PC Speakers

[GMtm]

Originally Posted by Richard_Rahl

So what you are saying is that as long as you don't have 5.1 surround speakers, a pci(-e) sound card is a waste of money.

If you own an on-board solution and it is not a Creative Product or the very old on-board Nvidia effort, then it is a waste. Positional Audio absolutely sucks on the AC97 and AC 'HD' Audio efforts. They use software EAX 1.0 and EAX 2.0 and these so called environmental effects are so old and crude that they actually appeared in the days of the Quake engine era.

If you have on-board then you are best to stick with 2.1 speakers or set of half-decent headphones. If you spent the money on decent speakers and not a decent addon board then you are a bit of a spanner. Its like buying a Quad SLI or Crossfire rig and using it to play old games like Doom3 or Half-Life 2(More money involved, but same difference!). Sure it looks nice and crisp and runs at 450fps, but you are not utilising/benefitting from the technology, as you should be utilising its full featureset in DX10 and 24xSSAA and taking advantage of the latest technological innovations and optimisations. EAX HD is something else, add to that HW assisted environmental occlusion, dedicated processor (equivalent to a P4) and dedicated audio cache, then you really will hear the difference and appreciate the FPS increase.

[Richard_Rahl]

Originally Posted by GMtm

If you own an on-board solution and it is not a Creative Product or the very old on-board Nvidia effort, then it is a waste. Positional Audio absolutely sucks on the AC97 and AC 'HD' Audio efforts. They use software EAX 1.0 and EAX 2.0 and these so called environmental effects are so old and crude that they actually appeared in the days of the Quake engine era.

If you have on-board then you are best to stick with 2.1 speakers or set of half-decent headphones. If you spent the money on decent speakers and not a decent addon board then you are a bit of a spanner. Its like buying a Quad SLI or Crossfire rig and using it to play old games like Doom3 or Half-Life 2(More money involved, but same difference!). Sure it looks nice and crisp and runs at 450fps, but you are not utilising/benefitting from the technology, as you should be utilising its full featureset in DX10 and 24xSSAA and taking advantage of the latest technological innovations and optimisations. EAX HD is something else, add to that HW assisted environmental occlusion, dedicated processor (equivalent to a P4) and dedicated audio cache, then you really will hear the difference and appreciate the FPS increase.

Ok, but do I get it right when I say that in order to get advantage of a soundcard (instead of my Intel HDA), I should replace my 2.1 speakers (Logitech X-210) with 5.1 speakers?

[GT@Ultra]

An 5.1 set is always nicer, however you can get surround out of 2 speakers with a good spdif setup, but with 5.1 u actually hear the sound coming from behind you, and with 2.1 stereo its more or less virtual surround.

You can localize targets or hear where gunshots are coming from, but its less "intense" i guess to is to put it.

And music sounds great too on a decent 5.1 or more system, since its 7.1 .

But choices and posibilities differ per person, i can do 5.1 and 7.1 but due to lack of space i have stereo....

[Gazz]

Due to having a small child and not wanting to wake her up I just bought a good pair of headphones (5.1 btw). Headphones that are good can be bought fairly cheap these days and I suppose most of the people here have a set. I personally have a Zalman set.

[Slaymate]

Sound cards are a waste of money in my opinion. I don't need a special card for gunfire

[GT@Ultra]

I utilize an Creative HQ-2500 5.1 headphones set also, but damn, the dolby box is probably broken after using it hardcore for a year, including stepping on it by accident and shit...

So i got no choice now as i paid 105€ for it and are not planning getting another anytime soon

however i can recommend it, its really strong, supreme digital soundset with games and movies, and Spdif optical-coax capable!

If you never tried a card, i dont think you can really say something bout it, once u tried, you will understand what the difference is

[tanka12345]

I would probably go with the G51 as it's designed for gaming.