Recommend me a Sound Card (Windows 10)

Slizzo · Aug 1, 2015

rtwjunkie said:
Your initial post nor the subsequent post (nor your system specs) do not state you are on W10 now. But that's ok, keep shitting on people just because YOU didn't make yourself clear. It's always easier to blame others for your own inadequacies.

Slizzo said:
With the release of Windows 10 I have finally come to the realization that my old Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI is inadequate, due to not having official drivers available.

Been out of the game in this regard for a long time, obviously. What do you guys recommend for a sound card? Budget will be, I suppose, $130 or less.

Thanks

I'm sorry that my first sentence wasn't clear enough for you to glean that I was probably running Windows 10 and that is why I posted my question. I'll try to write every single word that is in my brain about the subject at hand, at the risk of being overly verbose in the future...

Thanks for the help fellas. I believe I'll probably be ordering a Xonar DX.

INSTG8R · Aug 1, 2015

Slizzo said:
With the release of Windows 10 I have finally come to the realization that my old Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI is inadequate, due to not having official drivers available.

Been out of the game in this regard for a long time, obviously. What do you guys recommend for a sound card? Budget will be, I suppose, $130 or less.

Thanks

I am in the same boat with my X-Fi Fatality. I really love the card alot it's been amazing. I might pull a little dirty trick tho. My Ex Wife has a PCIE Auzentech Forte X-Fi. I may pull a little switcheroo on her when I have to finally say goodbye to my PCI slot. I know she wouldn't notice the difference anyway.

Ferrum Master said:
I can't recommend PAX drivers... due to their mindless tweaks. Seconds they do not work actualy, the installer isn't patched for Win10.

Use the ones provided by oldest Creative driver modder Daniel K. He's disassembled every creative dll and knows the stuff for real.

Enable Test Mode. And install there on, albeit you may have no sound using an SSD after first reboot. Just disable and enable the device, put the PC to sleep and wake up, the right registry entries will be created... a derp from Creative as always...

http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=720562

EDIT.

He uses the gamer edition, that's something alien... Indeed... no support I guess.

Yep also a big yes to the Daniel_K Drivers. They are flawless OH and support Win 10 in his latest version.

WhiteNoise · Aug 23, 2015

screw sound cards. use onboard digital out to a dac then amp. Or a receiver. Can't be beat and will always work. or just use a USB DAC then output to your amp of choice.

PLAfiller · Aug 23, 2015

How do you feel about USB sound cards? $130 is a sizable budget. Depending on your listening setup, you could use Sound Blaster X-Fi HD / Sound Blaster Omni Sound etc. I have grown attached to USB sound cards, because I can swap them between different machines:

Laptop with crappy audio-> no problem/
mini-ITX build with crappy audio-> no problem etc etc

WhiteNoise · Aug 23, 2015

I can tell you how I feel about USB sound cards. They work well. I've owned a few of them. I'd still just use an outbound dac though.

Cybrnook2002 · Aug 23, 2015

I will say I am using a Creative X7 with windows 10 (august driver they released) and I am smitten, as I was on win 7 and 8.1 with it as well.

That aside, I now have a Soundblaster ZxR (also has the august windows 10 driver released) which is basically BNIB would sell you for your $130 (and may a few bucks for shipping) if your interested.

I have some Asus OP-Amps (the upgrade kit that comes with the Xonar Essence STX II, two Texas Instruments LME49720s and one MUSES 8820) if you want em.... As the ZxR has up-gradable Amps. Had the Asus for a little while and could not tell the difference between it and the ZxR.

Solaris17 · Aug 23, 2015

FreedomEclipse said:
well......

Whatever floats your boat, It fixed my problems, Some of the anomalies/glitches and other issues actually broke a few of my games. rendered them totally unplayable. Im not the only one here who had problems with Asus Soundcards either, @RejZoR had problems too.

The days when creative were synonymous with the phrase 'bad drivers' are long gone and the water has been safe to have a dip in for a long time now. Not had any problems with creative when it comes to Win 7, Havent used windows 8 yet so cant comment.

The problems i experienced were using UNi drivers.

I too am hesitant to install my D2X though id really like that. My issue is the no driver support from Asus but atleast those just didnt want to install those unified drivers that kid is pumping out fucked my system when I tried them.

RejZoR · Aug 23, 2015

ASUS has been far worse with audio drivers even compared to old Creative. It was so bad, ASUS soundcards weren't even listed under ASUS product support page (and I think they still aren't. They were simply not listed. That tells a lot about confidence and support they have. ASUS just jumped the "high end" soundcards bandwagon with no regard for actually supporting the products.

GLD · Aug 23, 2015

I have the same sound card as the OP. As of 8-18-15 there are now Windows 10 drivers for or cards. Sadly there is no console launcher so no equalizer, but there are drivers to make the cards work.
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=126331

RejZoR · Aug 23, 2015

That's however still the crappy part I hate about Creative. They just roll out drivers, but they don't bother with control panels. And that attitude sucks.

Slizzo · Aug 24, 2015

I bought an ASUS card after I posted last. Using UNI drivers, everything is working well. Audio panels etc... Only one weirdness, it doesn't detect my rear speakers normally, so I had to fudge around with the audio panels to get them to work correctly.

And reason why I don't use a DAC and all that is because I have a nice set of Klipsch Promedia Ultras that still work well.

arbiter · Aug 24, 2015

Slizzo said:
I bought an ASUS card after I posted last. Using UNI drivers, everything is working well. Audio panels etc... Only one weirdness, it doesn't detect my rear speakers normally, so I had to fudge around with the audio panels to get them to work correctly.

And reason why I don't use a DAC and all that is because I have a nice set of Klipsch Promedia Ultras that still work well.

Since your last post drivers for your other card are out as well so. I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty still using now. I was using the windows 8.1 drivers which mostly worked with a few issues but still worked til offical win10 came out.

http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=126331

TheButcherNL · Aug 24, 2015

I thought it never could be an upgrade from my X-Fi Fatality FPS to Sound Blaster Zx according to sound, but the sound is much better for me, so good card, olé

cyaburg

Brett Stevens · Sep 10, 2015

RejZoR said:
ASUS has been far worse with audio drivers even compared to old Creative. It was so bad, ASUS soundcards weren't even listed under ASUS product support page (and I think they still aren't. They were simply not listed. That tells a lot about confidence and support they have. ASUS just jumped the "high end" soundcards bandwagon with no regard for actually supporting the products.

Well ASUS's Business model is doesn't include support... it does include new products...

http://rog.asus.com/442312015/gaming-sound-cards/asus-announces-strix-sound-cards/

Sigh...

MIRTAZAPINE · Sep 10, 2015

I know this is way out of your budget get the the ODAC and the Obejective2 amplifier. The circuit was design by NwAvGuy. He have a huge explanation in his blog about the "snakeoil" of audiophile business and how soundcard test lack objective test for them. It is good meaty long read.

RejZoR · Sep 10, 2015

The thing is, in 90's and to 00's, soundcards were really gaming focused. No stupid "audiophile" snakeoil nonsense but pure technology designed for games. Proper HW accelerated 3D audio with HW filtering and effects (EAX). We didn't have 30 billion SNR and 192bit audio, but we had an audio equivalent of graphics GPU.

Today, they are selling us software rendering equivalent of audio as best thing since sliced bread. GTFO. You don't need 126 SNR for game audio samples compressed in MP3 or other lossy format. But you do need good 3D audio positioning and filtering to apply environmental effects in realtime. Yeah, we have software 3D engines, but frankly, they all sound like crap. Plasticky and artificial. Half-Life with EAX from 16 years ago sounds better than any game today. Same goes for System Shock 2 which can luckily be played using OpenAL and EAX even on modern Windows.

All these fancy numbers and Japanese this, German that components are pointless and they don't add up to ANYTHING. If we still had superb EAX 4 or 5 in games, then I'd still defend these specs, but without any of that, nope.

