sound card good or bad, is dependable on different sound card ,different person who use, different speaker that you are using!...
currently using x-fi, still feel the best, coz got people buying audiotrak 7.1 but lack with bass effect!...
last time sound card live player, having a soft sound but lack in sound volume!
some time different sound card driver like , windows driver, manufacturer driver or even 3rd part driver like kx-project driver also having a differencing in sound quality
but in reality speaking.... listen to music, if you are using a better headphone, would have a different feeling compare to a normal speaker.....

This post has been edited by cha: Mar 7 2007, 10:33 PM

Yah, playing games with headphone is especially noticeably different with a EAX sound card. You can hear very sharp sound effects. Playing games with speakers doesn't sound that much different (EAX and non-EAX), unless you have all the correct 5.1 positioning in place, which i think most people playing games in front of their PC don't have.

sound card business wont die in years to come, just because you or couple of your friends dont use it, doesnt mean no one does.. there are millions of people who work with audio/sound and require excellent quality, i dont know any motherboards which can offer high quality with its builtin SC.. not to mention millions of enthusiast, myself included, who enjoys perfect sound..
of course the market is not as big like for motherboards, but its certainly not small and not dying

The numbers certainly don't agree with your claim. Just look at the 3rd post of this thread. And this:

http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html

Look at the audio devices section. The majority are using integrated sound chips. More than 1 million users polled for that, so i think it's a pretty accurate survey of the gaming scene at least, which would have a higher number of people using discrete soundcards compared to the global average.

It is small, and creative sales figures show that it might be dying as well. Enthusiasts only represent a tiny percentage of the market. Mainstream is what sells. And mainstream seems obviously content with built in solutions.

This post has been edited by ikanayam: Mar 8 2007, 12:48 PM

could be quite accurate for valve fans.. and 1 million users is a small amount at global market

strange as it may seem - yes, it can help. it heightens your visual senses becoz you minus out the audio distractions. you know those so easy to "die" games? you're reloaded to the same "save" point, the music/sound effects are the same and it's your 15th attempt now? turning off the sound may just get you through to the next stage.

as for sound card being dead? maybe not so soon. on board video did not kill off the gc market did it? these "add-on" cards mean flexibility and choice.

i would be just as happy to keep my SB Live! now i'm (still) on SB audigy with the onboard audio disabled. my ears say that SB card sounds better than the onboards.



This post has been edited by beelzebob13: Mar 8 2007, 01:19 PM

Yes, but for a poll, >1 million responses is a LOT. You obviously can't get a response from every person with a PC on the planet. Most polls have many orders of magnitude lower response rates than that.

Also, like i said, that discrete sound card figure on the poll is likely distorted, because gamers would be more likely to spend on a soundcard than an average user. So the global percentage of discrete sound cards users should be MUCH lower than that.

I wonder why creative didn't go into integrating their chips on motherboards. That way, they could gain back the market share eventhough that might meant killing their own sound card market. At least they will gain a lot of market share and their high end soundcard can still sell.

anyone called me?

they are complaining bout u. talking behind your back...

As on board sound become better and much better with each coming years, most normal user will use on board rather than dedicated sound card. How many home user really need to add sd when they get then on board? Most of home user doesn't need the clarity of sound in their daily live. So, I think, in time sound card will lose the battle.

Why pay additional RM200-300 just to hear sound while you already have that with the on board?

Anyway, this is only for normal/average home user. I believe most Low Yat user, which is not an average user have sound card in their system including me.

so it's time for creative make onboard sound and beat other challengers

On board sound cards aren't that good, sometimes i noticed frame rate difference between my on board and the creative audigy 2 card while playing games. It can really boost the frame rate even after 7.1 sound is enabled, about the sound quality creative has bass / treble as well as the equalizer if you silap adjust it , possibly hancur la the speakers, pretty powerful soundcard.

Well..then I am on the other side of the wall..2x Creative card (1x from E-MU studios of Creative) and another external DAC plus an onboard audio Avance AC97. <--- geek!