Stupid question, but sound cards used to be a necessity back in the day due to the on-board stuff being kind of trash. Is there still a need for them outside of specialist audio-recording equipment at all?
The main non-audiophile reason I think would be if you need specific physical inputs or outputs the motherboard doesn't provide (because having adaptors in your audio cabling can increase noise), or perhaps if you want to have alternative audio devices to be able to route audio different places from different application, or 'loop' it through the PC without getting feedback. I know some people also complain that internal audio hardware can be susceptible to electrical noise.
But I think the vast, vast majority of people are fine with whatever is on the motherboard these days.
