Are Sound Cards Worth It? [Simple Guide]

So are sound cards even worth it today or are they a thing of the past? Who are they for and what does a sound card even do?

In this video, we'll take a closer look at both dedicated and integrated sound cards to help you decide whether or not you need one, and if you do, which type of sound card that you need.

Keep watching!

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:26 Surround Sound and Connectors
2:46 More Affordable Replacement
4:06 Audio Quality
5:48 Conclusion

[HalfDayHero]

I bought my sound card because I wanted to take full advantage of my DTS speaker system and holy moly let me tell you now; on-board sound does not even compare. Sound cards ALL the way.

[telengardforever]

It's kind of ironic that the longest-lived computer hardware piece I ever owned was my REVEAL Sound Blaster compatible sound card from 1994. It lasted through four computers and over 10 years of continuous use. But since the ISA bus is no longer supported, I can't use the card anymore. That sound card manufactured in 1993 is still far better than the integrated sound chips of 2021.

[lex]

Good to pay attention to this often neglected piece of kit. Very nice.
One point of criticism though - there was simply too many shots of money. Obviously its just my one-insignificant-human-opinion, but I actually started cringing after a while. It took away from what was a fair to fine discourse for me.

[unreconstructed]

Uhm, yes you do gain in some instances with a dedicated soundcard. Not as much these days but you do offload resources from your CPU with them.

[fiverk]

Yes, a combination of a good soundcard and great headphones will make a difference.

[DelbyDank]

I don’t care how good you say the on-board audio is I’m always gonna use my sound card and will hear exactly where you came from

[RebelViking]

I think external DAC/AMP's are the future. Dedicated Soundcards are going away since lots of gamers are going with wireless headphones which have their own internal dac/amps without any need to have an internal one or external one.

[Steve-tuhs]

I bought a dedicated sound card because when I had my headphones connected to my PC tower, I would hear static noise when surfing the web. After I installed my sound card and connected my headphones to it, I no longer heard the static noise.

[INFINITE_JESTS]

You covered this quite well. I agree Audiophiles, like myself, will probably be the only type to notice a difference in quality. When my on board Realtek ALC888 died last year, I searched the classifieds and picked up a Sound Blaster Z for $30. It was built in 2015 but still provided a significant improvement in fidelity. Those ALC888 chips have a SNR of 97dB, but the Blaster Z has a far better 116dB.

[apieceofcrap]

If you want sound quality, just buy an external dac and amp combo

[ClassierAunt]

I compared my Integrated sound on my motherboard to my new high end sound card. The Audio quality of my sound card is excellent

[planespeaking]

If you can't tell the difference between MP3 or Flac then you need a better Hi-Fi. Also the narrator needs a room with less echo. Maybe some acoustic panels?

[WJCTechyman]

The closest thing I use to sound cards now in my setup are HDMI DAC stereo audio extractors to run to my Yamaha mixers and out to my vintage stereo equipment. There is a bit of a hiss, but most of the time that's coming from the optical (TOSlink) S/PDIF DAC on my Xbox One, and that's when the console is off. I use the on-board analogue audio out on my PC but that's because it's there and I don't really notice that much of a difference between it and the Audigy card I had in my computers at one point.

[jamesm]

Meanwhile I still have a sound blaster top-of-the-line card from 15 years ago.

[siemprepalante]

Thanks for a solid non influenced review.

[angelbryan]

What if my entire music library is made of lossless ALAC files?

[KudaKae]

I had a ps3 where in its prime, it had a soundcard in it. Now having a ps4 pro, with no soundcard. it is so terrible

[shanedavenport]

On board sound does eat up system resources more than a dedicated card does. On board sound is mostly software based, were as dedicated cards are mostly hardware based, freeing up the system resources normally used by the onboard audio. Of course, processing audio today is nothing for the CPUs we have today, so you see no difference. I can tell you that at the start of onboard audio the resource loss to the sound was noticeable and adding a sound card often freed things up.

[sorgialfalan]

Yes, I use SC since my MB doesn't support DTS/ DDL and I want full 5.1 experience. I didn't use HDMI because my AVR can't pass 120 Hz refresh rate, and if I use 2 HDMI (1 for AVR and 1 for monitor) then my GPU will detect that I use 2 monitors, and the GPU won't lower its voltage even when idle. Plus, HDMI has no EQ.

[wasky]

internal soundcards arent generally better than external interfaces or amps