In my experience, modern integrated synthesizer or DDS chips perform not that much worse than old benchtop signal generators. You don't get creature comforts, s

In my experience, modern integrated synthesizer or DDS chips perform not that much worse than old benchtop signal generators. You don't get creature comforts, such as calibrated electronic step attenuators, and may have to calculate the frequency divider settings by hand. For many hobby or research projects they are certainly good enough.