S/PDIF on mobo vs. sound card (1 Viewer)

[Colin-H]

Do I really need a sound card, or will I get good enough performance running straight from my mobo's S/PDIF to my receiver?

 

[Mike Fassler]

the spdif on my NforceII mobo is awesome, I doubt you will notice much difference unless you dont have an Nforce board.

 

[Colin-H]

I'm getting an Nforce4 board, so hopefully I won't have any problems.

 

[Parker Clack]

I have a MSI K8N Neo4 mobo and anything the DVD player sends out whether it is DD, DTS, DD EX, etc. gets passed to my preamp via the S/PDIF with no problem. As with the majority of the mobos out there it has both coax and optical
outs.

Parker

 

[Scott L]

If it's for music listening most motherboards don't let you output 44.1kHz. You'd need a sound card for that. :

For movies it's fine.