n This is not a definitive answer I'm afraid, but more of a personal experience.

I've got a Gigabyte motherboard with onboard audio. However, with the closing cutscence for Sacred I had terrible lag with the audio stuttering badly. Once I had a standalone sound card installed, the cutscene played perfectly.

That answered my questions quite well in fact. Thank you!

I would have thought it was a given having integrated sound (and graphics) would hit on performance as you indicated as cpu on mobo needs to carry the load vs dedicated video/sound cards (both having their own dedicated chips to do the work). at least that was the theory. I think it also has to do with whether an individual game is more cpu or gpu intensive as well (video wise). Then you have software v hardware sound emulation . Maybe im just blabbering now lol. Any experts here? :).
Also imho dedicated sound cards 'sound' better. THAT depends on your own perception though. Some of us are real audiophiles...

Okay I think I have a PC able to run The Witcher 2 picked out. Everyone feel free to chime in if you think something is wrong with this list. I have no intention of doing any overclocking, so ignore the part that says "Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking".

From the Digital Storm website as follows.
Slade build
Case: Corsair Obsidian 550D
Processor: Intel Core i5 2500K 3.30GHz (Unlocked CPU for Extreme Overclocking) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 Deluxe (Intel P67 Chipset) (New & Improved B3 Revision Without SATA 3G Issue)
RAM: 8GB DDR3 2000MHz GTX-8 Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (ADATA brand)
Power Supply: 850W Corsair TX850 V2 (Dual SLI Compatible)
Hard Drive: 1x (500GB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (Model: Black Edition)
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7870 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 (if the price comes down before I buy my PC in the next few months)
CPU Cooling: Stage 2: Corsair A70 Dual 120mm Fans High Performance Cooler or a Stage 1 single fan cooler from Corsair
Noise Reduction: Noise Suppression Package Stage 2 (Optimized Airflow & Fan Speeds with Noise Dampening Material)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit or Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (One of those two for the Windows XP Mode they have)
Extra: Internal Digital Media Card Reader

Estimated Cost (with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 680): $2,037
Estimated Cost (with the AMD Radeon HD 7870: $1,718

Any thoughts or suggestions? I have a few final questions.
Is the power supply a good brand or even enough wattage for this setup? Should I go with a bigger supply for future proofing? I have no intention of running anything more than a single graphics card setup if that will help with the question.
Is a Dual Fan CPU Cooler a good choice or overkill?
Can the Core i5 processor run The Witcher 2 at a good frame rate? I saw some benchmarks that suggested that the both of my graphics card choices can run TW2 at great frame rates, but those benchmarks were with a Core i7 processor rather than my choice of Core i5 which is why I ask.
Is my choice of motherboard good or should I go with the ASUS Maximus IV?
Is the RAM good or should I go with something else?
Do I need more cooling if I go with the Nvidia 680? The reason I ask is because I know it runs slightly hotter than the AMD 7870. Plus, the Nvidia 680 has some sort of auto-overclocking which i'm a bit squeamish about. Again, I have NO intention of ever overclocking anything.

Yeah, me too. I always thought it was a given. But these guys were actual techs, although they did admit that they weren't sure. One claimed that perhaps it was true, but the hit on performance was so small that no one would ever notice.

I would sure like a definitive answer though, because it sure seems to me the answer would be yes, and if that's the case, I'm going with a sound card in my next rig no matter how small a difference it might be. Fact is, when you run up against a game that might be giving you too few FPS, any little extra power/adjustment you can find might make a difference between a game being playable and just being too choppy to be playable.

But if the answer is definitely no, then I'm ok with sticking with the onboard sound. They have gotten way better, and the one I had on my newest rig sounded amazing. LOL, the only reason I went with onboard sound on that one was because I ordered it with a soundcard, but the company I purchased it from said that with me running two Nvidia GTX 470's in SLI mode, they couldn't find a slot for a sound card on my rig. So, I got it home, hooked it up, and I've gotta say, it sounded amazing. My 5.1 speaker system actually sounded better on that than it did my last rig with a turtle beach/santa cruz card, but that may be more to do with age than anything else.

Sure would like to have a definitive answer one way or the other though.
I don't have anything to add, I just wanted to say good luck with this and I'm sorry for hijacking your thread with my question. I just read this and realized I had just posted another long one below it and I'm very, very sorry for that.

LOL, you're fine dude. Actually your discussion on integrated vs. dedicated sound helps me too. :)

TW2 isn't CPU-bound. You can get by with even less than the 2500K. The Core i7's won't run it better.

Corsair TX series power supplies are excellent. They're actually made by Seasonic, which also makes power supplies for Antec and sells under its own name.

Corsair HX are the same, only modular. Modular can be advantageous, because you won't have extra dangling cables.

Since 850 watts is more than you need, I'd consider a 650 or 750 watt HX instead. But there is nothing wrong with the 850 watt TX.

Don't screw with motherboards called "Maximus", "Sabertooth", or similar puffery. You're just paying extra for the name, and maybe a gimmick feature that nobody cares about.

