Are Sound Cards Worth It 2019

Are Sound cards worth it?

I have an ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero and I was just curious how much better a dedicated pci sound card would be vs the on-board sound

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· 4y

Dell Dimension 2400

They're not worth it nowadays unless you're looking to do something pretty specfic.

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· 4y

i7 2600k / 8GB / GTX 1060

I'd say the "how much better is it" depends a lot on your audio setup and yourself as well. If you have cheap stereo speakers and are not an audiophile you probably don't need it.

Someone might say the onboard audio is garbage, while for someone else it's just fine.

I only got stereo speakers myself so I just use the onboard audio. Modern mobos, especially "gaming" ones have good enough audio for an average person...

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Op · 4y

Ryzen7 1800x Strix 1080ti

I don't have a speaker setup yet, I mostly use my Astro a40s I have the USB plugged into my PS4 so I can use the mic for that and I have the audio cord plugged in to my Mobo so I can hear that audio with a separate blue snowball mic, speakers will be coming once my wife is done being mad about the last bunch of shit I bought

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Comment removed by moderator · 4y

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only get an amplifier IF your headphones are more than 32ohms. If not there is absolutely no need for an amp.

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· 4y

3800x /2070s/RGB all the way

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3700X/RTX 2070S/32GB DDR4

Sound cards are intended to be add on in the event your board doesn't have one or it's burnt out. That or you need some specific sound I/O that's not supported on your motherboard

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i7 4790K / 12GB / GTX 1070 / SoundBlaster Z / Win10

I have a Soundblaster Z and I think the audio is slithly better than onboard. But you probably don't need it.

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Pentium G5400 | 2x RTX 2060 Super

Not really worth it IMO. The onboard solution even on budget boards is still perfectly fine, and you don't really need anything more unless you are an audiophile or use your PC for sound engineering as a job, which if that were the case, you probably already have a dedicated external DAC which is better than a sound card anyways. I'm sure there is some use case where a sound card makes sense, but I don't know what that would be.

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PCI or PCI express? If its Express then you are going to be using up the Lanes so your GPU will run at 8x Vs 16x just to have marginally better sound. Get a USB soundcard if you want better sound.