Purpose of a Sound card?

[jamesino]

What is the use of a sound card?

My laptop has an IDT High-Def Audio soundcard; is it a good one?

How will music sound on the laptop compared to, say an iPod?

 

[JerryLove]

What is the use of a sound card?

To make sound

My laptop has an IDT High-Def Audio soundcard; is it a good one?

Never heard of it, so likely "no".

How will music sound on the laptop compared to, say an iPod?

Depends on the quality of the DAC in the sound card, the quality of the amplifier in the sound card, the source of the music in question and what you are actually listening on.

Given the same audio format and same listening device I'd guess "similar". Try it and find out.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

IDT HD is not really a sound "card" maker, but more of inexpensive audio codec (don't confuse with a software codec) manufacturer, which makes most of majority of audio processing using your own processor.

IDT codec aren't typically reaching the stars in terms of audio fidelity.
If your source files are of very high quality,using ipod's connector plug will give you un-amplified line-out, which should sound better then your laptop headphones out....