The 7 Best 7.1 Surround Cards (2023 reviews)

We consider a 7.1 surround card to be a worthy investment in the long run. We are here to help you choose the right one for your purposes from all the best available products in market today.

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Our Top Picks:

Best Overall: Buy: Creative 7.1 Surround Card READ REVIEW

Best With third party Drivers: Buy: Asus 7.1 Surround Card READ REVIEW

Best With standard Drivers: Buy: EVGA 7.1 Surround Card READ REVIEW

Best For PC: Buy: Startech 7.1 Surround Card READ REVIEW

Best With Optical Out: Buy: HT Omega 7.1 Surround Card READ REVIEW

Best Quality Product: Buy: ASHATA 7.1 Surround Card READ REVIEW

Best For people: Buy: Encore 7.1 Surround Card READ REVIEW

Best Overall: Creative 7.1 Surround Card

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If you are currently in the market searching to buy an outstanding card for your regular usage, creative 7.1 surround card is the ultimate option. The Sound blaster audigy rx is an advanced sound card that represents the perfect upgrade from basic motherboard audio to immersive cinematic surround sound. It allows adding live effects (like auditorium) without impacting the latency. The sound card has two microphone inputs to allow you to grab a friend to sing simultaneously. It also sounds great playing MP3, MP4 media, plus system sounds.

The Audigy Rx has the E-MU chip and the sound quality is excellent, but the Xonar DGX and Audigy Fx simply don't worth it. This ensures you get great quality effects and audio without affecting your computer's processing power. There is hardware EAX, so you also get effects like concert hall and theater environments, and you can edit these or even make your own with a LOT of parimeters to edit.

• Advanced hd technologies to enhance your online karaoke, chatting, gaming and music listening experience
• Has an awesome amp for loud listening and crystal clear audio
• Great sound quality, thin and light
• Sound is decent and easy to install

Best With third party Drivers: Asus 7.1 Surround Card

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The asus 7.1 surround card is capable of outshining several other card featured in this list in overall features in its price range. Pc and DTS interactive technologies, DTS Connect brings the world's most welcomed hi-fi surround sound to your PC and turns it into a powerful multi-media center and game console. It just works on windows 8.1 64 bit and sound is great. It provides quality feedback to add to that can be used on-board audio. It also has plenty of features to boot on enhancing the sounds like Dolby Headphone, plus it is a 7.1 surround card.

The Sound is clear and its able to power its bass. The reason is power coming from the PSU is cleaner than the motherboard so it helps with audio quality. It does not have to run exclusively in 7.1 mode, as 5.1, 2.0, and many other output modes can be switched to. If you are fed up with Creative's buggy drivers and wonky support, then this is a viable alternative.

• Outstanding sound quality, drives sennheiser hd595s very well
• Great for older pc's that have an available pcie slot
• Restores surround gaming in windows vista without additional software
• Nice sound card works well with

Best With standard Drivers: EVGA 7.1 Surround Card

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The evga 7.1 surround card is capable of outshining several other card featured in this list in overall features for the price point. If you're looking for high-end sound, especially for recording, the selection is very thin. It works great though, with all of the "bells and whistles" of changing colors of light as it plays heavenly sounds that only Jesus Christ himself should have the pleasure of jamming out to Jesus Christ himself. It is for a great sound stereo setup, no 5.1 speaker connections, only headphones and stereo speakers.

The app you have to download to control is fine, easy to set up, and get going. It is great with standard drivers. The Bass is much punchier, and the sound is incredibly crisp and clean. It is easy to follow the prompts, except for one. It's probably more suitable for gaming, and maybe even for home theater PCs.

• Best sounding internal computer sound card
• Games, movies and music, the sound quality is first rate
• Highs are bright, clear and don’t cut the brain
• A must have for audiophile pc users

Best For PC: Startech 7.1 Surround Card

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Startech makes beautiful and great card with classic and smartly choosen materials. The Analog 3.5 jacks have no buzzing or humming, very clear audio. It is great for music, videos, and games that support 7. The sound card will continue to output sound through the 8 audio channels. It is configured with standard profile brackets and includes low-profile (half-height) brackets. All ports fit in standard or small form-factor computers (low-profile brackets included), using the main card plus header bracket. It comes with similar software and is truly plug and play. The sound quality is quite excellent, at least for music.

• Upgrade stereo-only onboard audio in your computer
• Add digital optical surround sound to your computer through pcie
• You will be able to switch the playback device via windows sound settings
• Super easy interface, and sounds great

Best With Optical Out: HT Omega 7.1 Surround Card

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate card. The ht omega 7.1 surround card is exactly that - it's a simple card that hits all the right notes. If you plan to use the computer as a stand-alone for home theater, you'll need a set of powered surround sound speakers. The "Fenix" is basically the HTOmega Claro Plus, but with a newer chip which permits even more audio fidelity, and more significantly, PCI Express support (the earlier cards are PCI only) This sound card is mediocre until you replace the op-amps. It provides up to 7.1ch surround sound through analog, optical and coaxial outputs.

The on-board 2-wire header can be used to connect to an older video card with an internal 2-wire S/PDIF header. It is used for each analog channel with a swappable socket type opamp at the front channel out. There are two external OPTICAL S/PDIF ports, one for input, and one for output. The sound card can be connected to a device with a spdif input.

• Good brand reputation
• One of the new comers and featured product

Best Quality Product: ASHATA 7.1 Surround Card

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Next on the list, we've got yet another card that manages to win our hearts. It's the ashata 7.1 surround card and it's widely considered as card that has the most suitable features. It is compatible with 2.1/5.1 stereo surround sound system equipment. The built-in audio chip supports 24bit, 192kHz sampling rate, achieving powerful and clear sound effect.

• Low latency audio system input output
• Good brand reputation

Best For people: Encore 7.1 Surround Card

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We know from years of feedback from readers, customers and amazon sellers, what most people want in a convenient and appropriate card. The encore 7.1 surround card is exactly that - it's a simple card that hits all the right notes. Being outstanding for its full audio functions and comprehensive driver support, ENM232-8CMI is the best choice for people seeking for optimum cost-effective entry-level solutions of the PC audio. It gives far more audio quality than those built-in to the computer motherboards. When used with the 7.1 Channel Speakers, it brings more real life audio sound, high quality base and surround sound experience.

The ENM232-8CMI supports 8-channel DACs for 7.1 home theater environments and meets PC99 audio performance requirements. It comes with a 7.1 channel pci surround sound card, so you can enjoy a rich theater high quality surround sound while watching videos, playing games, or just plain listening to the music from your desktop computer.

• Good investment for long term
• One of the new comers and featured product