And I attached FOUR pics, and I'm only seeing one show up.

Anyone have a clue as to why that is?? Or is everyone else seeing all 4
??


Trying again.
And again.
And again.

lol, I guess you have to upload one at a time, click on post my message, then click on add new post and do one pic at a time.

Heh, just noticed the camera's got the wrong date, as today is the fifth, not the fourth. And I have no clue how to change that either.

Depends what you're doing, processors are powerful, but they're not that powerful. I still have games like Warzone 2100 causing the sound to stutter near the end of large battles because the sound isn't being processed fast enough to keep the buffer filled.

But, I suspect that for most applications it isn't going to make much of a difference.

Wow, at just under $30 that's a great deal. I never tried that soundcard, as i'm a Creative loyalist zombie, go figure.

Well... the Asus soundcards have more fidelity for less price. I have a Xonar DG with speakers 5.1.

So, the principal difference with the Creative Soundcards is the fidelity. The Asus SoundCards is designed for Audiophiles, this soundcards are good in Games too, but aren't designed for that.

If you want a better SoundCard, I recommend (but more expensive) the Asus Xonar ESSENCE STX.

Meh I just stick with my realtek hd audio and Tweak my speakers to sharpen the overall sound I'm an Audio freak I can get realtek hd sound cards sounding Hawt and Sharp.
ONLY 5.1 Duuuuuude 21:1 is the ONLY WAY 2 GO 3x7:1 one for your rooms ceiling one for the middle height and one for the floor all 7:1 setup with Four hyper sonic surround sound dynamix edition HAWT

I think in today era, onboard HD sound card is enough for casual listener. It's different than 10 years ago when onboard sound card always stuck at lower sample rate, bit depth and glitchy. Plus lots of game back then using EAX technology that really can make massive difference.

But today don't waste your money on gaming sound card because there's very little benefit, unlike 10 years ago. Unless you want to venture into home recording world or serious audiophile that using professional audio gear, then aim at least professional soundcard / audio interface. Because these sound card provide low latency for recording purpose and you need extra 'juice' to drive your gear. Plus, most of them came with beginner edition of recording software. So you don't need to spend ++1k for Pro Tools.

If you're really serious, forget about PCI card, get external sound card such as USB or Firewire for low interference.