My question is, is it worth 100 bucks to buy a soundcard over the onboard audio? Do headphones really make that big of a difference while playing? J/w, cuz some ppl say yes, some say no, and I want to know if its worth 100 extra dollars to buy a soundcard, and maybe a good headset...
Poll
Do headphones/soundcards really make that much of a difference?
| Yes | 69% | 69% - 9 | ||||
| No | 30% | 30% - 4 | ||||
| Total: 13 | ||||||
i cant speak on behalf of soundcards, ive never really bought/owned one.
however, ive just recently started gaming on this new pair of in-ear headphones i bought (they have AWESOME sound quality, bass, treble, i love them) and the difference is huge. everything sounds more realistic. if a chopper is taking off to the right of you, the sound of the chopper only comes out of the right earphone and so on, which makes aquisation easier and also is pretty damn cool.
dunno if you should exaclty buy the soundcard, i dont know what kind of performance that would make, but if your now gaming on crappy desktop speakers, definalty give headphones a try.
however, ive just recently started gaming on this new pair of in-ear headphones i bought (they have AWESOME sound quality, bass, treble, i love them) and the difference is huge. everything sounds more realistic. if a chopper is taking off to the right of you, the sound of the chopper only comes out of the right earphone and so on, which makes aquisation easier and also is pretty damn cool.
dunno if you should exaclty buy the soundcard, i dont know what kind of performance that would make, but if your now gaming on crappy desktop speakers, definalty give headphones a try.
Headphones are always worth it. Even if the sound quality isn't as good as your speakers, just the proximity to your ears brings out more directional sound.
Now a good sound card really depends on the game. For BF2, I didn't notice a huge difference. Everything sounded better, but it wasn't necessarily worth the extra dough. However, on COD2 the better sound card made a big difference. I could hear exactly from which direction someone was coming up on me.
Now a good sound card really depends on the game. For BF2, I didn't notice a huge difference. Everything sounded better, but it wasn't necessarily worth the extra dough. However, on COD2 the better sound card made a big difference. I could hear exactly from which direction someone was coming up on me.
Absolutely. I haven't touched the onboard sound on this mobo at all thankfully, but with my old machine's previous boards (Gigabyte 7N400 Pro2 and ASUS A7N8X) onboard sound quality was mediocre. The ASUS board's USB died and support was abysmal so I replaced it with the Gigabyte. I thought onboard sound from both was OK until the right channels on the 2nd board stopped working and I had to buy a sound card. Got the Audigy 2 ZS and will never use onboard again. The difference is so extreme between a decent sound card and onboard, it's sad that onboard sound is even considered an option by some. Good headphones make a difference as well, but if your onboard sound is putting out extra noise or just poor quality, headphones alone won't fix it.
Headphones are crap.
Proper speakers, now that's another story. Onboard sound is very, very good these days, with HD 7.1 pretty much as standard. A proper sound card will take a tiny bit of load off your CPU, which is good and they can provide lots of nice features.
I highly recommend getting good digital speakers, it makes so much difference. I don't get why so many people seem obsessed by headphones, but they're rubbish - compared to proper speakers.
Proper speakers, now that's another story. Onboard sound is very, very good these days, with HD 7.1 pretty much as standard. A proper sound card will take a tiny bit of load off your CPU, which is good and they can provide lots of nice features.
I highly recommend getting good digital speakers, it makes so much difference. I don't get why so many people seem obsessed by headphones, but they're rubbish - compared to proper speakers.
No, I don't care about sound as much as I do with graphics. I mean why would I want to pay £200 on 7 speakers and a sub woofer, where I can get a headphone for £30. And to be honest, you are not gonna get the most out of the speakers as your house will start shaking and (my) parents start telling me to turn it down...DOH If that make scence.
Last edited by rabee2789b (2007-06-29 14:46:43)