Sound card for games

If you are just getting into audio hardware or simply have a really bad audio device on your motherboard and want something a little bit better you should look into entry-level sound cards like the Asus Xonar SE. Even though this is not exactly the highest quality of audio, for normal gaming purposes and general use this soundcard is perfectly fine.

The sound card comes with grounding technology that also allows minimizing distortion and audio crossover interference. Overall this tiny little sound card will output with a high dB signal-to-noise ratio for an improved audio experience. For extra tweaking power, you are also encouraged to use the Xonar Audio Center software which will allow you to implement features such as EQ and audio profiles natively.

This is a card made for the top of the line gaming experience. It features extensive support for a variety of headphones, supporting 7. The software suite is pretty good. Modern looking, filled with features, and easier to use than most suites offered by other manufacturers.

Next, the card comes with an audio control unit allowing gamers and streamers to control their audio devices without any hassle and to quickly swap connected devices.

It can be used to playback files up to kHz at bit which is the highest level of audio files currently available. The EVGA NU can power headphones up to ohm which means you basically can use any studio headphones with no worries about them not having enough juice to run properly.

The 7. At the same time, you must also know that buying this device without having proper headphones will barely increase the audio quality and you are better off just using the integrated audio from your motherboard.

Your decision will vary depending on your current situation, but overall this is an excellent audio device. If the integrated sound card on your motherboard died or if you need a solid budget standalone sound card because the one on your motherboard is awful, check out this one. Finally, Creative offers great software that comes with this card, offering plenty of features allowing you to tweak your audio settings in detail.

It can be paired with smartphones and laptops in just a few seconds and once attached, it will turn your phone or laptop in a top audiophile device. If you need only a quality DAC for your laptop without additional features, this one can replace even the best external sound cards for laptop out there. This DAC has superb performance. Wide soundstage, crisp sound with almost zero noise, incredible dynamic range, and near-perfect timing.

The Sound BlasterX G6 is the best external sound card for gamers, period. It will probably also be compatible with the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 when these two next-gen consoles come out. Clear sound with excellent channel separation, boosted ambient noises that improve the overall experience in any game, expansive dynamic range, and SBX mode that provides excellent virtual surround along with widening the soundstage. Overall, this is an excellent gaming sound card with the price and limited input selection being its only major drawbacks.

You should use this one with your PC or laptop. When it comes to the sound quality this DAC is pretty solid. Clear sound with a bit more bass, pretty good dynamics, and extended highs. The gain switch allows using powerful headphones at high sound levels and the bass boost is a nice thing to have if you like your music with an extra thump. The main advantage of this DAC is its price. Relatively low price allows it to compete with DACs costing two or three times more.

The sound quality is that good. This device serves the same purpose as an internal sound card — to elevate the quality of the sound reproduction. As with most other devices on this list, it has a good AMP inside of it therefore can power studio headphones with up to ohms of impedance. All modern games use pre-recorded digital soundtracks, and musicians who require synthesizers buy standalone sound modules or use software synthesizers. Thus, the synthesizer component of an integrated audio chip is rarely used.

A modern sound card may entice users with features such as Dolby surround sound for gaming and movies, post-processing for sound effects to simulate environments such as caves and hallways and bit, kHz audio fidelity for studio recording. High-quality compression algorithms and the DVD-ROM format have freed modern game music composers from the need to optimize their work for disk space.

Today, role-playing game soundtracks frequently mix live instrumental performances with high-end synthesizers to create wide-ranging orchestral scores. Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire Composed by Chance Thomas. The Quest for Glory V soundtrack was a key component in the campaign, proving that game music was finally approaching film music in ambition and sound quality. The Quest for Glory V soundtrack has recently been re-released and is available through iTunes. Modern bands such as Freezepop and Anamanaguchi have found success by mixing organic instruments and vocals with synthesized sounds created by vintage consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy.

The SID was a music synthesizer that could play up to three voices simultaneously, each using one of four different waveforms. Each voice had independent controls for parameters such as filters, attack and sustain, allowing for a wide variety of sounds.

Although the SID is no longer produced and supplies are dwindling, it continues to be prized among musicians and vintage computer lovers and is used in modern products such as the HardSID sound card and SidStation synthesizer.

