Sound card for gaming

[Flibb]

I am having a lot of in game sound problems, have a fealing its down to my soundcard as there hasnt been any updates for it in about 3 years
Anyway, after a new card and have around £50 to spend. Have seen audigy 2 zs oem for £45ish, do you think ones of these would be the best bet? My rig is only really used for games.

Cheers

[DeludedGuy]

I bought an Audigy 2 ZS from ebuyer a few weeks ago. I had a Soundblaster live before it, and I noticed a big change when playing music at loud volume.

As for games, it got rid of a problem I had in NFSU 2. There wasnt a huge difference, but I still think it was worth it.

[ifyouknowme]

lol anything with a dsp chip is better than an onboard one the realtek one makes my pc slower when its enabled

[Smokey21]

Audigy cards for games.

You can get an OEM Audigy 2 ZS for cheap these days.

[Merlin4458]

i have the new onboard realtek on my Asus a8n SLI board, i used to have the old audigy live, cant see any difference

[Scarlet Infidel]

[BRAG] I got a brown box Philps Acoustic Edge for about £20 from scan last year, they retail for about £70 at the moment. [/BRAG]

I think an Audigy 2 ZS costs about £40 doesnt it?

[autopilot]

M-Audio for music production but Audigy 2 ZS for gaming, no contest. I have seen OEM's for £30.

[Flibb]

Have been doing a bit of research think i will get a Audigy 2 zs, anybody seen a supplier under £45? HAve been looking at a plat pro from the US, would be easier as it supports dig out via coaxial (thats what my speakers take). Thought I would get the Audigy 2 value and the digital i/o box, but cant find anybody selling the box

[Trippledence]

i have the new onboard realtek on my Asus a8n SLI board, i used to have the old audigy live, cant see any difference

If you running games that need audioprosessing for 5.1 suround and EAX then you need the DSP on the soundcard, otherwise the prosessing gets put on the main system or doesnt happen at all. I found this out the hardway, UT2K4 with full EAX surpound sound with my Realtek card (have the some mobo as you) took the framerate from 80-90 to 20-30 fps. And HL2 jsut didnt work in 5.1 with the realtek card. I got an Audigy 2 off a mate and its soo much better, doenst eat into the main system resources hardly at all. And has quite a nice high sample rate for recording.

Have a look on e-bay for the audigy 2's make sure you get the cold plated one to. A bit nicer

[Chemical_Ali]

if u can wait till mid-august, you can buy the new Creative X-Fi sound cards

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/x-fi/technology/

[Flibb]

Has anybody upgraded from an audigy 1 to a audigy 2? Wondered if there is much of a difference?

[Dougal]

I used to use the audigy 1 and now have audigy 2.

I can't tell much of a difference yet as I am currently on cheap (<£5) speakers.

I can give you a more definitive description when I go back to middlesbrough and use my Sony System (>£300)

The annoying thing for me is that I have to buy a few connectors (mono jack -> phono) to use the digital output

[Flibb]

I need to get the same connector as well, last time I tried in store at maplins they didnt have any and i had to bodge one together. Is your card a zs standard? There is ment to be a break out box for the audigy value that gives spidif and coaxial in/out but cant find any details on it, or where to get one.

[Dougal]

My current one is a Audigy 2 ZS, no breakout.

Maplin do sell the connectors, they probably don't realise it.

You should be able to find a 3.5mm to phono adaptor (RW04) then use a phono->phono cable to get the surround off it.

If you need optical, that will set you back £15+ to convert the coax.

[Flibb]

Thats the beasty, the local store was out of stock when I visited although the computer said they had 2 in rack something or other.

[Romanov]

Has anybody upgraded from an audigy 1 to a audigy 2? Wondered if there is much of a difference?

Ooh I did about 4 months ago, can't say I noticed alot of difference but I don't have to put sound to medium settings and I can do EAX2 which makes the sound better, I use headphones tho the difference may be greater on speakers. I do think its alot more stable tho I dont get any game lockups which I think are caused by sound issues most of the time..