I just upgraded for the first time in several years. I had an X-Fi card but it was PCI, so I can't use it with the Z68 FTW I just bought. I figured onboard audio has advanced since I last tried it. It sounds decent, but I find that it's extremely quiet. I only have headphones, I don't have speakers. I have the headphones connected to the front panel ports on my case, when I had them connected to the ports on the back of the mobo, it was even quieter yet.
 
I have the dial turned all the way up on my headphones, and the volume set to 100% in windows and any program or game I am using. Winamp is alright, it's loud enough but not as loud as I would expect it to be at full volume. I like to keep the volume around 50% so I can adjust it depending on ambient noise, but with it cranked up all the way, what I get is what I get. I can barely hear games, it's really disappointed. I can't afford to go blow another $180 on a decent PCI-E soundcard, am I doing something wrong, or does Realtek still suck like it used to 10 years ago?

Same thing for me. Haha. Ended up with a xonar stx. It has a built in headphone amp and sounds really good.

Did you install the Realtek drivers?

Yeah, and all the settings, what few there are, are correct for my setup.

Mine works just fine.  Even though I am much older, I never listed to music sooooooo loud that it killed my hearing totally.  

Might be worth making sure you are using the speaker output, and not 'line out'.  'Line out' will be unamplified, so will sound very quiet, indeed.  (Which is to say, try plugging it into different ports in the back - unless you have an external amplifier, you almost never want to use the 'line out' option)
 
Also note that in Windows 7, there is, like, twelve places to set volume (or something crazy like that).  The overall Windows volume has a slider, each application you run will have its own volume controls, the Realtek sound control panel will have audio levels, etc.
 
LOTS of places to fiddle!

I haven't killed my hearing either. With everything turned up to 100% it's just about the right volume for me to listen to music and such, but the problem is I'd like to have a little extra wiggle room for extra-quiet songs, and to really get the full effect in games. With my X-Fi I found that the volume set at around 43% was perfect, and provided plenty of room to adjust for quieter situations. If I turned it up all the way it surely would have blown my ears out, and probably my headphones too. But with this board it's not even close, not that I want to, but I would like a little more volume than I'm getting right now.
 
I refuse to believe that this is as loud as it gets, it's just ridiculous to pay nearly $300 for something and have some features only half-work.
 
The quality of the sound is not the issue, it sounds good, I just don't think I should have to set the volume at 100% and turn the knob on the headphones all the way up just to have it slightly quieter than I'd like...

xanderf


Might be worth making sure you are using the speaker output, and not 'line out'.  'Line out' will be unamplified, so will sound very quiet, indeed.  (Which is to say, try plugging it into different ports in the back - unless you have an external amplifier, you almost never want to use the 'line out' option)

Also note that in Windows 7, there is, like, twelve places to set volume (or something crazy like that).  The overall Windows volume has a slider, each application you run will have its own volume controls, the Realtek sound control panel will have audio levels, etc.

LOTS of places to fiddle!

I have the headphones plugged into the front panel, which is plugged into the front audio headers right on the board. I have turned all the sliders I can find up as far as they will go, I just don't think that's a reasonable solution. Say I want to watch a particularly quiet movie, what are my options? At this point I have none, other than buy a standalone sound card or some kind of headphone amplifier.

Realtek is pretty good. I have a two X-Fi cards on my shelf, don't use them. I use Fataity and also Corsair H1 usb headsets with he P67 FTW onboard chip and they are awesome. It is not normal to have a volume issue.
 
Actually I am running Realtek on my Asus P67WS and also on my Gigabyte Z68 and a 750i/Q9400. All sound is good with plenty of volume.

That's what I have is the fatality headset. I've tried playing around with all the different jacks, but nothing much has changed. Now I at least get the same volume with the back panel headphone jack as I do with the front panel one, but it's still just not quite enough.

Have you tried picking up the latest Realtek drivers directly from the manufacturer's site?
 
I seem to recall back when using Realtek audio analog output that the volume level seemed to differ a lot between drivers.

Well I'll be darned, installed the drivers from Realtek (they were a newer version than EVGA had also) and that fixed it! I can now comfortably listed to music with the volume set at 66%, so I have plenty of wiggle room. Thanks!

JTibbott


Well I'll be darned, installed the drivers from Realtek (they were a newer version than EVGA had also) and that fixed it! I can now comfortably listed to music with the volume set at 66%, so I have plenty of wiggle room. Thanks!

Great to hear!
 
Yeah, I'd always found (and this is, like, doubly true for laptops) that the motherboard manufacturer tends to have drivers a few versions back from the actual chipset manufacturer.  For audio, that can make a big deal, but it can even effect other things, too.  The Intel RST drivers, for example, can sometimes improve hard drive speed or stability and may be newer on Intel's site.  Often, the network chipset is a third party, too.  Sometimes other controllers on the mobo, as well.
 
Always worth 'going directly to the source' and giving that a shot for newer drivers!  (Or, sometimes, older ones, too!)
 
(Mind flagging the previous post as 'helpful' so if another person stumbles upon this thread with a similar issue, they can jump right to the answer?)