In all, it is estimated that Commodore sold 22 million Commodore 64 computers, making it the best-selling computer in history. The SID chip has inspired such devotion that streaming radio stations such as Kohina have popped up to preserve the music and introduce it to new generations.

Commodore shook the world of computer sound again with the release of the Amiga in Each channel supported independent volume control and composers could use any 8-bit samples they liked, resulting in fairly professional music with a great deal of variety.

However, many consumers preferred the safety of the IBM-compatible standard and by the early s, PCs had begun to catch up technologically with the Amiga. Commodore bet the farm on a CD-based game console called the CD32 in , but the CD32 failed to generate enough revenue to keep the company afloat.

By , Commodore was bankrupt. Commando Rob Hubbard is credited on more than games and is a legendary composer among Commodore 64 fans. His style is characterized by an offbeat melodic sensibility and frequent use of arpeggios to imply chords — a technique that became common among Commodore 64 composers and worked far better on the C64 than it did on the PC speaker.

The Great Giana Sisters With its simple melody and unusual chord progression, this theme from The Great Giana Sisters is frequently mentioned on lists of favorite Commodore 64 game tracks. Full Contact While the Paula sound chip could play just four voices at a time, digital samples allowed composers to break that rule. By sampling and manipulating chords, a composer could create a track that seemed to have greater polyphony than the Amiga was actually capable of producing.

Rather than using the four channel. Because tracker music was typically the format of choice in the demoscene community, it was only natural that many demo competitions would also have categories for tracker music compositions. Fountain of Sighs won the prize for the best four-channel music composition at The Party in The recordings featured in this article were created using the original hardware whenever possible.

In some cases, it was necessary to use emulators. Emulators were used only when the result would be virtually identical to the original hardware. All of the music featured in this article is protected by copyright and remains the property of the copyright holders. The musical selections featured in this article are presented for their historical and educational value.

If you do not want your music featured here, please contact us. Developed and published by Loricels. Developed and published by Electronic Arts. Listen to the Tandy Silpheed Although the sound chip of the Tandy lacked an effects channel for percussion, the three-voice polyphony made it possible to construct a full piece of music with melody, harmony and bass.

Developed by Cryo Interactive and published by Virgin Games. Developed and published by Sierra On-Line. Developed and published by Origin. Developed and Published by Origin. Listen to the Gravis Ultrasound Descent It could sometimes be difficult to find games with proper support for the Gravis UltraSound, but Descent fans who owned the UltraSound experienced significantly better music than they would have with the Sound Blaster Developed and published by Blizzard.

Developed and published by LucasArts. Developed by Bethesda and published by 2K Games. Developed and published independently. Developed by Capcom and Elite and published by Data East. Developed and published by Team17 Software. Developed by Factor 5 and released by Rainbow Arts. The main thing to keep in mind when you're looking at getting a sound card is that in addition to the sound card, you will also need new computer speakers, or one of the best headphones to take advantage of it.

Sound cards will improve the sound quality of your system, but if you don't have the appropriate speakers or headset, you will never notice the difference. One of the major reasons gamers use dedicated sound cards is for the reduced CPU usage, although many dedicated graphics cards will now handle some of the audio load too.

If you're not a gamer, this may not make a lot of sense, but for gamers, this is a huge deal. You will, of course, also receive improved sound, which is ideal for games that use surround sound to help you identify where enemies are located or where they are shooting.

Sound enthusiasts will also find a little extra joy from games like Fortnite and Red Dead Redemption 2. These game makers spent thousands if not millions of dollars making sure the sound quality and sound tracks of their games is well above par. If you're looking for an internal sound card, we like the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy FX , which comes in either a 5. Firstly, the growing number of users indicates the product is good. Secondly, the manufacturers will hopefully provide better quality and after-sales service because of that growing number.

Value For The Money: They say you get what you pay for. We try to measure how much value for the money you can get from your Computer Sound Cards before putting them on the list. Durability: Durability and reliability go hand to hand. A robust and durable Computer Sound Cards will serve you for months and years to come. Availability: Products come and go, new products take the place of the old ones. Probably some new features were added, some necessary modifications were done.

We try to feature products that are up-to-date and sold by at least one reliable seller, if not several. Negative Ratings: Yes, we take that into consideration too! When we pick the top rated Computer Sound Cards on the market, the products that got mostly negative ratings get filtered and discarded. These are the criteria we have chosen our Computer Sound Cards on. Does our process stop there?