Sound cards...

What is the deal with sound cards? I have a mad dog multimedia 7.1 sound card. Are sound cards like video cards where one is REALLY better than another? What is there to know always been curious. Thanks.

 

opinion below

To the average user they're all the same. It used to be the ones that were onboard (built into the motherboard) didn't have 5.1 or 7.1 connections, but nowadays that's not the case. I've run through the line of SoundBlaster cards from Live to X-Fi. I can tell a difference between them, but it isn't that significant. I find them better than other cards I've tried, as well as the onboard. But honestly, it isn't that significant. If you have really nice speakers then I'd go with a nicer card; however, if you're rolling with just two dinky desktop speakers then I wouldn't waste the money.

opinion above

 

Depends the type of person you are, if your a hardcore gamer, then yes they do matter. I went from SB live through SB x-fi and I also can tell the diffrence between them. I on the other hand use a high end headset vs high end speakers (its a gamer thing). So Personally I wouldn't be caught dead with anything under SB audigy 2. Also if you have low end specs, having a sound card removes load from your CPU.

 

have Klipsch 4.1 speakers with the Mad dog entertainer 7.1 sound card. Specs are pretty good on computer. Didn't think there was much diff. This sounds great, was just curious.

 

yeah i think i need to replace my sound card. I don't use my computer for gaming, but I do listen to music often. I would like to spend >$50, anyone have any suggestions?