Sound Blaster Audigy SE or on-board sound?

[Zilliak]

im trying t o figure out if i should use my on-board sound card or the Audigy se

I run vista
the board is a geforce8200a with IDT High definitiont audio device
and i want to know if by adding the Audigy SE will it improve my system performance or down grade it

2 gb of ram
2.8 ghz processor dual core

any other info just ask

 

[14 of a hotdog]

ok you will need to download this program because there are a few motherboards that use that

http://www.cpuid.com/download/cpuz_147.zip

than after you have downloaded it right click on the file and hit extract or it might say unzip than open the extracted folder if it doesn't do that automatically than run cpuz. after its finished loading look at the top and click the tab that says mainboard than write down the information it says about your motherboard than post it here and that should make it easier to tell you which is better.

 

[EXCellR8]

A dedicated sound adapter will almost always sound better than onboard sound. Although the quality of integrated sound has become a lot better, I still recommend using a dedicated adapter because of the added control and features. However, depending on the year/model of the sound card (Audigy SE) and the motherboard would be the deciding factor for me. If the card is older than the motherboard than I would stick with the onboard sound.

 

[teklord]

In my opinion, a dedicated sound card like the Audigy, even an older one is better than the onboard because it relieves the load off of the CPU and usually improves sound quality and should always improve loading times for applications including games and should improve frame rates so the CPU can focus on other things.

 

[EXCellR8]

^^Good point, but onboard sound in conjunction with CPU load may not be as much of an issue when utilizing multiple cores. Even still, a dedicated adapter is a lot easier to work with much of the time and is less of a hassle to install drivers for.