X-fi Xtremegamer Vs. Mobo Sound (realtek

[pkilway]

Ok, I've been wondering this for awhile now. Is the difference between the add-in soundcards still head and shoulders above the sound that mobo manufacturers are installing as on-board sound? If games and music is the difference still head turning? Or have the on-board sound chipsets finally caught up to the X-Fi's and Audigy's?

[rud3bwoy]

heck yes on board sucks,i have a xfi xtreme music and it is great for gaming/music

 

but the thing is do not get it if you have crappy pc speakers it won't be worth it,pair it up with decent pair of pc speakers to get the rich sound

 

mines is paired up with logitech z5500

[pkilway]

Ok then, I'll keep my X-Fi XtremeGamer and Logitech Z-640 system in place.

[Verran]

It's totally up to the individual. There's no right answer here. Personally, onboard does everything I need it to, so that's all I have.

 

I do believe that some people really can tell the difference and that they spent their money wisely on a dedicated sound card. I also believe that there are plenty of other people who will scream about how great their sound card is but would never know the difference if I secretly plugged their speakers into their onboard port. Just like with anything else, when you pay good money for a sound card, a lot of people are going to hear a difference whether it's there or not.

[DLS2008]

If you're not an audiophile, you may never know the difference. There is probably a slight increase in sound quality, but it may be so small that the average user won't notice.

[The Smith]

I also believe that there are plenty of other people who will scream about how great their sound card is but would never know the difference if I secretly plugged their speakers into their onboard port.

 

Me too I'm using the onboard 7.1 surround. It does the job very well and I don't ask more. Yeah, probably it would be a bit better with a quality dedicated sound card, but I'm not sure I would see the difference personally, because my sets of speakers are not that good.

[iKillSteal]

If you're not an audiophile, you may never know the difference. There is probably a slight increase in sound quality, but it may be so small that the average user won't notice.

I have to disagree there. The xtrememgamer is a low-profile replacement for the Xtrememusic(Which I own and am extremely happy with) so if you set the card up correctly, you're definitely going to notice better audio all around. I went from realtek onboard to my XtremeMusic and it was almost a night and day difference between audio quality.

 

Set the xtremegamer to audio creation mode with bit-matched playback enabled and leave it in that mode for anything besides gaming and 24/96 audio recording. Unless you have extremely cheap speakers/headphones you will notice a difference between onboard and your X-FI.

[ir_cow]

any sound card is better than realtek (unless of course it is one). even with crummy headphones i can hear the difference in sound and i'm amazed even with my dated audigy 2 it still sounds amazing over crappy onboard...anything.

[slngsht]

I seriously disagree here. After having many issues with the x-fi xtremegamer in both vista and xp. I pulled mine, and I'm using Realtek onboard, and it works fabulously and has given me zero problems, unlike the x-fi. Don't get me wrong, the x-fi sounded nice when it worked, but I really can't tell a difference in sound quality.

 

BTW, if you want mine, i'm willing to get rid of it.

[iKillSteal]

If you had windows XP your X-FI would have worked and you wouldn't have tossed it in a box.

[cchalogamer]

any sound card is better than realtek (unless of course it is one). even with crummy headphones i can hear the difference in sound and i'm amazed even with my dated audigy 2 it still sounds amazing over crappy onboard...anything.

Last I checked my 680i onboard sounded nearly identical to the Audigy 2 ZS I have here, and doesn't sound as good as the audio on my G965 media series board. Now the X-fi's offer a whole new feature set and i haven't had the chance to try one with the same equipment but if it wasnt for the cost, horrid software support from creative and lack of a need (I spend most of my time @ my PC wearing a headset) I would go for an X-fi based card over any onboard out there today.

 

Onboard audio's no where near as bad as it was just 3 years ago, and it's a much better solution for many due to cost and their expectations from a sound card.

[iKillSteal]

Cost is kind of an iffy argument to make. X-FI XtremeMusic can be had on ebay for $50 new-in-box and for that kind of money, it's pretty much the best sound card out there. I will agree with your horrible software claim but only if you're running Vista(which I will assume you are). That bit is just creative trying to shaft it's costumers, nothing more. On XP everything works exactly as it should. No bugs, no crashes, all features enabled. Sure the software apps that creative packages(it's recording program, etc) are a bit bloated(You don't even need to install them, really) but other than that it's all smooth sailing.

 

But like you said, some people simply don't have a need for a dedicated sound card or don't care enough to buy one. I love mine to death and couldn't possibly think of going back to onboard but that's just me, you know. To each his own, I suppose.