the sound card

[YankeeAngler]

back in the olden days when I built my first gaming rig it was a single core CPU we put in sound cards for better sound quality and performance my new rig has a maximun 7 hero motherboard with a intel i5 4690 K CPU it has a decent onboard sound card so do you still need a sound card for better performance from your CPU

 

[helpstar]

nope
no performance boost, just quality could be a bit better. But without a very good soundsystem and if you aren´t a music enthusiast, the onboard sound will do.

 

[faalin]

now a days you really don't need an add in sound card, for the everyday user the onboard is just fine.

Your cpu would not even notice if you off loaded the sound to a soundcard especially the 4690K. I have the same board and a 4670K and can switch between the onboard and my SB card and the cpu usage does not even change when gaming.

 

[Adroid]

Onboard sound is fine. You would need really high end speakers or headphones, and high def audio playing to start with, to notice any difference (with a sound card). Performance difference is negligible with a 4690K