CrAsHnBuRnXp · Oct 7, 2015

Chiming in after a bit here because since being Windows 10, anything sound related is pissing me the fuck off. Creative released sound drivers in August. I installed them, audio randomly drops for no reason and sometimes comes back. A lot of times too, I will get a loud feedback noise coming out of my headsets when I click on something and it even happens when im not doing anything.

I go back to onboard sound. I get crackels and pops on my skylake motherboard.

Creative releases drivers on September 23rd, I install them. Same issue as before in August.

Im so sick of fucking shoddy sound.

FordGT90Concept · Oct 7, 2015

I'm going to get trashed for this but I actually like Realtek onboard with Microsoft's generic HD Audio driver. Realtek delivers adequate sound quality at adequate power to my analog speakers which hugely amplify the signal.

...I've given up on cards. Instead of trying to get high quality audio to my 5.1 speakers, I give them Realtek and I went with low-end audiophile headphone DAC+amp (Schiit Modi 2 + Schiit Magni 2). Can't say I regret it.

hat · Oct 7, 2015

Seems I'm not the only one that misses hardware accelerated sound. Why the hell did they take that away anyway?

Ferrum Master · Oct 7, 2015

hat said:
Seems I'm not the only one that misses hardware accelerated sound. Why the hell did they take that away anyway?

Because M$ did not want anyone messing out with their API ecosystem and make money from some binary blobs not included in the OS... like EAX was... So they killed it together with Creative.

FordGT90Concept · Oct 7, 2015

hat said:
Seems I'm not the only one that misses hardware accelerated sound. Why the hell did they take that away anyway?

Because modern CPUs are more than capable of handling it. And let's be honest, the only thing the really high end cards did were sound effects. I hate sound effects.

Ferrum Master · Oct 7, 2015

FordGT90Concept said:
Because modern CPUs are more than capable of handling it. And let's be honest, the only thing the really high end cards did were sound effects. I hate sound effects.

I really liked those UT, thief like effects, they were better by miles that it is now... they gave you asset hearing things where they are... and helping where to point the instagib actually.

Now it is more like mish mash... skyrim was actually good at it, albeit buggy, but nice... cannot remember any good examples really... maybe some help from other members.

hat · Oct 7, 2015

One thing I don't understand is if the sound is done in software, then that means the sound card does what, nothing? Why does Creative go toting it's quad core sound processor in cards like the Recon3D, if it does nothing?

FordGT90Concept · Oct 7, 2015

As I said, sound effects (digital sound processing). If you don't use them, its pretty much useless.

Game developers stopped trusting sound processors (audio codecs like Realtek and physical cards like Creative) a long time ago because of all the bugs as well as feature availability. Modern games almost always work using positional data to handle audio more realistically on the CPU (e.g. wwise by Audio Kinetic is popular). It works through the Windows audio stack and completely ignores DSP/manufacturer. They get a much more consistent result across the entire field of audio hardware.

A good DAC is important where analog speakers are connected. Realtek and C-Media provide most of the DACs out there. They aren't amazing but they get the job done.

hat · Oct 7, 2015

Well, thats crap.

One other question: what happens in W10 (and other OS since XP) when I tick the EAX box on in games (like BF2142)?

Processor	Ryzen 9 7950X3D
Motherboard	MSI X670E MPG Carbon Wifi
Cooling	Custom loop, 2x360mm radiator,Lian Li UNI, EK XRes140,EK Velocity2
Memory	2x16GB G.Skill DDR5-6400 @ 6400MHz C32
Video Card(s)	EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra OC Scanner core +750 mem
Storage	MP600 2TB,960 EVO 1TB,XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB,Micron 1100 2TB,1.5TB Caviar Green
Display(s)	Acer X34S, Acer XB270HU
Case	LianLi O11 Dynamic White
Audio Device(s)	Logitech G-Pro X Wireless
Power Supply	EVGA P3 1200W
Mouse	Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard	Logitech G512 Carbon w/ GX Brown
VR HMD	HP Reverb G2 (V2)
Software	Win 11

