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Thread: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

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    Question Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    Hi I haven't got a huge budget, can I get a decent gaming sound card for around £50 ?

    What do you recommend ?

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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    I think so, I would recommend anything from Creative in you're price range. I have a 5 year old creative SB audigy 2 card in my system and has been great for all my gaming needs.

    Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1
    Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Extreme Audio PCI Sound Card 24Bit 7.1
    Creative SoundBlaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer PCI 7.1

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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    I would recommend an Asus Xonar DX. Just bought a PCI-E one for my pc, so I can use one of those otherwise [seemingly] useless slots.

    I previously had a Creative X-Fi fatality gamer pro, but after I upgraded my mobo I couldn't fit it in a PCI slot as they were being obstructed by the graphics card (hence why I went for a PCI-E card in the Asus), so I sold it on ebay.

    Have to say the Asus card has a far better interface and the sound is great. Cost around £50.

    Also, something you can do with the Xonar is switch between the back panel and the front panel audio inputs through the interface, which I couldn't do with the creative. So I can have speakers plugged into the back but switch to a headset plugged in to the front when needed, and cut out the speakers.

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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    Quote Originally Posted by jonny440 View Post
    Also, something you can do with the Xonar is switch between the back panel and the front panel audio inputs through the interface, which I couldn't do with the creative. So I can have speakers plugged into the back but switch to a headset plugged in to the front when needed, and cut out the speakers.
    AFAIK, the X-FI Xtreme Gamer PCI 7.1 has front panel connectors.

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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    Avoid the Xtreme Audio, being a host based audio processor. For gaming you'll want the card itself to be doing the processing, not your cpu.

    XtremeGamer/XtremeMusic are the better old X-Fi's as well as the Xonar range from Asus. Otherwise onboard should handle it just fine... it's not like onboard kit is as terrible as it used to be; if anything to notice or justify any real difference you need to double that budget.
    Moo.

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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    Quote Originally Posted by 12GaugeShotty View Post
    AFAIK, the X-FI Xtreme Gamer PCI 7.1 has front panel connectors.
    Yeah, the one I had did have the connectors on the card, but you couldn't switch between the front and back. I do appreciate there are more recent creative cards now though.
    Last edited by jonny440; 22-12-2009 at 09:55 PM.

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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    Quote Originally Posted by synaesthesia View Post
    Avoid the Xtreme Audio, being a host based audio processor. For gaming you'll want the card itself to be doing the processing, not your cpu.

    XtremeGamer/XtremeMusic are the better old X-Fi's as well as the Xonar range from Asus. Otherwise onboard should handle it just fine... it's not like onboard kit is as terrible as it used to be; if anything to notice or justify any real difference you need to double that budget.
    No way, onboard audio is still unacceptable, especially for gaming. The ALC888 on my Abit IP35-E sounds decent for movies/music but it has horrible sound separation in games. When playing COD4 it wouldn't properly separate sounds from locations so I never knew where people were coming from. That's bad for FPS games.

    I put back in my Audigy2 ZS and got updated drivers from Creative's website and everything was perfect. Even the old Audigy2 ZS could handle many channels of audio and separate them properly. I could easily tell where people were coming from at that point.

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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    Quote Originally Posted by jamieuk23 View Post
    Hi I haven't got a huge budget, can I get a decent gaming sound card for around £50 ?

    What do you recommend ?
    Are you on XP or Vista/Win 7?

    If XP then creative cards are the best for gaming, and you can get great ones second hand. If Vista/Win 7 then they don't hold much advantage over other cards any more due to the lack of EAX support with anything but the very latest cards (and therefore games generally don't bother any more), so any of the Asus, Azuntech etc. are also worth considering.

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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    Xonar DX amazing card

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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    I have had no problems with my X-Fi Gamer, would recommend it, but I have not owned a non Creative sound card.
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    Question What sound car for 100% gaming only for no more than £70 ?

    As title says........ PCI express

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    Re: What sound car for 100% gaming only for no more than £70 ?

    I'd guess anything from the other thread that you started would be good enough?

    http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ming-only.html

    Asus Xonar range seems to be the choice...

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    Re: What sound car for 100% gaming only for no more than £70 ?

    wow I for got about that thread mate lol. I thought it was a dream !

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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    Dont Asus cards not support this EAX 5.0 or what ever its called ?

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    Re: What sound car for 100% gaming only for no more than £70 ?

    Quote Originally Posted by jamieuk23 View Post
    As title says........ PCI express
    Quote Originally Posted by Repressor View Post
    I'd guess anything from the other thread that you started would be good enough?

    http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ming-only.html

    Asus Xonar range seems to be the choice...
    Quote Originally Posted by jamieuk23 View Post
    wow I for got about that thread mate lol. I thought it was a dream !
    Threads merged.
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    Re: Best cheapish sound card for 100% gaming only ?

    Guys this is my choice which one is better for gaming only

    Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer Fatality Pro 64mb Xram - second hand £55

    Asus DX - Brand new £55

    ????

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