Vista - RE: Onboard HD Audio or Creative X-Fi Sound Card???

Could you please advise whether I will achieve better sound quality by using the onboard Realtek HD Audio connection that is part of my Asus Motherboard or by reinstalling my Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Card or doesn't it make any difference?

With the onboard HD Audio I have a digital optical cable running from the Motherboard to the optical connection of the Logitech 'Digital SoundTouch Control Centre' that came with the speakers.

With the Creative SoundCard, I connect a Creative IO Module from the SoundCard and then an optical cable from the I/O Module to the speaker control centre.

Both ways allow me to play music DVD's etc. in Digital Theatre Sound (DTS) or 5.1 Digital Surround Sound, but I was just wondering if one connection was better than the other?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

With Kindest Regards

Neil

I've found that there are pros and cons with each option:

I was using a X-fi Fatal1ty Pro that was mostly stable. Ocassionally I'd get a strange tone being emitted from the card, but not on a regular basis. The big pluses were very good sound quality and reduced CPU workload during sound playback.

Whereas, with my onboard Intel HD Audio I'm finding the entire system to be more responsive, the sound quality while quite good isn't as good as creative's card. Also, CPU workload has increased a lot.

Notable; is that the intel solution is a complete 64 bit software package, whereas creative mixes a 64 bit driver with 3 32 bit support processes and audio controller. I believe creative needs to improve their driver and software with respect to compliance to microsoft specs, and I won't be at all surprised if vista SP1 refuses to work with them.

Dear Vorloth

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post and apologies for my delay in replying.

Yes, I have reinstalled the Creative Sound Card and must say I have always been happy with it over the onboard Realtek HD audio driver and use Creative's Console Manager with it, but have stopped using their MediaSource Player 5 and just use WMP to play CD's etc. instead to avoid any conflict.

Thanks Again!
Best regards

Neil