Creative vs. M-Audio (or other brands)

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DudeItsMe

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
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As a gamer, I've sworn by Creative sound cards, speakers, etc. since I had my first computer (which I might add, was not that long ago). I've been hearing a lot about how the Audigy sound cards really screw up in Doom 3, and many people are considering other possibilities. Could anyone that is knowledgable in this area layout the arguement between the two? Like what are the pro's/con's of each one. Maybe if I learn enough about M-Audio's, I could get one of those.
 
If you already have an Audigy, I would stick with it and wait on Doom 3. We are likely to see a patch soon that will fix these problems. I don't see why all these problems are happening. Doom 3 uses software based audio and does not use any of the Audigy's features at all.
 
I swore by Creative for my games... from about 1988 to 1999..
they arent really worthy of being called 'top dog' anymore, they dont really earn the right cuz their stuff really sucks.
The Audigy 2/ZS have good DACs (like the Revolution and other cards), but what else is gained from using them? Not much. You get EAX (AKA "barrel effects"), which is actually an annoying and horrible sounding enhancement. Not only that, in UT2003 I remember their actually being quite a bit of lag from the time I would enter a actual barrel, and the time the barrel effects would come on.
You also get bad support, bad drivers that dont bring all the potential out of the card that is possible and a bunch of horrible software that comes with it.

And if you lose your original CD... good luck, gotta get a new one cuz they dont offer their utils on their site, just updates and drivers.

Most ppl point to the hardware acceleration as why Creative doesnt suck. But that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
I talk about it in this thread, http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=789086.

Gamers swear by Creative because of marketing and a lack of education. I did for a long time until I started having problems.
I hope the Doom3 issues that seem dominant in mostly on the Creative cards wakes more people up. This is the so-called market "leader"?
And dont get me started on their lies about the original Audigy, Aureal, the id software blackmail or the other plethora of issues of how Creative has taken their subpar technology and somehow took it above their competitors like A3D.

lol... phew!
 
I just bought a Sound Blaster Audigy ZS... and have zero problems in Doom 3... I don't know much about the technical stuff behind the scenes, but it does sound good. Does it sound the best? This is the first quality card I have owned (others being onboard or simple pci cards), so I would not know... I really like the external drive bay connections and it looks good. I suspect that I could have purchacsed a better card... but which pci card?
 
if it works for you thats great. if ppl can get an audigy to work correctly as you did, then the ZS i believe is up there with the best of them.
enjoy it and dont worry about it
 
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