I am a bit confused about the function of ASIO versus sound card/module drivers.  I see a lot of discussion where ASIO is referenced as talking directly to the hardware as opposed to going through the OS and hence a reduction in delay because many software layers are eliminated.  My question is however does ASIO - let's say ASIO4Aall - actually talk directly to the sound card or does it actually talk to the sound card driver which in turn talks to the actual sound card?  So let's say I am in my DAW and I choose ASIO as the output. I create a sound.  The way I think it works is that the 'sound' goes to the ASIO4All module which in turn delivers it to the sound card driver which in turn delivers it to the sound card itself.  In my scenario each sound card's unique attributes are only known by the sound card driver for that particular sound card; however each driver follows certain 'Microsoft' rules in the way it's written so that exposes the attributes of the sound card in a universal manner that ASIO understands and can utilize - the 'knobs' are in standard locations so that ASIO can manipulate any sound card via the driver.  Any confirmation/negation/refinement of the preceding would be appreciated.

If your using Windows 10 you can use the onboard driver with decent results.
ASIO4ALL is a wrapper I believe. Wish I could elaborate more on it but I have no use for it personally.
I use an audio interface (Focusrite) which can be bought for under 100 USA dollars used now a days.
And those will do the job pretty well.

Word of advice if you do get a third party soundcard make sure it comes with it's own ASIO driver. Something like Focusrite will do the trick though. It's what I use currently.
 

ASIO is a protocol, a set of rules that determine how a driver should communicate with the host program in which it is used. An ASIO driver doesn't really communicate with the Windows OS. There isn't anything to communicate with it in fact because Windows doesn't recognize an ASIO driver as something it can interact with. Professional audio software uses this standard way of communication with the driver which in turn speaks directly to the hardware.

The only exception to this rule is ASIO4ALL, which, as Chuck pointed out, is a wrapper. That means that it can "fake" an ASIO driver (in the eyes of the host program) for any soundcard that has standard Windows WDM drivers (which is basically anything that makes sound on your Windows system). So in this case there is an extra "ASIO layer" in between the actual driver and the host program.