Basically. The actual performance gains from "high-performance" sound cards are so minimal that there really isn't even a market for them anymore, they're mostly sold on the basis of offering specific optimizations for particular applications (Creative Fatal1ty 3D game audio well, but is pretty garbage for music, for example), and - hilariously - the number of front-facing I/O ports.
There's a funny quote earlier in the thread about how the SHAPE will blow any PC sound card on the market completely out of the water. I don't doubt it for a second - there hasn't been any particular reason to actually improve on PC sound cards for quite some time. Modern on-board sound easily handles anything games throw at it with no appreciable loss in CPU performance.
Though, there will always be the audiophile market.