Will a sound card make that much of a diffrence

[thesinter]

I am a dedicated pc gamer, and have recently gotten some new 5.1 speakers.

The speakers are great, but i was wondering if a sound card would make them sound better, enough to spend somewhere around 80 dollars or more (or less lol) on a sound card.

I have on board audio atm; Realtek 850 7.1channel AC97 audio codec

on this motherboard http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=939Dual-SATA2

So, should i get a sound card or not? If you say yes, it would be great if you suggested a sound card or brand.

 

[Mr Spree]

Hey i just got new speakers as well and i bought a sound card. I got a Sound Blaster Fatality professional seres xtreme gamer card from Creative that has 64mb of X ram. I play BF2142 and used to get alright frames but adding this with EAX 5.0 and high quality sound gives me a noticable frame boost so i would recommend this card. its about $150 at best buy. plus it gives you surround sound capabilities too. so its definitely worth it. it should fit on your motherboard since it fit on mine and my computer is 4 years old....

Edit- also look at tiger direct or NewEgg and look for a cheaper price.

 

[GhostGT]

Before I built my computer, I had a pre-built Sony Vaio desktop. If I remember correctly, I had a sound card in it.

As soon as I began playing music on the new build, I noticed a decrease in sound quality. It wasn't as crisp at higher volumes. I thought about getting a sound card but I honestly forgot about it. Music sounds perfect now...so maybe it was a song file that was screwed up.

I know you WILL notice a good amount of increase in quality and what you hear, especially in games. I would say go for it, but only if you think you need it. On-board sound is pretty good for about 90% of PC users.

 

[Kage]

If you spent some money on good speakers, you need good hardware to boot. So getting a sound card is pretty much needed I'd say

 

[thesinter]

Hey i just got new speakers as well and i bought a sound card. I got a Sound Blaster Fatality professional seres xtreme gamer card from Creative that has 64mb of X ram. I play BF2142 and used to get alright frames but adding this with EAX 5.0 and high quality sound gives me a noticable frame boost so i would recommend this card. its about $150 at best buy. plus it gives you surround sound capabilities too. so its definitely worth it. it should fit on your motherboard since it fit on mine and my computer is 4 years old....

Edit- also look at tiger direct or NewEgg and look for a cheaper price.

I was looking at the card you have, and i may buy it.

 

[freestyler105]

With higher end speakers, you have to get a sound card or you're wasting the speakers potential. Especially since you just have crappy Realtek onboard sound.

Something like this would help a lot:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006

 

[aowen416]

This card is apparently absolutely amazing, check it out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001

I thought it didn't matter that much either, but according to the reviews for the card, it does.

 

[freestyler105]

This card is apparently absolutely amazing, check it out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001

I thought it didn't matter that much either, but according to the reviews for the card, it does.

Oh that looks good, do your speakers have optical in? If so, that'll be a bit better quality than the analog.

 

[Mr Spree]

I was looking at the card you have, and i may buy it.

yeah it is a very good card. i noticed a performance boost on games that will use X ram (not all games use it).

Also all my music sounded better with the crystalizers. I didnt realize how dull my music sounded without it. now i have the crystalizers on at 50% (sounds best to me) all the time.

heres a link to the card i have on tiger direct --- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2687622&Sku=C44-3336