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That would be a viable option...except the OP mentioned gaming, for which USB DACs lack the DSP features often found in internal sound cards.
 

The Xonar U3 has Dolby Headphone. Are there other DSP features that are important for modern games?

 

[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

The Xonar U3 has Dolby Headphone. Are there other DSP features that are important for modern games?

 
For modern games held back by XAudio2 + X3DAudio or FMOD Ex (meaning no hardware sound acceleration and 7.1 positioning at the most)? Not really.
 
However, when someone mentions "USB DAC", I'm thinking of audiophile-oriented, output-only devices. The Xonar U3 is more like a budget USB audio interface (has both input and output), and it at least does the DSP features in software.