I think soft synths caught up with hardware some time back, with the current-generation of synths achieving often better results.
It's a balancing act - with hardware you have the advantage of offloading some of the CPU (always a precious resource) burden, but you have the disadvantage of things like latency and other workflow hassles.
See the Dune 2 thread if looking at Virus-competitor software instruments. Serum is a nice plug-in and I love the visualizations but I prefer Dune 2 overall for sound, workflow and performance. Every time I want to quickly reproduce a sound, I reach for Dune 2 first.
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