Realtek inbuilt HD ALC887 vs Asus Xonar DGX PCIe

Guys i think its not always about having the best headphones, ive seen a lot of pro's buy sound card for gaming purposes, i was thinking this could be one of the solutions, as i feel my onboard is shit, ive used the same headphone on a different system which sounded much better.



IVE GOT A GIGABYTE AX370M-GAMING 3 MOTHER BOARD
 

whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
Onboard audio on mobo is almost always inferior to a dedicated sound card & Asus Xonar brand is quite famous among audio cards(this particular model is budget model though but still quite good). However you need to have some decent headphone/speakers to notice the significant improvement in audio quality.
 

Nerevarine

Incarnate
I have XONAR U3 and my onboard motherboard having realtek soundcard has far superior audio quality. Tested on speakers and headphones/earphones.
 
OP
ramaswamy ganapathy
@SaiyanGoku I am using a chinese gaming headphones called kotion each, now before u make any judgements i would like to say that it has performed better than my previous sennheizer HD series (i had like 2 of them) and logitech gaming headset(all of which i paid around 4-5k at that time).
 
OP
ramaswamy ganapathy
yes mother board drivers are updated


Kotion Each G2100 Vibration Wired Headset with Mic Price in India - Buy Kotion Each G2100 Vibration Wired Headset with Mic Online - Kotion Each : Flipkart.com
 

SaiyanGoku

kamehameha!!
yes mother board drivers are updated


Kotion Each G2100 Vibration Wired Headset with Mic Price in India - Buy Kotion Each G2100 Vibration Wired Headset with Mic Online - Kotion Each : Flipkart.com
Your headphones don't even require it as they are low powered (32 Ω only link: EACH G2100 Vibration Function Professional Gaming Headphone | Kotion Each Official Site - Media Center ). For comparison, my E10c and 598SE have impedance of 42 Ω and 50 Ω respectively and my office desktop (Realtek ALC662) can drive them easily.

Realtek ALC887 Onboard audio vs Asus Xonar DG / DGX or any other similar dedicated Sound Card - [Solved] - Components

Dedicated sound card will give you a huge volume boost. My Creative X-Fi (PCI-E card) has such a high volume output that I had to limit max volume in drivers because my Sennheiser HD415 headphones would destroy my eardrums if volume level in Windows would be changed to max by some program (heck even ~30% was unbearable without forced limitation).

As for sound quality, you may get some sweet bass, but I think it's more related to quality headphones and any realistic improvement from soundcard itself would be more available power for output & driving high(er) impedance headphones and quality speakers.

IMO, you should consider buying an external powered amp instead of a pcie sound card if you want higher, but distortion free, sound levels.
 

Nerevarine

Incarnate
rule of thumb is u should spend half of total value of ur earphone + speakers on dac. pairing a 2k hp with a 5 k dac is worse than going for a 7K earphone instead and using mobo out
 
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OP
ramaswamy ganapathy
@SaiyanGoku The cost of that thing is same as the cost of


*www.amazon.in/Creative-Blaster-Aud..._rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=NHWZPDAESRQK8QKY43SY



*www.amazon.com/FiiO-E10K-Headphone...00LP3AMC2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8



don't u think a sound card is future proof in case i go for a better headphone?
 

SaiyanGoku

kamehameha!!
@SaiyanGoku The cost of that thing is same as the cost of

*www.amazon.in/Creative-Blaster-Audigy-Performance-Headphone/dp/B00EO6X4XG/

*www.amazon.com/FiiO-E10K-Headphone-Amplifier-Black/dp/B00LP3AMC2/

don't u think a sound card is future proof in case i go for a better headphone?
What better headphone would you upgrade to? You'd be better off buying a tube amp/dac instead of a sound card if you decide to get studio headphones.
 
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