I really don't get Audio Hardware

[Extrinsic]

Because I'm not eager to put my ancient Audigy 2 PCI card into my PC upgrade I've been reading sound card reviews. The truth is, I don't hear so well that I can tell much difference between one sound card or another. It's kind of all the same to me. What is important to me is having a sound accelerator that will do the audio processing so that my CPU doesn't have to. There was a time when Creative Labs was just about the only company that produced a true audio accelerator, and all the other cards on the market hijacked CPU cycles to perform their function. Now, I'm not even sure it really makes any difference...maybe sound processing taxes the CPU so little it doesn't matter - it wouldn't surprise me, but it's the principle of it for me.
Anyway, I was reading a scathing review about the Sound Blaster Audigy RX, and the reviewer said that the card produced sound of questionable quality and that it was based off of technology that is rather old at this point...and it's hardware was less advanced than the Audigy 2. ? The reviewer must have ears like a friggin' bat or something because he went on and on about the RX's deficiencies and I know I'd never notice, but what stuck with me is that he said that virtually any mobo produced since 2015 likely has better audio processing and so it really wasn't worth buying the RX at all - it's a waste of money that produces lower quality sound.
All of this exposes just how little I really understand about audio hardware. I could spend hours and hours trying to educate myself but considering I can't hear any difference anyway it's really hard to motivate myself to embark on such an endeavor, especially when all I care about is performance in games. I just want a sound card that does the audio work so the CPU won't have to, but that's just about the most difficult piece of information to determine.
So, do newer motherboards have onboard sound processing capabilities? Or do they still sponge off the CPU? Does it make any difference? I know there are people here with intelligence far superior to mine and can patiently explain to me just how stupid I am. I'd really appreciate it.

 

[file3456]

Now, I'm not even sure it really makes any difference...

You're correct. Back in the day it did matter to offload audio processing off of the CPU to a dedicated sound card, but those days are gone with the advent of faster CPU architecture now-a-days. The only real reason why you'd want a dedicated sound card now is if you are an audiophile or have specific audio requirements for sound editing and what have you. The other being audio capabilities like Dolby Digital Live (DTS) and other stuff that modern games may utilize to bring you more realism. Another may be the need for surround sound.

For me I use a Creative Sound Blaster Z sound card which supports many audio enhancements for games as well as surround sound for my speakers and I wanted a "what you hear" option for audio recording in the computer its self with my audio program called Wavepad. The other thing here is that if you use surround sound or a good pair of headphones, you can pin point where an enemy player is in a game which gives you more of a situational awareness. Now-a-days motherboards already support surround sound and certain audio enhancements. So again, unless you're an audiophile you work with sound editing, a dedicated sound card is really not needed, and there would be a very, very marginal load on a modern day CPU. Lets just put it this way. Unless you need absolute maximum IO capability from the CPU for some major math crunching or some strange project, a sound card won't have a bearing on CPU load at all. Like I said, this was a factor some 15 years or so ago, today it's not an issue at all.

Are you still rolling with that Dell or do you have something else now since you mentioned an upgrade. The i5 you have now is more than capable of audio processing, though I'm not sure what the hardware and driver is capable of. You more than likely don't have DTS capability and all the rest if a game was able to use it.

PS: The other need for a dedicated sound card would be for watching movies in their full audio capability like the aforementioned DTS or surround sound. Especially if you have a Blu-ray drive like I do. I do have a pretty decent setup here, but the CPU is quite old and I plan on going AMD soon.

Here's a pic of my setup. I blotted out the X-rated poster I had made up at Vista Print. LOL