Advice Sound cards for Gaming

[Hawkwind]

OK, new sweet setup just finished this morning:

• Asus Sabretooth Z87 LGA1150 Mobo
• Intel Core i7-4770K Quad-Core Desktop Processor 3.5 GHZ 8 MB Cache BX80646I74770K
• 2 x Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10)
• 4 x Samsung Electronics 840 Pro Series 2.5-Inch 256 GB SATA 6GB/s Solid State Drive MZ-7PD256BW
• 2 x EVGA GeForce GTX780 SuperClocked ACX Cooler 3GB GDDR5 384bit, DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI,DP, SLI Ready (03G-P4-2784-KR)
• 3 x LG IPS23 Monitors
• Creative Sound Blaster ZX SBX PCIE Gaming Sound Card with Audio Control Module SB1506

So issue I have is that I want to get the game sound playing from the Bose Speakers and want the voice comms only in the headset. Does this mean that I have to have both the onboard Audio and SB ZX card running. Someone recommended this instead:
Asus ROG Xonar Phoebus 7.1 PCI Express Soundcard
Does anyone have one and inform if they can have multiplexed inputs and outputs from the one card? Looked on the Asus site and cannot find the manual.

 

[Moriath]

I got a megalodon headset and I can set mumble or Skype etc to be via the headset with game sounds over the pc speakers with the on board sound tech.

However I don't think you will be able to split it if you are using the I game voice technology. You can pick a mic but the speakers will be the same as the game output.

I maybe wrong but that's my experience.

 

[Syri]

Some games allow you to select independent voice and game hardware, but it's rare. If you're using a separate program such as ventrilo, mumble etc, then you can specify which sound card to use in the program, so have the separate sound card as the default, and over-ride it in the voice app. I have a similar setup myself, I have an asus sound card with a 5.1 speaker system hooked up, then have a headset on the on-board sound, just for voice coms.

 

[Yaka]

you need a usb head set and use teamspeake for voice comms setup to use input and out put for the usb headset .
windows has never outputted sound to 2 seprate devices

 

[old.Osy]

Some games allow you to select independent voice and game hardware, but it's rare. If you're using a separate program such as ventrilo, mumble etc, then you can specify which sound card to use in the program, so have the separate sound card as the default, and over-ride it in the voice app. I have a similar setup myself, I have an asus sound card with a 5.1 speaker system hooked up, then have a headset on the on-board sound, just for voice coms.

Starcraft 2 does that.

 

[Yaka]

sc2 was geared for competion play. would be nice if all games had the option

 

[Hawkwind]

OK so went and purchased the Razer Tiamat 7.1 headset working great but only with Vent or TS. the SB Sound Cards don't play well with the on-board, getting conflicts and blue screens. Would be so easy to develop a Sound Card that could mix channels so games that do not have the competition play setups would work the same way. SB is also only 5.1 and on-board is 7.1 so better staying with the on-board. Tried Neverwinter and GW2 with the Tiamat and the Sound is awesome.

 

[Yaka]

its not the sound hardware its the os it self thats the issue. sc2 etc use a work around that some times windows has an issue with. its not a 100% perfect solution you get peeps moaning bout the sound issues on battle net forums all the time

 

[Syri]

OK so went and purchased the Razer Tiamat 7.1 headset working great but only with Vent or TS. the SB Sound Cards don't play well with the on-board, getting conflicts and blue screens. Would be so easy to develop a Sound Card that could mix channels so games that do not have the competition play setups would work the same way. SB is also only 5.1 and on-board is 7.1 so better staying with the on-board. Tried Neverwinter and GW2 with the Tiamat and the Sound is awesome.

I had a lot of issues with my last SB card. I had an x-fi, and the drivers were seriously awful. It took them almost a year to get a decent windows 7 driver out for it, and even then it had some major issues if I used it with the onboard. In the end, I got an Asus xonar DG, which was quite cheap really, but very highly rated. Can't fault it either. May not have as many "toys" as the x-fi, but it sure works better.

 

[Moriath]

Given up with sb cards now.. Had loads from the originals to the x-fi. Now just use on boards. Can't see the point unless your seriously into music sampling and stuff

 

[ECA]

Yeah there really isnt much diff between onboard and soundcard unless you want optical in for recording.

 

[Hawkwind]

its not the sound hardware its the os it self thats the issue. sc2 etc use a work around that some times windows has an issue with. its not a 100% perfect solution you get peeps moaning bout the sound issues on battle net forums all the time

Even when the On-Board and SB card did work for short periods the crossover was terrible on the SB into headset. Ordered an Asus from Amazon this morning, wife will bring it back to Dubai when she returns in September.

Asus ROG Xonar Phoebus 7.1 PCI Express Soundcard Sold by Amazon EU S.a.r.L.

 

[Yaka]

not bad but wondering why you chose it over the essence?

 

[Hawkwind]

Pretty Colours and shiney, plus it comes with the dongle control thingy