Sound Cards? What Sorcery are these!?

[Freyera]

Hai folks!

I've never bought a Sound Card before, but recently I've been noticing quite the delay when using online voice programs that is decidedly not bandwidth lag related. It was suggested to me that I should drop the onboard sound card of my motherboard like a bag of rocks and instead get myself a shiny new Sound Card on the PCI Express lane to support it. So, a few questions I have are:

My current headphones plug into the USB. Will a Sound Card function with these? Or should I get one with actual audio jacks? Or does it matter? Or do Sound Cards come with USB jacks?

What kind of sound card should I get? There are so many options like 16/24 bit, 5.1/7.1, etc etc...

I'm sure I have more questions, but I cannot think of them for now. Anything you know will be helpful! Thanks in advance!

[The Cat]

USB headsets use their own built in sound card. It will use neither your onboard soundcard or a pcie soundcard.

So I would suggest trying a regular 3.5mm mic/headset and test out your onboard sound and see if the issue still occurs. Which, if it does, should point to a different problem as it occurs with essentially 2 different sound cards. And, if it doesn't occur, your headset is bad.

[Dezrow]

What OS are you using? If you are using Windows 7 it is common knowledge at this point there there is input lag when it comes to audio regardless of what sound card you are using for some reason. When i record anything on Windows 7 i have to turn listen off and not pay attention to it until im completely done recording. Only way to get rid of it in Win 7 is to go to a different OS. Not sure if they fixed it in Windows 8 but ill know in two weeks when i upgrade.

[vesseblah]

I've never bought a Sound Card before, but recently I've been noticing quite the delay when using online voice programs that is decidedly not bandwidth lag related.

All voice com programs have latency you can't get rid of. On mainstream programs Teamspeak2 is worst in that regard and can have easily 200-400ms latency. Both TS3 and Ventrilo has some lag too, Mumble has currently lowest latency. There's nothing you can do about it with changing soundcards, it's a feature of the voice chat server.

It was suggested to me that I should drop the onboard sound card of my motherboard like a bag of rocks and instead get myself a shiny new Sound Card on the PCI Express lane to support it.

What OS are you using? If you are using Windows 7 it is common knowledge at this point there there is input lag when it comes to audio regardless of what sound card you are using for some reason.

And yes, all windows sound cards using DirectX or the standard Microsoft drivers have some amount of input lag, around 30-40ms IIRC you can never get rid of. This is the only and only reason why audio pro's use Macs because those have lower latency in audio. You can get rid of the latency in Windows too with external USB or Firewire soundcard that uses ASIO drivers, but those are in pro gear price range ($500 and up) and not realistic or reasonable solution for fixing voice chat lag because the lag is mostly online/server related.

[BruceG87]

vesseblah covered the "delay" issue.

If you are still interested in purchasing a sound card then I suggest you head over to this link here. It's a guide created by the collective audiophile community on those forums. They've labeled parts according to your tastes, gaming etc as well as price ranges in each category.

Includes basic FAQ and other info on sound cards, headsets, headphones, mics and a bit of everything audio.

[chazus]

What kind of sound card should I get?

None.

What kind of 'lag' are you noticing, and how are you noticing it?

To be honest, if the lag is noticable, it's probably either a software issue (Which new hardware won't fix) or a hardware issue (Which is a problem that should be fixed, not band-aided)

While all of the above people raise good points, valid information, and all that... It seems silly to get a sound card for something that might be as simple as changing a setting. Personally, if it were me having the same problem, getting a new sound card would be my absolute last resort.

[Majesticii]

Soundcards are still nice if you want that bit extra soundquality. For example my very old SoundBlaster Audigy SE still provides better sound than my onboard. And the mainboard is (was) not cheap (p55-gd80). It just has better filter quality, and deeper sound. You cannot fit a proper soundcard PCB space on a mainboard.

[Erous]

A new soundcard isn't going to help you with USB lag. Have you checked your motherboard manufacturer site for updated USB drivers? Or updated your Intel INF files? This could be something to look into before committing to a hardware change.

Also, have you tried a different USB port to see if the issue persists? An online voice issue could be a problem with your internet moreso than a hardware issue.

[vesseblah]

Soundcards are still nice if you want that bit extra soundquality. For example my very old SoundBlaster Audigy SE still provides better sound than my onboard. And the mainboard is (was) not cheap (p55-gd80).

Onboard sound has improved significantly in the past 3-4 years since your motherboard was made, and your old card will do big fat nothing in a computer built with today's parts. Onboard sound was pretty bad still few years ago but it has improved greatly after years of mediocrity.

[Majesticii]

Onboard sound has improved significantly in the past 3-4 years since your motherboard was made, and your old card will do big fat nothing in a computer built with today's parts. Onboard sound was pretty bad still few years ago but it has improved greatly after years of mediocrity.

Not really, the filtering is still better than any onboard device. Simply because there is no space on a mainboard.
The audio chip might be good, but without sufficient active/passive filters it will still sound flat.