System Name	Hellbox 5.1(same case new guts)
Processor	Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Motherboard	MSI X570S MAG Torpedo Max
Cooling	TT Kandalf L.C.S.(Water/Air)EK Velocity CPU Block/Noctua EK Quantum DDC Pump/Res
Memory	2x16GB Gskill Trident Neo Z 3600 CL16
Video Card(s)	Powercolor Hellhound 7900XTX
Storage	970 Evo Plus 500GB 2xSamsung 850 Evo 500GB RAID 0 1TB WD Blue Corsair MP600 Core 2TB
Display(s)	Alienware QD-OLED 34” 3440x1440 144hz 10Bit VESA HDR 400
Case	TT Kandalf L.C.S.
Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster ZX/Logitech Z906 5.1
Power Supply	Seasonic TX~’850 Platinum
Mouse	G502 Hero
Keyboard	G19s
VR HMD	Oculus Quest 2
Software	Win 10 Pro x64

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	AsRock X670E Phantom Gaming Lightning
Cooling	Be Quiet! Dark Rock 4
Memory	G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 32GB (2 x 16GB)
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Storage	Samsung 980 PRO Series 1TB, Samsung 980 PRO Series 1TB, Crucial P3 NVMe M.2 2TB
Display(s)	LG OLED55G2PUA
Case	Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL ROG Certified
Audio Device(s)	Digital out to high end dac and amps.
Power Supply	EVGA GQ 1000W
Mouse	Logitech G600
Keyboard	Logitech G413 Carbon
VR HMD	Oculus Rift CV1, Oculus Rift S, Quest 2, Quest 3
Software	Windows 10 Pro

System Name	Sandfiller
Processor	I5-10400
Motherboard	MSI MPG Z490 GAMING PLUS
Cooling	Noctua NH-L9i (92x25mm fan)
Memory	32GB Corsair LPX 2400 Mhz DDR4 CL14
Video Card(s)	MSI RX 5700 XT GAMING X
Storage	Intel 670P 512GB
Display(s)	2560x1080 LG 29" + 22" LG
Case	SS RV02
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster Z
Power Supply	Fractal Design IntegraM 650W
Mouse	Logitech Triathlon
Keyboard	REDRAGON MITRA
Software	Windows 11 Home x 64

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard	AsRock X670E Phantom Gaming Lightning
Cooling	Be Quiet! Dark Rock 4
Memory	G.SKILL Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000 32GB (2 x 16GB)
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 XTX
Storage	Samsung 980 PRO Series 1TB, Samsung 980 PRO Series 1TB, Crucial P3 NVMe M.2 2TB
Display(s)	LG OLED55G2PUA
Case	Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL ROG Certified
Audio Device(s)	Digital out to high end dac and amps.
Power Supply	EVGA GQ 1000W
Mouse	Logitech G600
Keyboard	Logitech G413 Carbon
VR HMD	Oculus Rift CV1, Oculus Rift S, Quest 2, Quest 3
Software	Windows 10 Pro

Recommend me a Sound Card (Windows 10)

Slizzo

INSTG8R

Vanguard Beta Tester

WhiteNoise

PLAfiller

WhiteNoise

Cybrnook2002

Solaris17

Super Dainty Moderator

RejZoR

GLD

RejZoR

Slizzo

arbiter

TheButcherNL

Brett Stevens

MIRTAZAPINE

RejZoR

CrAsHnBuRnXp

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

hat

Enthusiast

Ferrum Master

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

Ferrum Master

hat

Enthusiast

FordGT90Concept

"I go fast!1!11!1!"

hat

Enthusiast

System Name	Rocinante
Processor	I9 14900KS
Motherboard	EVGA z690 Dark KINGPIN (modded BIOS)
Cooling	EK-AIO Elite 360 D-RGB
Memory	64GB Gskill Trident Z5 DDR5 6000 @6400
Video Card(s)	MSI SUPRIM Liquid X 4090
Storage	1x 500GB 980 Pro \| 1x 1TB 980 Pro \| 1x 8TB Corsair MP400
Display(s)	Odyssey OLED G9 G95SC
Case	Lian Li o11 Evo Dynamic White
Audio Device(s)	Moondrop S8's on Schiit Hel 2e
Power Supply	Bequiet! Power Pro 12 1500w
Mouse	Lamzu Atlantis mini (White)
Keyboard	Monsgeek M3 Lavender, Akko Crystal Blues
VR HMD	Quest 3
Software	Windows 11
Benchmark Scores	I dont have time for that.

Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, AMD Wraith Prism.
Motherboard	ASUS TUF X570-Plus (Wi-Fi).
Cooling	Antec 120mm RGB case fans.
Memory	4x8gb, G.SKILL F4-3600C16D-16GVKC.
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse RX 6700.
Storage	PNY XLR8 CS3040 2TB 4.0x4 NVMe ssd with Vantec ICEBERQ heat sink.
Display(s)	ASUS VP278QG 27", 1080p, 75hz, FreeSync.
Case	Antec GX202.
Audio Device(s)	Onboard sound, Logitech Z625 THX 2.1's, Logitech G430 headphones.
Power Supply	Seasonic Prime GX-750.
Mouse	Logitech G203 Prodigy.
Keyboard	Logitech G213.
Software	Windows 11 Pro, @ Day 1.

Processor	i7-13700k
Motherboard	Asus Tuf Gaming z790-plus
Cooling	Coolermaster Hyper 212 RGB
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB 32GB DDR5 7000mhz
Video Card(s)	Asus Dual Geforce RTX 4070 Super ( 2800mhz @ 1.0volt, ~60mhz overlock -.1volts. 180-190watt draw)
Storage	1x Samsung 980 Pro PCIe4 NVme, 2x Samsung 1tb 850evo SSD, 3x WD drives, 2 seagate
Display(s)	Acer Predator XB273u 27inch IPS G-Sync 165hz
Power Supply	Corsair RMx Series RM850x (OCZ Z series PSU retired after 13 years of service)
Mouse	Logitech G502 hero
Keyboard	Logitech G710+

System Name	Bruuuuuuuuuuul!!!
Processor	Intel Core i5 3570K
Motherboard	Asrock Z77 Extreme6
Cooling	Scythe Mugen 4
Memory	Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Vega 56 Pulse
Storage	OCZ Vertex 3 256GB (Windows) + Samsung 860 EVO 1TB (Games)
Display(s)	Asus MG279Q
Case	AeroCool Tor Pro
Audio Device(s)	Creative Soundblaster Zx
Power Supply	Corsair AX850
Mouse	Logitech MX Master 2S
Keyboard	Logitech G613
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Still running all fine at good framerates even 4k :)

System Name	MajorPaehn
Processor	x5670 @ 4.2
Motherboard	RoG, Rampage III Extreme
Cooling	CM, V6 GT
Memory	Patriot Viper II, 12GB 3 x 4
Video Card(s)	EVGA GTX 960 SSC
Storage	Samsung PM830 128GB SSD, Western Digital Black 1TB
Display(s)	ViewSonic, VX2739wm
Case	CM, Cosmos 1000
Audio Device(s)	ALC889
Power Supply	CM Silent Pro Gold 1200w
Mouse	Razer Imperator
Keyboard	Razer Reculusa, Nostromo
Software	WIn 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	3D Mark 11 Performance P10099

System Name	Fat NCASE
Processor	Ryzen R9 3900X
Motherboard	ASUS TUF GAMING B550M ZAKU (WIFI) Edition
Cooling	Scythe Fuma with 3 SCYTHE Wondersnail 2400RPM + Arctic MX2
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 128GB @3200Mhz Cl16 (32GB X 4)
Video Card(s)	Palit RTX 3060 StormX ITX 12GB
Storage	MX500 4TB SATA + Toshiba MG08 16TB HDD
Display(s)	LG 27UL500 4K monitor
Case	Jonsbo W2 black
Audio Device(s)	Onboard realtek 1200 & Soundblaster G3 usb
Power Supply	ASUS ROG STRIX 850W Gundam Edition
Mouse	Elecom wireless mouse :)
Keyboard	RK100 Royal Kludge
Software	Windows 10 HOME
Benchmark Scores	Don't know any benchmark. It runs good enough for me.

