worth getting a sound card?

[teratravp]

I'm using onboard audio right now. AC97. Honestly there aren't many problems and pretty much everything I play sounds and plays fine. But I read a benchmark of an audigy 2 zs and it was getting signifigantly higher framerates - as much as 20 frames over other sound solutions in games.

2 cards I've heard good things about are the fortissimo III and audigy 2 zs. I'd like to stay in the low $50 price range so unless audigy can give unrivaled performance boost in games, forget it. there's also turtle beach santa cruz around that range that's supposed to be good. I have little interest in sound features and musical extras, lot of interest in performance enhancement for games. that in mind any recommendations?

and one further thing, I might be overhauling my system soon and problem get an nforce mobo with it's lauded onboard sound. don't know how that stacks up but if that's comparable to sound card performance let me know and I'll wait for that.

[Phaelon]

You can get that Audigy on newegg oem for 55 bucks =p

[HunterKiller]

www.pricegrabber.com

For all your bargain hunting needs.

[Rbstr]

I noticed a slight inprovment in FPS when i got my audigy 2 ZS, and i can say the better sound quality was worth it alone, not to mention EAX and things like that.

I Would pick up and OEM audigy 2, the regualr audigy wasn't that good

the NF2's sound is far better than th AC97, but it still doen't stack up very well to a decent Soundcard

[Daleon]

Yea, don't bother with an original Audigy. Mines sitting in a box, while I use my onboard sound. Don't even get a regular Audigy2. The newer revision Z's are only really decent improvement. And I don't think you can find them for $50, not even the oem's if you can even find one.

You won't get a 20 fps boost in PS either, thats for sure. But you may get a decent boost as you have a rather weak cpu as it is, so anything you can do to help would be good. If you use DDR ram, another 512 is better. If you use RDRAM, save for a new system.

[NoSurrender]

i use the onboard that came with my NF2 400 and im perfectly happy with it. will get a audigy 2ZS soon or later though.