I'm building a new computer as below.  I've traditionally have used built with cheaper motherboards and rarely been satisfied with the quality of onboard sound.  As such, I've always had a PCI-e sound card.  I've got a much better motherboard this time and was wondering about the utility of separate card if I'm ok with the sound quality from onboard. As I understand it, the motherboard has a separate sound processing chip, so I'm not sure I'd expect any offloading of the CPU with a separate card.  Is there any performance benefit I should expect to see?  I'm not an audiophile, so if the Asus board is even decent quality, I might be just as happy keeping the board uncluttered if there's no benefit.

 

Asus Z97-Pro Motherboard

Intel i7 4790k with Noctua NH-D14 Cooler

Corsair Vengeance 2400 MHz 2x4GB RAM

Gigabyte GTX 770 4GB

Corsair 750 W Power Supply

Samsung SSD for OS, HDD for FSX, backup

My guess is that you will be happy with the on-board sound on that motherboard.

My guess is that you will be happy with the on-board sound on that motherboard.

 

That's what I suspect as well.  Any thoughts as to the possible performance gain, if any, with a separate sound card?  Even if happy with the onboard sound, I have the sound card from the old computer and might as well use it IF there happens to be a performance benefit.

None.

Search youtube for "Tek Syndicate sound card." A couple of knowledgeable people go into specifics as to why sound cards aren't relevant anymore.