Does a sound card have any effect in performance?

[Selbio]

Does it? If so what is a good sound card I can use that's cheap and won't stress a 250w psu too much.

Thanks in advance

[congo]

A sound card won't usually use much power, so don't worry about it.

Soundcards definitely affect performance..... but.... on modern fast systems with CPU's of around 2ghz or more, the soundcard has much less influence because the CPU has less trouble dealing with the sound processing.

There is research done on how much CPU utilisation different soundcards use with varied results, but generally, a decent soundcard will take some load off the CPU.

The economical Soundblaster Live series soundcards weren't too bad with CPU load, but the new onboard AC'97 sound etc., is much better in my opinion for sound quality; I'm not sure about the CPU load though.

[Selbio]

I don't know Congo, I have an Onboard AC'97 and the sound quality isn't the best. I had a SB Live 5.1 once and it sound much better than this. I really don't like the sound quality I'm getting with the Onboard card.

[congo]

I've found the same thing on older boards. My nForce2 mainboard's onboard sound is clearly better than my SB Live 5.1 though. Also there isn't any measureable performance difference with my rig... CPU 2800+

[Selbio]

I heard VIA based motherboards have poor sound quality, this is my case. Sometimes when I Listen to music the sound breaks up.

[Iroquois]

I have the Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1. Great sound comes out of that. I never use the AC97 so I don't know how good it is. It doesn't support 5.1  so it's no good to me.
A really good one is the SB Audigy2 ZS series. These are the only soundcards I've seen that support DTS which is a big plus if you watch DVDs on your computer. They start at $100US.

[Delta_]

I have a VIA board (from Gigabyte) and it has AC' 97.  I have disabled it from my bios and the performance does not increase notably.  Also i have no problems with sound quality on mine.  I find the quality excellent.  Selbio have you tried updating drivers for it.  I don't see why you should have bad sound quality when i have excellent sound quality.

Also AC'97 does support 5.1, or atleast on mine it does.

[Politically Incorrect]

A really good one is the SB Audigy2 ZS series. These are the only soundcards I've seen that support DTS which is a big plus if you watch DVDs on your computer. They start at $100US.

I added a SB Audigy 2 ZS along with 7:1  suround speakers ($168 for a bundle deal at Buy.com) and I love it!
Music sounds awesome and games will blow you away!
Nothing like firing up a DC3 with the volume maxed out, now it is almost "As real as it gets!"  :D

[congo]

I think the variable quality with onboard sound is the version of the chips used, the driver version and the way the mainboard (chipset) handles the soundchip.

Many new mainboards have great onboard sound that would suit most users, but the sound enthusiast will want more.

It's still a question of how much load the soundcard, (onboard or otherwise), places on the CPU, affecting performance. They all differ. Slower systems will be affected noticeably, while fast systems won't matter much.

[Selbio]

I have the ALC658 sound chipset. At least it sounds better than the C-media onboard sound cards I've used in the past. Before I put in the video card I noticed that the sound was breaking up real bad on fs9 specially during take off. After the new video card was installed it does it only whenever I'm listening to some songs. i noticed that if I disabled the sound by pressing the Q key in fs9 fsp will increase as well as performance.
I'm going to wait though, my main priority now is the PSU, specially now that the one I just replaced( in warranty HiPro PSU 250w) was getting real hot last night even harder than the air coming out of it.

[4_Series_Scania]

The economical Soundblaster Live series soundcards weren't too bad with CPU load, but the new onboard AC'97 sound etc., is much better in my opinion for sound quality; I'm not sure about the CPU load though.

I assume you've not discovered the "Chipmunk effect" that AC-97 brings out in Battlefield 1942? not to mention severe performance problems with GTA 3 & Vice City....?

I recently had to go back to my AC-97 soundcard (it only cost me

[Selbio]

I experience that playing BF1942 and many pther problems. Mafia is the worse. I cannot play Mafia on this sopund setup I have otherwise I will hear the chipmunks for real. I first discovered this when I got my first Nvidia Nforce 2 motherboard with the ALC650 sound chipset. I had to buy a SB live 5.1.
I finally decided to get a better power supply. I bought an Allied PSU with 300W which isn't much but at least is better than the Hipro 250w I have at the moment. Hopefully I can buy a decent sound card now.