ORIGINAL: pistolpete
ORIGINAL: SteveStrummerUK
I asked only out of interest really, it's not likely I'll un-assign the TonePort as my soundcard and use the Realtek!
Who would?
I would. 
The Toneport is mono where the Realtek is stereo. This allows other effects which are stereo to be used.
Hey Bob/Doc/anyone with more than 3 working brain cells - bit of help here please guys.
When I got my TonePort, I assumed [correctly] that it would be specifically designed to handle input and output audio and that it would out-perform the Realtek HD chip inbuilt my new PC.
One thing I wanted to be certain of was that it would operate in stereo so I took the trouble to check this out beforehand - hey, you wouldn't want to say anything dumb like it only works in mono without checking that out now would you!
I checked my settings in Gearbox as these screenshots show - the first one shows the output to GT3 set to Mono - with the red Mono light aglow:
This shows the Mono light not aglow - according to the manual this means my effects will go out with some stereoness:
Further to this, my TonePort has the ability to input two different signals either using separate XLR or standard jack inputs, as well as the two line-level inputs, one for each channel of stereoness.
As far as outputting in stereoness, the two analogue outs handle one channel of the stereo signal each, plus there is a digital stereo co-ax out and the last time I listened, the headphone socket outputs in stereo as well.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh