Has any one had any experience with Asus or Creative labs and their positional audio performance over standard realtek onboard audio? I want to know from a gaming stand point the audio quality is not as important as knowing where sounds are coming from so I am not going to get a DAC. Just want to know your experience with sound cards.
A sound card has a built in DAC, but i know what you mean ;)
As for my Xonar stx I think the fact that the clarity of sound being output and the surround software it's coupled with makes an awesome and satisfying gaming experience. I'm coming from a very broad fps perspective CS:GO, BF4, COD and many free to play fps's. It also adds an awesome cinematic feel to allot of story based games I play.
You also get the added benefit of being able to listen to high quality lossless audio and really "experience" the music.
I think it is a worth while investment and you will really notice the difference. A good quality set of headphones will make an even bigger difference when used with a good sound card as well.
I am looking at these two I am most interested in the difference between the gx2.5 surround and what ever creative uses. What ever I get it needs to be usb because I am using an itx board.
I would like tek syndicate to do a show on gaming audio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF9nvNJjF3E&feature=player_detailpage seems to say no, but I wonder with how much games do for production of sound these days.