The PCs and laptops of today come with onboard sound, which are largely adequate for casual use, like the occasional video on YouTube or Facebook. However, there are a handful instances when you’ll want or need to upgrade because good audio breathes life into all types of media.
1. NOISE
All the electrical activity that happens on the motherboard creates a background hiss that affects the quality of onboard audio. While many motherboards now include shielding and isolation for the audio components, these can’t protect against electrical interference entirely.
Introducing a dedicated sound card moves audio production away from the busy motherboard, and also frees it up to perform other demanding task.
2. SONIC DETAILS
Games and movies often have elaborate, meticulously crafted soundscapes to keep you engaged and fully immersed in their worlds. Most integrated sound cards do not have the features needed to produce clear, crisp sound because there’s limited space on the motherboard, which means you lose all the subtle audio nuances that make a game / movie / music piece go from “good” to “AMAZING!”.
Dedicated sound cards are made with better audio components that offer features like higher signal-to-noise ratios, lower harmonic distortion, 24-bit sample rates, and 192-kHz resolutions, just to name a few. This gives you better sound quality all around, so you get to experience and fully appreciate your favorite games, movies, and music the way their creators intended.
3. FILE TYPES
If you’re a budding collector of high-res audio file types like FLAC and lossless files, you’ll most likely need a dedicated sound card as integrated cards may not support the bit depth of your files or offer playback at your file’s native sample rate.
We make the best PCI-e cards available in the market with our proprietary Acoustic Engine technology. Have the ultimate battle station PC or a custom rig built? The AE series provides you with incredibly high-res audio, Xamp discrete headphone bi-amp with ultra-low 1Ω output impedance, and dedicated audio processing for enhancements that satisfies even the most discerning user. Complete the mission. Get the best video AND audio.
