Audio card (chip if you have an integrated solution on your motherboard) are the component necessary to play or record sounds on your PC.
The major producers in this field are Realtek, ASUSTeK, Creative, VIA.
AMD and Nvidia are also audio chip producers, since the arrival of HDMI outputs.
Restore legacy audio effects on newer OS
EAX
Since the introduction of Windows Vista (and also in Windows 7/8), Microsoft decided to remove DirectSound 3D from the audio abstraction layer.
Thus in order to enjoy the additional effects environmental audio extensions provides, hacks are required.
A3D
- Lists of Aureal 3-Dimensional enabled games can be found here and here
- C-Media based sound cards support A3D 1.0 out of the box, even in Windows Vista (via Xear3D)[1]
References