Just got a new Audigy 4 and creative 5.1 speakers and oh my god, what a difference, for any one still using onboard sound buy a new soundcard it makes your games sound new. Dont think i will ever be going back to onboard.

aye i got audigy 4 a few weeks back and i had a sounblaster 5.1 live before that, it fookin rocks!

although you need xi-fi xtreme/fatil1ty version to get super high qulaity sounds in bf2

This is news? Any decent player knows that 5.1 speakers are essential for gaming. Not for sound quality, but for knowing exactly where a sound is coming from. If I know the map well, most of the time I can pinpoint exactly where a shot came from just based on hearing it. But you don't really need an amazing sound card to do it, any half-decent one will work. Spending tons of money on a sound card is kind of silly, considering how low-quality most games are. You just won't be able to hear a difference.

Indeed, I have a Soundblaster 24-bit thing coupled with the Creative 5.1's (although only 2.1's at the moment, can't put the others up in me room without cables swinging everywhere) and its cracking. Anything more than a basic 5.1-supporting (or 7.1 if you are a flash git) is a waste of time unless you produce music with your PC or something like that.

i have 7.1 speakers yes kick ass speakers

I know its not news. Havent owned a soundcard since the good old 486 days before onboard sound. Gotten by with the on board. Had a bit of cash lying around so bought some speakers and the card and simply couldnt believe the difference.

I think today with motherboards coming with onboard everything, you just cant get any better than having standalone hardware to do the job. But we all know that

Soundcards are pretty important for the elite among us. For instance in Counter-Strike a good quality soundcard can be the difference between hearing 4 enemies coming towards you and hearing the actual 8 enemies coming towards you. The better the sound card the more sounds it can process at the same time.

Perhaps not too important for the casual gamer but I know many pro-gamers (i.e. winning enough to live off each year in major national and European competitions) who swear by their sound card.

Aye, theres that flash Fata1ity guy whose brought out his own line of branded hardware, and the soundcard for that range is pretty tricked out. Personally I'm not that intense in my gaming, but nor do I have the need to be. I play for relaxation and enjoyment, and its not worth shelling out a month's wages (more like three if you have my job ) for the latest soundcard, graphics card, or whatever.

Has anyone tried that website which creates realistic 3D sound in your headphones? I can't remember the name of it but I'm sure a Google search would find it. If the technology for that could be moved into gaming then I think soundcards would become more important to the casual gamer.

That's the purpose of EAX, A3D, etc... Many games still handle the majority of this sort of thing in software though, due to the diversity of sound cards on the market and that most games use highly compressed audio in formats that are non native to the sound hardware (unless you spend that month's wages anyway). Games often support a couple of the hardware engine implementations, and 3rd party card providers will often support a slightly older revision of the mainstream audio acceleration and 3d effect capabilities at a much lower price.

The Korean (HDA) made card I've got driving my multimedia machine is a perfect example in that it supports 7.1 and will encode or merely transport Dolby Digital Live to my tuner. It supports several of the mainstream 3D systems (accelerated directsound, eax 2, A3d 1, Sensaura, and others) including it's own, and has replaceable opamps if I really want to got crazy about sound quality. This card set me back $90 and I don't see any reason I'll have to upgrade from it for a very long time.

I just recently bought an SB X-Fi sound card, and, HO-LEE FUDGE, it's WAY better than my cheap-ass Realtek AC'97 on-board audio. Even tho I use 2.1 stereo speakers (w/ mini subwoofer), I actually believe I have 5.1 surround sound . Audigy 4 is kinda old, but it's STILL better than on-board audio anyday .


I believe Creative developed that technology. It's called CMSS-3D, if I can recall, and X-Fi sound cards support that feature. Not sure about other SB lines, but X-Fi for sure uses CMSS-3D.

Anyway, that's the major difference between vid cards and sound cards, is that you don't have to upgrade your sound card as often you do vid cards (maybe once every 5 to 7 yrs, whereas vid cards are released approx every 2 to 4 yrs). Right now, I'm content with my setup, an ATi X1600 Pro 512MB GPU, and SB X-FI XtremeMusic.