Is Onboard Audio getting there?

[JohnK]

A totally theoretical question, for now. But My computer is getting old, but is still way more powerful than I need. I was just preparing my self for a surprise meltdown; the PC is around 7-10y old I think. So I had a look if there is a windows 10 driver for my soundcard (which has served me well) and there is none.

I had a very quick look at audio cards, and everything (or at least most) appears to have gone USB. Is that correct?

I was wondering if there are motherboards available with on-board audio, that have ASIO drivers and low latency. I do all soft synths and only stereo out, with mostly mixing down (ie not recording the output), but all VST synths, so latency is important, but I dont need it to be super low, just playable.

[Lord Tim]

Depends on the kind of in-built card you have. If it's a Realtek (which is pretty common), you can switch to WASAPI Exclusive mode and even on a fairly modest machine, you can get some excellent latency. I'd still recommend a good audio interface that has solid ASIO drivers, but WASAPI is very usable with in-built cards.

[John Vere]

Yes all audio interfaces are USB or thunderbolts now with very few exceptions. Not sure why PCIe cards are not made but might be that on board audio has come a long way just like video so not the market to make it pay. 
Inside of a computer is a noisy place for audio circuits anyway so better to get it out of there. 

[Promidi]

25 minutes ago, John Vere said:

 Not sure why PCIe cards are not made ......

I thought they were.

https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards-Components/Sound-Cards/All-series/

[Byron Dickens]

6 minutes ago, Promidi said:

I thought they were.

https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards-Components/Sound-Cards/All-series/

I think he was talking about sound cards made for serious audio production.

[scook]

https://www.sweetwater.com/c703--PCI_Audio_Interfaces

[John Vere]

Yes I was meaning good old cards like those Delta’s that people seem to get many years of service out of.
Cards that used ASIO. Not Sound blasters or Gaming cards.  

I have one called a Card Deluxe made in 2005 that was supported up to W7. It still works using ASIO and is rock solid. It is dead simple with just stereo 1/4” balanced in and out. You need a mixing board to set up headphones. It’s playing movies and tunes now on a old computer I still have W7 on just in case I need it. But I installed CbB and no problem other than it’s sooo slooww

[JohnK]

My current card is the M-Audio Delta - Audiophile 24/96. I would not consider it a professional card, but it has served me well.

Of course there are some PCIe cards available, but they are few and far between (ie the exception), compared to when I purchased my current card. i.e. you two are both right.

As for "noisy". All the fans on my PC are dead silent, so much so that other people are shocked to find out my PC is running when they stand right next to it, and have to confirm with me, even if they can see the screen. As for electrical interference from other devices, I have never had anything audible to me come through.

Since my card has been working fine, I never followed the changes, so when I looked, I was surprised they had almost all switched to USB. Thanks guys for confirming that I wasn't simply being hit with misdirection of advertising by search engines. I kinda like having a card inside, tucked away from view.

Just for info, here are the cakewalk config and ASIO control panel for the card. I actually thought I had raised the buffer to the highest point before it was noticeable, but the low numbers makes me think I actually went the other way.

 

[John Vere]

Your computer is no older than mine and if that card is still working I’d most certainly keep going with what you have. 
Have you upgraded your hard drive to a SSD yet?  That’s the best bet for improved performance. More RAM and SSD drives, you’ll think you have a new computer 

 

 

[JohnK]

8 hours ago, John Vere said:

Your computer is no older than mine and if that card is still working I’d most certainly keep going with what you have. 
Have you upgraded your hard drive to a SSD yet?  That’s the best bet for improved performance. More RAM and SSD drives, you’ll think you have a new computer

My computer is WAAAAAAY old, and hence my pre-planning/prep. And even when I did my last upgrade, I got the previous generation CPU. I think its a Gen2 i7 2700K, 3.9GHz Oc'd to 4.4Ghz (currently they are up to Gen 10+ I think). It has been up to everything I have thrown at it (I dont do gaming). When I did my last upgrade I went with SSD RAID 1 (120GB as they were expensive back then), and it now has 24GB of RAM, and I just upgraded my hard drive from 120GB SSD RAID1 to 1TB SSD RAID1. I used to junction off all my data to a RAID1 4TB HDD. Now it all runs off the SSD's. No noticeable speed improvements, as my junction-ed off data was simply data. I work in IT so have a working knowledge how to squeeze performance out of my PC.

Nonetheless, I realise my other question hasn't really been touched upon. I was also wondering if Onboard Sound was "getting there" to a point of being useful for music (remember this is a hobby, not a profession). In the above post, by @Promidi he gave a link to a PCIe card by ASUS

On 10/1/2021 at 8:26 AM, Promidi said:

I thought they were.

https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards-Components/Sound-Cards/All-series/

I think ASUS make motherboards, so, possibly their current motherboards may have previous gen sound built into their latest boards? especially since some would be targeted at gaming. And my current PCIe card is many many years old.

[John Vere]

This is it. Onboard audio I do believe is as good as the cards so not much reason to add a PCIe card when your mobo is already there. 

I  have my “Studio B” office computer set up with on board or my older Focusrite 6i6 to a set of Mackie  powered monitors. I really don’t notice any difference in sound quality between the 2 audio systems.
I really don’t need the Focusrite interface hooked up because I never record on that machine, just listen and edit. But it’s just gathering dust otherwise so figured might as well use it. Also it’s nice to have the proper headphones set up. 
 

As far as on board audio improvements I don’t think the hardware has seen anything much but WASAPI has definitely been a big improvement to performance and stability.