Processor	Intel i9 9900K @5GHz w/ Corsair H150i Pro CPU AiO w/Corsair HD120 RBG fan
Motherboard	Asus Z390 Maximus XI Code
Cooling	6x120mm Corsair HD120 RBG fans
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RBG 2x8GB 3600MHz
Video Card(s)	Asus RTX 3080Ti STRIX OC
Storage	Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB , 970 EVO 1TB, Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD, 10TB Synology DS1621+ RAID5
Display(s)	Corsair Xeneon 32" 32UHD144 4K
Case	Corsair 570x RBG Tempered Glass
Audio Device(s)	Onboard / Corsair Virtuoso XT Wireless RGB
Power Supply	Corsair HX850w Platinum Series
Mouse	Logitech G604s
Keyboard	Corsair K70 Rapidfire
Software	Windows 11 x64 Professional
Benchmark Scores	Firestrike - 23520 Heaven - 3670

System Name	BY-2021
Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (65w eco profile)
Motherboard	MSI B550 Gaming Plus
Cooling	Scythe Mugen (rev 5)
Memory	2 x Kingston HyperX DDR4-3200 32 GiB
Video Card(s)	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT
Storage	Samsung 980 Pro, Seagate Exos X20 TB 7200 RPM
Display(s)	Nixeus NX-EDG274K (3840x2160@144 DP) + Samsung SyncMaster 906BW (1440x900@60 HDMI-DVI)
Case	Coolermaster HAF 932 w/ USB 3.0 5.25" bay + USB 3.2 (A+C) 3.5" bay
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC1150, Micca OriGen+
Power Supply	Enermax Platimax 850w
Mouse	Nixeus REVEL-X
Keyboard	Tesoro Excalibur
Software	Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Benchmark Scores	Faster than the tortoise; slower than the hare.

System Name	Starlifter :: Dragonfly
Processor	i7 2600k 4.4GHz :: i5 10400
Motherboard	ASUS P8P67 Pro :: ASUS Prime H570-Plus
Cooling	Cryorig M9 :: Stock
Memory	4x4GB DDR3 2133 :: 2x8GB DDR4 2400
Video Card(s)	PNY GTX1070 :: Integrated UHD 630
Storage	Crucial MX500 1TB, 2x1TB Seagate RAID 0 :: Mushkin Enhanced 60GB SSD, 3x4TB Seagate HDD RAID5
Display(s)	Onn 165hz 1080p :: Acer 1080p
Case	Antec SOHO 1030B :: Old White Full Tower
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Bose Companion 2 Series III :: None
Power Supply	FSP Hydro GE 550w :: EVGA Supernova 550
Software	Windows 10 Pro - Plex Server on Dragonfly
Benchmark Scores	>9000

System Name	HELLSTAR
Processor	AMD RYZEN 9 5950X
Motherboard	ASUS Strix X570-E
Cooling	2x 360 + 280 rads. 3x Gentle Typhoons, 3x Phanteks T30, 2x TT T140 . EK-Quantum Momentum Monoblock.
Memory	4x8GB G.SKILL Trident Z RGB F4-4133C19D-16GTZR 14-16-12-30-44
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Pulse RX 7900XTX + under waterblock.
Storage	Optane 900P[W11] + WD BLACK SN850X 4TB + 750 EVO 500GB + 1TB 980PRO[FEDORA]
Display(s)	Philips PHL BDM3270 + Acer XV242Y
Case	Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO
Audio Device(s)	Sound Blaster ZxR
Power Supply	Fractal Design Newton R3 1000W
Mouse	Razer Basilisk
Keyboard	Razer BlackWidow V3 - Yellow Switch
Software	FEDORA 39 / Windows 11 insider