ASUS Releases STRIX Series Sound Cards

I wonder if an external sound card would make any difference in my case?
I use built-in sound card in my Asrock Z77 Pro4.
I use earphones for gaming: Sennheiser pc 360 game.

 

Really curious whether the software support/control app is gonna be as poor as for Xonar Essence STX II. Great hardware, but customers have to rely on 3rd party drivers...C'mon ASUS, take the finger out finally !!!

 

Think it will have a Windows 10 driver?

 

Unless you are a dog or cat using headphones... otherwise no.

 

External Dac/Amp will sound better then a Realtek.

 

Sure...the same one that came out for STX I years ago

 

only if you have trained ears, very good speakers(/headphones) and don't live in 2x2m room. and even then it would be tricky

realtek itself has come a long way and is pretty much transparent nowadays, ofc. dependant on particular implementation

typically ppl would be better off getting better speakers or treating their room, than buying new sound card

 

Maybe the day when the Phoebus gets one....

Kinda ironic that ASUS releases a new soundcard and still doesn't manage to give proper driver support to their most recent ones.

 

Not sure what you guys are on about drivers. My Asus D2X works fine using Windows 10...

 

My Phoebus works fine in 10, just using the toslink connection to my dac with it.

 

I notice a difference, not so much in games, but when I play FLACs etc.

 

How big is the market for sound cards anymore? I remember when onboard was junk and most gamers bought a sound card. I was amazed at the difference my X-Fi made 10 years ago, but now onboard has caught way up. Maybe a big audiophile will want one, but if your rig is current I doubt you would hear a difference in most cases.

 

I really don't understand people. Onboard is still junk. There is a market for sound cards. I just don't think some people care how their games sound. I might buy the new Asus card. I'd never use onboard..

 

The difference is actually more noticeable on high end gear with music tbh, not gaming.

 

My Gigabyte G1 Z97 Gaming has a nice isolated Creative Labs onboard sound section. You can also upgrade the op-amp. It also has an isolated USB port specifically for DAC's.....

 

LOL, Asus. No, thanks. My Xonar D1 still doesn't have Windows 10 drivers, and the Windows 8.1 drivers are still in beta (they did one beta release and then abandoned it.)

Asus is a sad joke of a company.

 

i've heard this since I bought my x-fi nearly 10 years ago, and to this day, on every new mobo, I test the onboard compared to the x-fi, and it's still not even close.

onboard is just crappy, in games, in music, in everything. And i'm not even an audiophile.

 

It depends what you use the soundcard for. Onboard is fine for passthrough. I found realtek drivers handle it much better than Asus drivers.
For headphones I wouldn't invest in a soundcard but something else.

 

Most people can't hear the diffence and some who never actually had good audio to being with do not know how something suppose to sound.It always take some one giving something to go to realize what they are missing.

There will always be a market for sound cards until they they all go fully external and leave the computer completely.