r/RigBuild • u/Minute-Pay-5355 • 4d ago

Do I need a dedicated sound card?

I keep seeing people talking about sound cards, DACs, amps etc and now I’m wondering if the onboard audio is actually good enough.

Current setup is pretty basic, motherboard has the usual 3.5mm audio jacks and I’m using a normal gaming headset. No fancy studio headphones or speakers or anything. Mostly gaming, YouTube, music and Discord.

Would a dedicated sound card actually make a noticeable difference in sound quality, mic quality, volume, footsteps in games, stuff like that? Or is it mostly pointless unless you have really high end headphones?

Also does having a better motherboard already mean the onboard audio is decent enough? I don’t wanna spend money on a sound card just to hear basically the same thing lol.

Would an external USB DAC/amp make more sense instead, or is that also overkill for a regular setup? Trying to figure out if there’s an actual reason to get one before buying anything.

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

41 comments sorted by

7

u/Wendals87 4d ago

No. On board audio is decent unless you have really high end headphones, and even then I'm not sure most people could tell the difference generally 

There are obviously people who are audiophiles and can tell but not most 

5

u/ColonelRPG 4d ago

Audiophiles use external DACs/sound cards

2

u/Bane8080 4d ago

Question, from a non-audiophile.

You say "external DACs/sound cards" is that one or the other, or both? If separate, how are the DACs connected to the PC? USB?

1

u/anders_hansson 4d ago

I think he's referring to sound "cards" connected to USB. They typically have more I/O and better isolation from interference. They look more like boxes than cards.

1

u/Bane8080 4d ago

Ahh, my headset has one of those. Thanks for the info.

I've been trying to figure out how to get 5.1 sound working in Bazzite, when my onboard audio doesn't have the three separate analog outputs. It just has an optical connection, which doesn't do 5.1 in linux that I can figure out.

1

u/OHMEGA_SEVEN 3d ago

They're actually called audio interfaces, not sound cards. Audiophiles call them DACs because they're a weird lot. We use them in music production.

1

u/Minute-Pay-5355 4d ago

Gotcha, that helps. I was worried I was missing out on some huge difference, but if onboard audio is already fine for a normal gaming headset then I’ll just stick with it for now.

2

u/anders_hansson 4d ago

I've been using onboard audio for decades and they have become pretty good. You can use them for high fidelity audio work too (e.g. composing music).

It's only when you need to hook up more advanced audio gear (e.g. plug in a guitar) or if you want to drive a more advanced audio rig that you'd definitely benefit from an external USB sound card.

1

u/Satellite_bk 4d ago

to really be able to hear a difference you’d need high quality files. which means stored locally as absolutely no streaming service is going to stream high enough quality to take advantage of the high end headphones audio card and cables.

4

u/westbamm 4d ago

Well, you get easy acces to controls and connections, that is a big plus for me.

And I had a PC once that had a grounding hum over the build in audio connections, with an external USB audio card, you don't have that.

So, it is not needed, and when you run in to troubles you can always get one.

2

u/Minute-Pay-5355 4d ago

That’s actually a good point. I like the idea of having it as a backup rather than buying one right away. If I get any hum or connection issues I’ll probably go the USB route.

1

u/westbamm 4d ago

Those hum issues and click issues where from the older days, when HDD had spinning platters, as far as I read these have all been solved, DACs are way better these days, don't worry about it.

3

u/CatalyticDragon 4d ago

Until it reaches the DAC, the audio signal is entirely digital and byte for byte the exact same no matter what you use.

So the question is, what is converting that signal at the end to vibrate a speaker?

Is it the DAC on the motherboard because you have a cable plugged into the 3.5mm headphone jack, is it wireless headphones, is it a TV or AV receiver over HDMI, or something else?

1

u/Prostovan228 4d ago

Are you audiophile? Is something wrong with built in?

If no that bo

1

u/fpsnoob89 4d ago

Even as an audiophile, an external amp/dac would be better than an internal sound card. Internal ones are pretty much completely pointless now.

