Steam Survey Preliminary Results: Article

[Magnus]

Check out an article on the preliminary results of Steam's latest survey on hardware:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071114-valve-hardware-survey-shows-vista-gaining-ground.html

I found the lack of sound cards in machines to be interesting. Sound cards could be a thing of the past.

 

[ARMED]

Most people are happy with onboard sound. You don't really need a sound card unless you have some 7.1 setup and want awesome sound.

 

[GreenMonkey]

that isnt true, many many onboard sound cards just fail out under intence use (not permanently but quality) and will crackle if the power fluctuates.

Also, if you want environmental effects such as EAX (unless you have vista ) then having a sound card will actually free up processor time and games will run better. It is just that onboard sound is becomming toleratable.

 

[chemically_dependent]

I use my onboard which sounds really good. I think for me for some reason my sound card is always the last thing on my mind to upgrade if I have extra cash. First graphics, processor, OS, then probably sound.

 

[M3dley]

Yea my onboard i think was better than my old soundcard >_< haha