Best Gaming sound card for the money?

[chillybawls]

Nothing too expensive. Best bang for your buck. I plan on using headphones most of the time and do lots of gaming. Also, is an my onboard audio on my Asus Rampage II Gene worse than my Creative Audigy 2 zs? Btw i'm using all of this on win 7 64bit

 

[cyberkuberiah]

which headphones ? unless u're using high end sennheiser like headphones , the difference would not be much notice-able . the onboard audio is pretty good these days .

 

[MagicPants]

The rampage has a pretty good sound card built in. Asus calls it X-Fi which indicates it is some sort of creative product. Probably the cheapest sound card better than that is an X-Fi titanium which runs about $80.

I'd say stick with your onboard. Also with a mini motherboard like the Gene you might want to make sure the card will fit. If you're using a dual slot card in the first slot it looks like the pci-express x4 slot would be covered

 

[gamerk316]

Best soundcard for under $100 would be either the ASUS Xonar D1/DX or HT Omega Striker, both for $89.

Remember, if you use a USB headset, the soundcard is ignored.

 

[chillybawls]

The rampage has a pretty good sound card built in. Asus calls it X-Fi which indicates it is some sort of creative product. Probably the cheapest sound card better than that is an X-Fi titanium which runs about $80.

I'd say stick with your onboard. Also with a mini motherboard like the Gene you might want to make sure the card will fit. If you're using a dual slot card in the first slot it looks like the pci-express x4 slot would be covered

It is actually a stupid special Realtek sound chip with special X-fi software and such made just for the chip. The software is not true X-fi and after testing the sound quality, sucks compared to my Audigy zs 2. I just can't get the mic to work on the sound card with win 7. That is the problem