Is there a point to sound cards at all? If not then why

This is not the stupid questions thread

I erased my full reply because
>>55981585 is right

>>>/sqt/

>>55981571

>Is there a point to sound cards at all?
Yes.

Short answer:
>>>/sqt/

Long answer: No

>>55981571
Yes. Even the old ones like SB Live! 5.1 have better sound in 99%.
See - https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://pclab.pl/art17707-12.html&usg=ALkJrhh5-Wo79z1wyYeH8O1r8O0v-2hDuA

>>55981571
Its special dsp effects and features
This is why I really only use Soundblaster cards

Sound cards and sound devices are mostly used in the recording business, these shitty GAYMUR cards bled over and are not noticeably better than mobo audio

>>55982242
Tbqh not everything is better than on board audio. A Realtek 892 tend to preform as about as good as $1000 dacs

And that's not comparing it to there highest end model.

Btw, keep in mind that their oem chips are no more than $4

>>55982302
Right but some people have to do with "real" dedicated sound card/device setups because they're recording vocals, instruments, or just want more than 1 3.5mm mic input.

>>55981571
>If not then why do they still exist?
>Why do companies want to make easy money off of gullible people?
I don't know anon

>>55981571
old computers have shitty onboard audio

>>55981571
Professional use
New mobos onboards are almost always isolated and good enough for general use

>>55981571
it's worth getting one if your onboard makes inteference sounds

If you are doing any kind of serious recording, then you are most likely going to be buying some sort of external audio interface. Internal ones still do exist, with breakout boxes and stuff, but generally you'll have a big external device connected via USB that handles all your inputs and outputs.

low latency midi input, so you can play an instrument without a delay between keypress and sound coming out.

>>55982144
>Yes. Even the old ones like SB Live! 5.1 have better sound in 99%.
i still have one of those things, maybe i should throw it into my 2014 rig for nostalgia.

>>55981571
Cheapest way to get 6 or 8 channels of synced output if you're using multiple amps for separates

>>55981571
Yes, although I would get an external sound card because the internal ones still have noise.

They improve sound quality a lot.

>>55981571
You're doing recording, and you want moar inputs and outputs, or XLR, or you want some MIDI, or other actually useful things.

Which isn't to say I don't still have an RME Hammerfall around here, but in many cases if you want that you'd now be better served getting a USB external card/breakout box, which is what these have evolved into.

Anything else, if onboard isn't good enough for you (and if it isn't, look into your ground or get a motherboard that isn't complete shit) then just get an external DAC.

>>55984316
what to do if i want 6-8 channels of input though? (or even more)
i wanted to experiment with microphone arrays but the most i seen are 2 mic-in even on 100$+ cards

i could put a 10$ card into each of my 3 PCI[e] slots to get 6 mics, but it doesnt feel right

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I wish somebody got the hint and made soundcards for musicians. They exist but they're unreasonably expensive considering the cost of external audio interfaces, and they usually dont really do the same thing

I'm looking for a reasonably priced internal card that has all these ins and outs
why dont they exist?

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For casual playback, no.

If you have a shitty old atx mobo manufactured before '05, with a noisy spu made by sigmatel, then yes they're necessary.

But, in a practical sense: better shielded spu's than onboard and less latency for recording.

Some old production-grade cards made by m-audio had outputs other than 3.5mm. But these are ancient at this point with no updated (Windows) drivers in the past 8 years or so.

>>55982144
no they fucking dont xD

>>55981571
At the present moment, no, there really much use for them anymore.

However, proper sound simulation is incredibly complex (more so than running a ray tracer). If you wanted realistic sound in, say, video games, perhaps one day sound cards will make a comeback.