Home » Sound Card » #16 – Question/Answer: Onboard & PCI Audio/Best Sound Card

#16 – Question/Answer: Onboard & PCI Audio/Best Sound Card

What’s the difference between onboard audio and PCI sound card audio? What’s the best sound card?

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25 Comments

  1. MrFreeStufff says:

    @cheese4927 It could be your card or maybe your drivers are outdated. A sound card would handle the recording of audio by itself, so that your memory isn’t being used instead. It is likely that recording audio is causing your computer to lag and put the audio out of sync and skip.

  2. cheese4927 says:

    I’m not much of a PC gamer, but I do record music on my computer. I’ve noticed that the audio on my computer is always skipping, and it really causes problems (especially when recording since everything goes out of sync). Would this be a problem I can fix or should I just buy a sound card to replace the onboard one? I have a Dell Inspiron 545 if that makes any difference (bought just over a year ago).

    Thanks in advance to any help anybody can give me! :)

  3. schmidtbag says:

    @willlewis77
    creative is like dell – theres an extremely fine line between their low-end stuff and their high-end stuff, and that line is pretty high. creative makes some really good stuff but you have to pay a lot more for it. keep in mind sound cards today wouldn’t be where they are without creative

  4. hayden50 says:

    buy audiotrak prodigy hd2,the best sound card under 150$,doesn’t consume much memory either.i own one, pm me for any questions…

  5. uphill248 says:

    HI. CAN SOMEONE HELP ME WITH THIS ISSUE? CAN A Creative Labs
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Express, OR A Creative Labs
    Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatality Professional Series PCI Express FIT in a GA-58A–UD7 MOTHERBOARD? I LOOKED AT A PICTURE OF THESE SOUND CARD AND THEY HAVE A SMALL CONNECTION TO THE MOTHERBOARD SLOT. THANK YOU.

  6. milanvdv says:

    @willlewis77
    Don’t like creative myself either

  7. willlewis77 says:

    such a fuckin sell out, creative is shit but they pay for marketing which is the only reason he mentions them

  8. tommy714pham says:

    Onboard : Realtek HD audio, or Sound Card: Sound blaster SE?

  9. kaleqwe says:

    @kamaldarkkey1234 I have the UX1 and I use asio4all drivers for it to get lower latencies and it works just fine for me to play software piano, guitar/bass and record midi and audio giving me a small latency with a somewhat old processor ( amd 5200+ )

    But ye, look at usb soundcards those are cheap, look for reviews from harmony central and maybe youtube

  10. kaleqwe says:

    @kamaldarkkey1234 Line 6 has these usb sound cards, UX1 UX2 and they come with podfarm software, which is basicly an amp emulator with good amount of effects ( depending on the product you buy ). Check usb sound cards from M-audio and EMU. I think M-audio fast track cards are also ones of the most popular usb cards within the hobbyists

    PCIe cards are really expensive, and there is a chance that newer motherboards won’t have PCI anymore.

  11. kamaldarkkey1234 says:

    if i want rec my guitar .. what sound card should i use ? …

  12. ahamedtt says:

    @HybridPineapple ..LMAO..what if 3DGAMEMAN turn around say to you, it’s not A-SUS IT’S AZUES :O??? so aslong as you understand wat he said just forget about rest.

  13. Puzzoozoo says:

    Interesting you didn’t include Turle Beech’s Montego sound card in your list.

  14. Mewzyc says:

    What’s the difference between gaming sound card, music sound cards, and home theater sound cards?

  15. swedishgamer says:

    don’t use Creative they never make drivers tha will fix your problems on you soundcards , go for Asus or Auzentech

  16. HybridPineapple says:

    A-SUS NOT AZUES :O

  17. gabrielthomas84 says:

    I hear a massive difference in clarity between my on board sound and my Xonar D2X. I’m very glad I bought it..

  18. bluetoaster8822 says:

    I put together a secondary gaming PC with 2-channel JBL speakers, and was using the integrated audio for a bit. After experiencing the X-Fi’s sound quality on my other PC, I could instantly hear a difference. Onboard is absolutely inferior, there is no question about it. I dusted off my old Soundblaster Live X-Gamer, and installed it. Even this old soundcard sounds drastically better.

  19. mmaxwell64 says:

    I have Vista ultimate and i’m using the onboard audio from Gygibyte. When playing music it crackles, I did update the driver but it still crackles when playing music or a lecture, should I get a sound card and is the AuzenTech X-Raider 7.1 a good card to get. Thank you

  20. hitachi654 says:

    Will it make my game’s run better? I use onboard and its good but I hate low fps and I use a 250 GTS and a AMD X2 5000+.

  21. VolcomTomatoe says:

    @633336 That’s what I thought.

    I thought it was Ay-sus.

  22. LLOYD19851012 says:

    onboard audio effects the performance of some game like juiced 2.

  23. nagromdnalrehtus says:

    MOTO, RME, Apogee etc. for real DACs

  24. Layziezor says:

    What matter the most when it comes to Input Sound, the Sound Card or the Microphone?

  25. SgtThom says:

    @yhn122

    Wonder how old people’s sound cards are.

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