I've read about some issues with onboard audio not being quite up to snuff with dedicated sound cards, but surely it can't be that different. And I'm not calling you Shirley.

My problem is a weird audio delay. I have no trouble with NPCs speaking, or the music playing*, but sound effects are often extremely late. The typical situation, one that just occurred for the umpteenth time, is being attacked by and the only clue is the appearance of my health bar and the blood splatter visual effect. What's it this time? Wolves? Sabrecats? Skeevers? Fire mage? Forsworn archer? I'm using a 360 controller on my PC, and generally opening any of the menus or the journal will suddenly play all the queued audio at once.

Another situation is where I use my bow to sneak attack. One shot, one kill. Silence! I walk up to the corpse, and if the sound doesn't play signifying the sneak attack within 30 seconds, opening the loot menu usually plays it.

There are times when ambient sounds don't load when crossing cell borders in Tamriel world-space. Water sounds, for example, will not play even as I am on top of a water fall. Again, opening a menu, maybe not at first, but eventually one of them jogs the audio into action.

Finally, drawing an enchanted weapon should produce a kind of of hiss/crackle sound. Two-thirds of the time it doesn't do squat, and that actually includes the visual effect of the enchantment.

I've got an Asus P6X58D-E motherboard with Realtek ALC889 8-channel HD audio. It's connected to a Turtle Beach headset. So far as I can tell, all the drivers are up to date.

Would getting a stand-alone audio card fix this?

* I should note that certain sound effects are, for some reason, part of the music channel, like the discovery sound, the skill advancement sound, etc. These are often delayed. Also, during those "silent" attacks, the musical cue for imminent danger does not play. The ambient soundtrack plays on instead.

Thanks for your consideration.