Integrated sound card vs external

[Redien]

Hello, I would like to ask, I have Z270X-Gaming K5 motherboard, which has Sound Blaster X-Fi MB5. I also have external Sound Blaster Audio FX.
I am not an expert on sound at all. I don´t know which of these two is better. The utility (program) seems better for X-FI MB5 (modernish design), but from past i have an experience that external was always better, sadly I am not sure in this case. Anybody has some experience ?

Thank you in advance.

 

[mcnumpty23]

since you have both of them

surely the best thing to do is listen to both?

go with which ever sounds better to your ears

 

[boosted1g]

Integrated sound cards have made large leaps and bounds over the last few years.
You have to get a pretty high end dedicated card now days to beat what is already in gaming motherboards.

If not doing music production then I would simply pick the one that has the best interface that does everything you need it to.
I am not versed enough in audio chips to know which one is better, but since you cant tell by sound then features you need/ease of use is going to be the more determining factor anyways.

 

[R_1]

any onboard solution will share resources, even creative. this was an issue when there was a single core running under 1Ghz the resources needed for the sound were noticed when they were gone.
the biggest issue with onboard today is noise, sharing the PCB with the rest of the system it is hard to isolate the audio from interference.
dedicated sound cards will offer less noise because they have more/dedicated hardware to work with.

you would need truly great speakers to tell the difference now. if you cannot tell with your speakers I would go with the onboard.

 

[Redien]

Thank you all for answers ! Much appreciated.
It seems i will need new speakers I am also using headset in specific apps (games included), sadly, it cant be connected both at same time, because front speakers are using same jack as headset.