For my money, the Z68 is no added value. I would save some money and get a P67 motherboard instead. With Z68-chipset motherboards, be careful with the GPU switching software called Lucid Virtu (or other names) supplied with them. It doesn't play nice with TW2 2.1, and you'll have to uninstall it. If you don't have an SSD to use as cache space, or don't have a weird need to use the Intel onboard graphics, just don't bother with the Z68.

The Corsair A70 cooler is a good one. The CoolerMaster Hyper 212 is similar, comes with a single fan but you can buy a second for it. You don't need better than either of those.

"LucidLogix® Virtu (Universal Switchable Graphics) - Auto Switching between Integrated Graphics and NVIDIA/AMD Cards" (ASUS P8Z68-V, manufacturer's Web site)

The price of Z68 motherboards has come down, to where there's no longer a price advantage with the P67's. There's no difference in performance, just the extra gimmicks on the Z68. Go with the Z68. Just watch out for Lucid Virtu causing trouble with TW2.

I see. Well in that case i'll go with this P67: "ASUS P8P67 Deluxe (Intel P67 Chipset) (New & Improved B3 Revision Without SATA 3G Issue)"

What are your thoughts on the new auto-overclock system on the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 680? Could something go wrong with that?

Definitive answer is that onboard means CPU/RAM focused, same with onboard graphics. You will get a performance hit, guaranteed. Better question instead is "Will I see a large performance hit", and that's entirely relative. If you're playing a reasonably optimised game that isn't hitting your CPU hard, then you'll be fine. If the game you're playing has HD audio and is really pushing your CPU/RAM, then you're going to get a pretty big hit.

Same as CPU/GPU arguments when buying a PC, if you're playing older games or running a server then an onboard card is fine since the likelihood of Doom 2 or Master of Magic maxing your CPU/RAM is infinitesimally low and would likely be due to a bug of some sort. On the other hand, if you're playing with Battlefield 3/ARMA 3, then you're going to require a decent GPU and can spend a little less on the CPU (quad instead of oct core) and RAM (6GB instead of 16GB).

Think of it as redundancy, most of the time it will idle, but if you need the performance it'll be there which also future proofs your machine. On your second point, age is definitely a factor. A recent onboard card in a well built machine will run better than an old dedicated card in a machine that was well built five to ten years ago. A dedicated card today will still surpass your onboard.

Ok, THANK YOU. That sure seemed like the answer to me too. May I ask one more question??

Do I have to spend over $100 for a decent sound card or are those that run from $59-$79 good enough??? I saw one that was over $200, and I sure don't want to do that. I guess I'm basing my question on compared to old school sound cards. IMO, the old school sound cards sounded fine, and were reasonably priced. If I wanted this sound that will surpass my onboard will I have to splurge on that $200 plus card or will I still get better sound with one of the standard models??

One of those relative things again. :P
If you've got a motherboard with a fantastic onboard card, then the $59-$79 group will be just above the onboard quality so the only reason you'd get one is to take the load off your CPU/RAM and/or to increase the connectivity if your onboard doesn't have the ports you want. If your motherboard has a generic made-in-China card, then that group will easily surpass the onboard. Generally speaking though, the top end sound cards are for audiophiles/music activity. "I want to hook my entire band into the computer at the same time" or "I want to listen to Bach and hear the violin squeak" are the usual groups who have the top end cards. Also the "I want to hear the guy crawling from the other side of the map in CoD" and "I want to play Serious Sam with on-the-fly encoding to 7.1" people.

Also depends on your speakers/headphones and sense of hearing. If you've spent $200 or more on a sound card but have a $30 set of speakers, then the quality increase in sound from the card is going to be negligible. On the other hand, if you've got hand made analogue speakers with a digital connection hooked up to a $15 sound card, then the card will be holding you back, and probably be just as good as the onboard. For the average person, a $70-$110 card is capable of dealing with everything you'll come across. If you're going to get some decent speakers/headphones though, it's worth investing in the better cards. Same as graphics cards and monitors.

Thank you again. Really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions, particularly in someone's else's thread I've now hijacked (SORRY!).

I do have, IMO, an amazing set of 5.1 THX speakers that were made by Altec Lansing a few years ago, but to me sound just amazing. When I played Gothic, I could hear my enemies behind me, figure out which side behind me to turn around, and I've had several other people sit in this chair (I have the speakers optimized for this chair) and they've all gone away marvelling at the sound. The crispness, the detail, and fullness is very impressive. To me. But I am not an audiophile or whatever that term was cause I don't even know what that means. And I got that amazing sound for years out of a TurtleBeach/Santa Cruz card that wasn't all that expensive, and then my new rig had the onboard sound that actually sounded even better to me (it seemed to really handle the 5.1 channels better, if that makes sense).

Anyway, thanks again for the help. I'd really like to spend my dollars on performance and graphics and if I can save $100 on my sound card, I'd like to. But it's been so many years since I've purchased one that I just don't know whether or not the bargain ones are any good at all anymore and thus, that's why I asked.

Thanks again.