vmem :
fact of the matter is, onboard audio have become (like PCs made in the last 3-4 years) good enough for most people to have no-incentive to spend big bucks to upgrade.
And if GT3e delivers, it may be the beginning of the end for low/low-midrange GPUs, which is just about everyone who does not have esoteric display or somewhat serious gaming requirements.
The thing that bugs me about on-board audio is that unless your mixed-signal engineers or CODEC suck, there is no reason for on-board audio to actually suck at least THD+N wise... all it takes is a little bit more effort on PCB layout and maybe $2 in extra/better parts. The most important things you need are a good CODEC, a section of properly isolated ground+power planes for the analog side with proper decoupling and filtering.
This is a lot like the difference between a 'good' and a 'bad' PSU: minor detail tweaks in the overall design, $2 on better components and you get a PSU that lasts 7-10 years instead of 1-4. All this corner-cutting is pretty bad for the environment and for people's wallets.