I don't think you will have a performance hit without a sound card (otherwise you wouldn't see a single person on this board without a dedicated sound card). Depending on your sound card you might get better audio quality with a dedicated sound card though.

Maybe you can get one, try it out and then return it if you don't hear any difference. In my experience stores are pretty cool with customers returning stuff like that.

-C-

While modern motherboards have onboard sound that support up to 7.1 channels, they are a little lacking in other departments such as full EAX support, dolby support and A3D support. Sure, they have some of it, but they are budget build models. It'd be like getting an Intel 3D on-board that can run most games but is not as feature rich, let alone as powerful, as a dedicated 3D card. It'll play 3D games, it'll just be abysmal.

In flight/air combat sims, I don't believe they fully utilize the capabilities of today's more advanced sound cards so you shouldn't really need anything beyond on-board.

For FPS/RPG/etc, a dedicated sound card will make a difference. In some cases fairly subtle, in others quite noticeable.

So it depends on what you play, and what your needs are.

I've always found it the other way around, with a dedicated sound card, I *may* find more stuttering and lost resources than the OB sound. I think its in the way bad (old) drivers and tied up resources are managed in Windows.

I think I'd still be looking at buying a soundcard for a new PC. Might not be quite as high of a priority as it used to be though.

Seriously I'd try the on-board sound for a few weeks first.

I've just built a new PC using an Asus P67 board. For gaming the on-board sound works fine. I can imagine that serious audiophiles would find fault but imo its pretty good. Creative's flaky drivers were more trouble than they were worth.

Indeed. You can think of a soundcard as an optional upgrade. Spend the extra money on a better graphics card (or CPU). When you feel like you need better sound, you can always get an ASUS Xonar or Auzentech or Creative card when some money becomes available.

For the record, I game with an Auzentech Prelude, AKG K 701 and Zalman mic. But were I given the choice today I might pick a different sound card and different headphones.

Honestly, onboard sound is pretty good these days.

I bought an X-Fi a few years ago and won't be purchasing another sound card. Speakers make the largest difference nowadays. I've got a set of Harman/Kardon speakerss that sound really crisp regardless of whether my sound card is installed or not.

I just built a new system based on a Gigabyte Z77-UD5H mobo. It has an onboard Realtek ALC898 chipset with two dedicated headphone amps. This runs the Creative X-Fi fidelity M2 software. For headphone use, I can't tell the difference between this and a discrete Creative sound card. YMMV is you're using speakers.

I haven't needed a sound card since I built my old P5B Deluxe, E6400 machine 6 years go, and I sure as hell didn't need
one with my P8Z68 build I just did.

Some strange opinions regarding sound cards in this thread - more what I'd expect in a thead 8 years ago.
If you're not doing high end audio stuff, onboard sound is more than fine if you're using a decent motherboard.

Odd for me to stumble on this thread now... Late last week my old Sound Blaster X-Fi card finally died. I had carried this original pci card forward through two builds, and loved the excellent job it did for me in countless gaming sessions and literally years of almost nightly TS conversations. Flawless and (except for the bloatware accompanying it) not something I wanted to be without.

When the X-Fi died, I had to switch on the on-board sound on my latest build. RealTek something, drivers from my motherboard maker (Asus.) It works, but the difference is noticeable. Sort of like the difference between listening to an .mp3 of your favorite song, and listening to that same song in .flac format. If you don't notice any difference, keep on using the onboard sound.

My new sound card (a Xonar card like the fellow a few posts up is selling <had to try breaking away from SB's bloatware>) will be here tomorrow.