Would a sound card improve performance?

A

axon1988

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If you use your onboard sound to play game or watch movies, edit sound and things like that would it be wise to buy a sound card? Would it improve the performance of the computer in any way? And then disabling your onboard sound via the BIOS, would that help at all? Just curious if I should go down that path.

I have a surround sound setup so I try to play games and movies in surround sound. (If this helps)

It might also depend on what sound card you buy, let's say a Asus Xonar?
 
It will give you 0.00000001% better performance. Or something like that
 
Archer said:
It will give you 0.00000001% better performance. Or something like that
Click to expand...

Anything to back this up? I have to show my assistant that he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Wasting my time with asking for a sound card as he needs it for work.
 
Khanya said:
How would it?
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Creative would prob be the best, as it does audio processing on the card, thus taking stress off your cpu, the last time i checked it was 1 -2 Fps in some shooters, So nothing to write home about.
 
Well it depends what he's doing. I think prior answers may only be thinking about gaming and movies? You mention editing sound. Sound cards have many benefits when it comes to working with sound.
 
Khanya said:
How would it?
Click to expand...

Well, because the audio processing is done on the CPU I think. So if a dedicated sound card takes this work load away from the CPU, it frees it up to do other tasks.

With a modern quad core though, I really cannot see this being an issue though. Maybe back in the single core days it would have mattered.

I stand to be corrected
 
OP - define performance
If you are talking about sound quality, then yes of course a proper sound card will matter
If you are talking about loading up farmville, then no, it makes no difference
If you are talking about playing top end games, then it'll make little to no difference
 
I'm talking about playing AAA titles and other pc intensive games, that support surround sound. Wouldn't a card help with that?
Also yes sound quality, in the sense that I'm working with some sound editing.

But I guess you guys have a point, it won't make much of a difference.

Last time I had a sound card in my system was back when GTAIII came out, without the sound card the game was crap slow, and with it the game ran smoothly on my Pentium 3. I guess time's have changed. I don't have a quad core though.
 
Yes it would definitely help with surround sound and other stuff you mentioned.

Are you sure you've given us your assistant's full argument?

If argument is increased CPU/gfx performance, then no.

If the argument is sound quality, latency, etc. then definitely yes.
 
JIMMYtheSKULL said:
Creative would prob be the best, as it does audio processing on the card, thus taking stress off your cpu, the last time i checked it was 1 -2 Fps in some shooters, So nothing to write home about.
Click to expand...

Creative have made nothing but crap drivers since Microsoft disabled hardware accelerated sound. Best would be Asus.
 
JIMMYtheSKULL said:
Creative would prob be the best, as it does audio processing on the card, thus taking stress off your cpu, the last time i checked it was 1 -2 Fps in some shooters, So nothing to write home about.
Click to expand...
Yes if your running a Pentium III it will give you 1 to 2 seconds fps. Please tell me what shooters it gives you a BOOST so I can prove you wrong. BCBF2. The sound is being done via the cpu if you got a soundcard or not. So does most of the games these days because its incorporated into the gaming engine which the cpu does. A soundcard will give you better quality with 24bit music because 24x6 = 144db. Any snr below that eg the Xonar D2 with a snr of 108 36db noise will be added to the signal. With a onboard which is around 98db 46 noise will be added to the signal. with 16bit music you wont hear the difference coz 16x6 = 96db which the dacs can fill. your avg game uses 16bit sound like BCBF2
 
Yes it will increase sound quality, and also help a bit with system performance, depending on your system.

Just don't get some real cheapo sound card, as your mobo may actually have better onboard sound quality.
 
The Asus D2 is a cheap soundcard and it perfect for a set of cans. Its simple. If you got cans then YES get a soundcard because you need the headphone amp coming with it. You will notice most of the cards are only stereo outputs normally because its designed for headsets and thats why people buy them. If you got a amp or a receiver connected to it then you dont need one. Because most motherboards come with a digital output where the sound gets processed not by your cpu but by the external device like your receiver or whatever. So first look at your setup before wasting any money. If you got cans get the D2 its cheap and comes with a headphone amp
 
Nah.. it was true years ago with direct sound etc but since vista the sound processing has changed and the realtek onboard sound is good enough and even gives more FPS while gaming.
 
Thanks guys that's all I needed to know.

He's argument is this, some days we play games for fun when it's a quiet day. And then he starts complaining about his computer not being fast enough. Now mostly what we play is just some Counter Strike. On his Core i3 that should not matter at all. I'll link him to this thread and see what he says about this. He's a cocky bastard some times.
 
axon1988 said:
Thanks guys that's all I needed to know.

He's argument is this, some days we play games for fun when it's a quiet day. And then he starts complaining about his computer not being fast enough. Now mostly what we play is just some Counter Strike. On his Core i3 that should not matter at all. I'll link him to this thread and see what he says about this. He's a cocky bastard some times.
Click to expand...

Maybe you shouldn't link him here now that you've called him a "cocky bastard"? :p
 
This could get fun. :D

I expect a "That is not what I said, you're misrepresenting me!" coming. :D
 
It might not be faster, but at least it will sound better while waiting :-)
 
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