Upgrading sound card is it worth it?

[distortia]

Hi atm i have a built in 5.1 onto motherboard, i know its realtek HD if i bought a sound card will i really hear an improvement? i was thinking of buying the CREATIVE - XFI XTREME GAMER FATALITY PRO or shall i just keep the realtek 5.1 built into motherboard


Thanks

[Generator]

With a dedicated sound card it will take some load of the CPU, if you go for pro card use decent speakers. cheap ones will be a waste of time. i use a m-audio 2496 pro sound card, run through m-audio BX5 monitors, as i use pro audoi apps, reason, guitar rig3 amplitube 2 etc. so need low latency asio2 drivers.

[Disk_Contented]

Originally Posted by distortia

Hi atm i have a built in 5.1 onto motherboard, i know its realtek HD if i bought a sound card will i really hear an improvement? i was thinking of buying the CREATIVE - XFI XTREME GAMER FATALITY PRO or shall i just keep the realtek 5.1 built into motherboard
Thanks

Realtek is very poor sound compared to an XFi. Plus it is software driven. It uses the cpu to do the work.
Good speakers or not. Go for it. You will definately hear the difference.
Even the Audigy right back to the first version wipes the floor with realtek onboard.
If you're thinking of Vista, then check out the creative forums etc for what's happening on the driver front. (M$ crippled gaming)

Creative is the gamers choice. Serious music production sees M-Audio a lot, but it's also in the realm of the creative card, should you want it.