Hi everyone, Christmas is coming up and I am getting an unknown set of speakers, and I would like to know if I need a sound card. I have always wondered whether I needed a sound card while building my pc, so I hope that someone can help out and tell me: How can I tell if I need a sound card? Why do people use sound cards when it sounds fine out of the integrated? I am just plain confused on the subject, and odds are that I am getting good quality speakers Thanks for your help in advance.
Dedicated sound cards produce much better sound quality, especially for games. If you're getting cheap no-name speakers, integrated will probably be fine.
Thanks for the reply! Then my next question would be which sound card should I get or does it depend on the type and quality of the speakers.
Are you sure? because I am going to do alot of gaming. There must be another option. I would just like hear all my options
Vista doesn't let me run surround from games through my on-board HD-audio. Whatever you end up getting read the reviews and make sure other people are making sure it is working under Vista for them.
Well I am definitly not a audiophile and I definitly can not hear differences in bitrates on mp3s, so what I am trying to say... Is there going to be a substantial difference in the sound quality from the onboard sound vs. sound card or would it only be heared from the well trained ear?
Modern onboard sound quality tends to be much better than older integrated chips, so it depends how old your motherboard is. However, one area onboard sound falls down in is games. Titles with lots of sounds going on at once often omit sometimes important sounds (such as your own gun) because they break the limit of onboard sound capability.