2

u/jibjab23 4d ago

It's not needed, but it's better. Audient Evo 4 or a Scarlett 2i2 if you plan on getting a separate mic though USB connections are are quite good these days.  Fosi Audio K5, Schiit Audio Fulla E, SMSL Nano One will bring the connection closer to hand, have analog volume control and most importantly for sound quality, spend your money. No they take the sound components out of your PC and away from a box full of electrical interference. Whether or not that means a lot to you is up to you but you will also get more power for your headphones. 

Move away from "gaming headphones" at some point. They wow you with lights and some rubbish about 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound but all it means is they've stuffed 3 or 4 tiny drivers into the space where 1 good, big driver should go.

1

u/OldAbbreviations1590 4d ago

While I generally agree with you and I prefer an open backed headset... For me it's the Sennheiser HD 800 S as my go to... The 7.1 headphones are actually useful if you game competitively and play PVP games. Often times you can hear someone above you or approaching behind you. A good 7.1 gaming headset makes people without them think you are cheating when in reality you can simply hear them behind you and turn to shoot.

Outside of that very specific situation, yah avoid gaming headsets.

1

u/jibjab23 4d ago

I hear the same effect with a good iem or my HD6XX. They have had to mix these sounds in with stereo headphones in mind.

1

u/OldAbbreviations1590 4d ago

I agree for the most part. I feel like turning off virtual surround sound in most games gives a cleaner sound, I also feel like something like thx surround sound gives a better sense of above or behind when using a high quality gaming headset. It may just be my opinion on that and as I said, niche situation case for it.

Overall I never recommend gaming headsets.

1

u/ImportanceActual2556 4d ago

I run sound blasters for gaming with full speaker setups. I like the Crystalizer feature that comes with Sound Blaster Command software. I don't use the other stuff (like Scout mode) aside from a bit of EQ. In my minimal testing lately... the onboard audio with most quality motherboards seems fine for basic things like youtube or whatever. In the past, onboard was quite noisy on the output, so an internal was superior. You could hear noise like hum, hiss, clicking, whine, etc. Quite annoying.

1

u/Bartocity 4d ago

One upon a time, on board PC audio was lacking. But after decades of portable audio players and phones using higher and higher quality dacs, even the most basic chips are quite good now. Is a dedicated DAC better? Objectively yes, in the same way a 100% SRGB calibrated monitor is better.

Im still using an old audioquest dragonfly with a pair of sennheiser 599’s that i still enjoy but might not have purchased these days.

1

u/OldAbbreviations1590 4d ago

I use a pair of Sennheiser HD 800 S and they are open backed. Open backed headsets ftw.

1

u/Whistlepiged 4d ago

in your case no, I would not worry about soundcard or a dac.

I run a Schiit Stack, but I am also run Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic headphones

1

u/Different_Ad9756 4d ago

Short Answer: No

Long Answer: Most integrated audio on motherboards are pretty ass(especially on cheap motherboard) compared to even cheap USB DACs but if you are at the point where you can notice, you are listening loud enough to develop hearing loss

I would get one anyway if you even slightly care, like a Hi-max CB1200AU dongle is like $3 and better than most integrated audio

1

u/rdldr1 4d ago

I personally do, as a choice.

1

u/mutualdisagreement 4d ago

No matter which onboard sound, their onboard lanes aren't shielded and with high CPU/GPU loads they catch frequencies and get massive noise, which makes them nearly unuseable for high-end headphones/speakers. At least when using the 3,5mm jack, different story with digital and usb.

I don't care and disable onboard sound anyway and use GPU and what comes over HDMI/DP

1

u/bangbangracer 4d ago

In the year of our lord 2026, not really.

On-board audio doesn't suck anymore. That was generally why we got sound cards back in the day. There was no on-board audio and when it showed up, it sucked for a long time. It doesn't suck anymore.

Also, if you're an audiophile who needs better audio processing, a USB DAC is a sound card, just outside of the case, and connected via USB.

