Questions about sound settings for gaming?

Tomahawk1

Estimable
Dec 31, 2014
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Okay, the reason I haven't seen any post about this is that it is so simple that everyone knows the answer already. That said, what what sound settings should I use for for gaming (3D environments? where did that noise come from)? my old motherboard onboard sound had an option for virtual surround when headphones were selected, my new one does not. but it does allow me to select 7.1 surround sound and my headphones will kind of give me direction from that (It does not specifically state virtual surround sound). Is it doing the same thing, because right now at times it is very difficult to distinguish where the sounds are meant to be coming from? While gaming the 7.1 selection does sound better than the stereo headphone selection. The reason I'm asking, is I am thinking about picking up a pair of decent headphones for gaming specifically and wanted to know if I should purchase a sound card to drive them. The volume is not a factor, and I get no static that I can tell.

P.S. the motherboard also came with creative cinema software that does have some options for balancing the sounds (sounds like an equalizer to me) which makes gaming sound better to me.

So, 3 questions:
1. Headphone or 7.1 surround setting for headphone gaming (and will better headphones help with locations)?
2. Buy sound card for virtual surround (will it sound better)?
3. Will creative cinema mess up the Realtek settings?

P.S. the motherboard also came with creative cinima software that does have some options for balancing the sounds (sounds like an equalizer to me) which makes gaming sound better.

Specs:
MSI z87-41 mother board
i7-4790k CPU
GTX-750ti GPU (new card is on the way)
16 gb Ram
850W PSU
 
Solution
Interesting situation.

For pure gaming, I'd buy a headset designed specifically with 7.1 surround sound built in (virtual or non virtual) that will give you the best audio for gaming. I recommend the Logitech G430.