Motherboard onboard sound comparison

Hardware Hub Motherboards
1

So i've heard that the supremeFX chip on the Asus ROG series is nothing more than a realtek chip with some fancy software and some added features.

with the new generation haswell, i've noticed there are several different onboard audio chips that different manufacturers use.

Asrock uses 2 different ones:

  1. realtek 1150 purity sound (on the extreme series boards)
  2. creative sound core3d (on the fatal1ty professional board)

Asus uses their supremeFX 8 audio chip.

Gigabyte uses the creative sound core3d chip as well. 

 

so the question is what are the differences between all these audio chips and which would be the "best" for a nice emersive gaming experience with 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound. 

i've heard that the creative chip is supposed to be the best compared to the other two because "its made by creative". but i have no idea why that would be better. how would these chips compare to a mid-range discreet sound card?

 

Thanks,

smileytown

2

Inbuilt chips are usually just the barebones that they can get away with, it is perfectly fine for general things like Tv, movies and light gaming, but if you are getting anywhere near serious about sound, then a dedicated card is definitely the way to go.

I'm not saying go straight off and pick up the latest and greatest $200 pro edition card, but a nice $40 - $100 will give you better sound and even maybe some headphone amplification (if you have good headphones, this is a really great thing). So if you have the spare money and the spare slot then get one, if not then it isn't a huge thing.