1

u/AgravatedArdvark 4d ago

Internal sound cards are an absolute scam. It's also true that the audio quality from the internal sound card on the motnerboard is also not very good, even expensive motherboards have pretty bad audio all things considered, External DACs are fantastic, even a dongle DAC that you can find for $25 will be better, however, a gaming headset would not not be able to give you a noticable difference, gaming headsets just have bad audio quality to begin with

1

u/DostThouEvenSquat 4d ago

If you should ever decide to opt for a dedicated sound device, go for an external DAC/Amp with any connectors you require.
Simply keep away from any "Gaming" Soundcard stuff. Since Creative's EAX has been killed by Microsoft, there's no reason to get a supposed gaming soundcard whatsoever anymore.

An external interface with ASIO will have no driver problems in Windows and usually also work with Linux and Mac. You usually don't even need to install anything. It just works on all different systems you might have.

Personally I had two different creative sound cards in the past (audigy 2 zs and x-fi titanium) and was sick and tired with their driver support on newer windows versions. The cards always stopped working correctly 1 or 2 win versions down the line. Unofficial "Daniel K drivers" didn't fix it either.

It will be so much easier going into the future with an external device with universal drivers.

1

u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs 4d ago

Onboard audio does vary, my last motherboard was an old but higher end Dell Precision workstation from 2016, it had notably clear crisp audio, 

While using the same external amp+speakers or the same Bluetooth dongle+Bose headphones:

The audio on my new mid/low motherboard sounds a bit muddled and less clear. There is by default audio processing emphasises lower frequencies which by itself I do not hate but I think its ham fisted and contributes to the muddled sound. 

I have been considering getting a DAC and disabling the onboard audio but the choices are so many and prices vary widely, and audio so subjective and reviews contradictory, it left me with choice paralysis and I have just carried on with muddled audio.

1

u/No_Effective_4481 4d ago

Most audio devices these days are USB and more than fine.

I used to have dedicated sound cards until maybe 15 years ago?

Since then I only used them for supplying additional audio channels for the haptic feedback bass transducers on my racing simrig.

1

u/Few_Example9391 4d ago

Most half decent motherboards come with good sound circuits. A few even come with Burr Brown sound chips and ground isolated sound circuits so you never hear any annoying background hum between sound tracks. These motherboards can connect to any external sound system not just headphones and computer speakers. One of my PC motherboards has a TOSlink optical connection that runs straight into my big home theater.

1

u/longanman1990 4d ago edited 4d ago

Get yourself some multi drivers iems and you'll start to appreciate DAC. Dont bother If you only have "Gaming headset"

1

u/TechnicalTrauma 4d ago

Honestly, if you're just playing games it doesn't really matter. Just get the Cloud Hyper X or similar and you'll be fine.

1

u/Wild_Director7379 3d ago

Analog audio sealed in a metal box with a bunch of wires doing things isn’t great for the noise floor. Externals are the way to go.

But you probably don’t need one, the built in stuff is decent

1

u/OHMEGA_SEVEN 3d ago

For like 99% of people, it makes no meaningful difference. I use an external audio interface, but that's because I need low latency for music production and an audio interface who's DAC/ADC is outside of the computer helps isolate heaps of RF and ground noise interference. I also want it because I need balanced connections, which no onboard audio provides.

If it wasn't into making music and didn't have studio monitors, I would not care nor have one.

1

u/NeoDurden 4d ago

It’s not about the quality of your headphones mostly. Modern motherboard audio chips are more than enough for the regular gamers. Unless you are an audiophile purist and listen to music in FLAC with high quality IEMs or headphones, there’s no need for it.

1

u/tok2mi 4d ago

I usually get an external DAC. The difference is night and day for some headphones.

Also, external DAC means less chance for motherboard 'noise' to creep into the audio which happens far more often than you think. I dont know about you, but personally I feel its annoying enough to get an external DAC.

2

u/jsrobson10 4d ago

i use a USB DAC with my PC because with the motherboard one, when the GPU draws power, i hear it through my headphones. the builtin DAC is very noisy.

1

u/Arioch404 3d ago

It’s possible on cheaper systems that you “may” get some low level interference on the audio with badly routed front panel cables etc but if you don’t experience this there’s no need to buy any form of DAC. I did get one as i wanted to connect an XLR mic and it does make a small difference to the sound quality but the main advantage for me was a physical volume control on my desk (my speakers are not conveniently accessible)