Gamer looking for new card

[butlermatz]

Hello guys, i know im a newbie to this forum been looking at this forum for a few weeks and decided to register. took 2days but i agree its worth it!

My question is im on ALC888 Onboard realtek HD 7.1
i'm a full out gamer that would like a good sound card for me needs
i use headphones while i game and when im out of gaming i like to listen to my music via speakers.

my headphones needs to have two 3.5mm ports (one pink microphone and another for my audio) ive been looking at the X-fi cards for there 3D audio performance.

i have been thinking about geting a good 5.1 kit for a while so there could be a nice deal if i didnt need to re plug anything.

I am mostly a gamer that enjoys counter strike source and i do play other games when i feel bored. Good sound + frames per second is all what i need No budget but i wouldnt mind keeping it alittle around the £100 marker as long as i can hear a difference and also im running XP 32bit and am not going to hop to vista anytime soon

i would like to say thank you for anyone that replies to this thread

 

[berndawg3]

Not sure if you have a budget or not, but the best gamer's card on the market right now is the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude.

 

[butlermatz]

I have no budget, i have £300 in the bank, would like to keep it abit around the £100 and if i do spend over i definatly want to hear a big difference

 

[ourfpshero]

being a gamer you want an x-fi chip card. period. dont listen to gs3d or dolby headphone garbage- i have heard them and they are not as good

the lowest real x-fi is an x-fi xtremegamer and goes for 80.00$
the best is the auzentech prelude which has better op-amps and some audiophile type features. for gaming the xtremegamer would probably make u very happy!

stay away from the x-fi xtremeAUDIO as it does not use an x-fi chip

 

[butlermatz]

being a gamer you want an x-fi chip card. period. dont listen to gs3d or dolby headphone garbage- i have heard them and they are not as good

the lowest real x-fi is an x-fi xtremegamer and goes for 80.00$
the best is the auzentech prelude which has better op-amps and some audiophile type features. for gaming the xtremegamer would probably make u very happy!

stay away from the x-fi xtremeAUDIO as it does not use an x-fi chip

so what should i get the fatality edition or prelude? is there a sheer difference

 

[Dual]

I can't understand why anyone would get an x-fi considering all of the posts in this forum (and everywhere else on the internet) about problems with the x-fi and creative drivers.

I recommend an HT Omega especially if you are going to use VIsta.

 

[General Crespin]

Because not everybody has problems with them. People get lucky. I got lucky.

Check the games you're going to play. If they use a new version of EAX, Creative. If not, ASUS, Auzentech, etc.

 

[robber98]

Because not everybody has problems with them. People get lucky. I got lucky.

Check the games you're going to play. If they use a new version of EAX, Creative. If not, ASUS, Auzentech, etc.

I think the better question is, why bet the money on a company who:

1, doesn't care about their customers
2, failed to release driver that works without issue (X-Fi)
3, decided to deprecate a product due to "business reason"

If X-Fi works on your computer, congratulation, you are one of the lucky winner. However, there are many people screaming for help out there.

For EAX, Asus Xonar DX, D2 and D2X support up to EAX 5 through the driver and it works.

 

[silverlai3]

yeah, my friend told me that XFI2 is nothing but current stuff with WHQL and DDL etc...
Now that DDL is "RE-ENABLED" by Daniel-K, there is not point to buy anything from that dishonest company anymore....

I've had enough with Creative, interms of both driver issues and cooperate integrity.
I agree with robber98:
"For EAX, Asus Xonar DX, D2 and D2X support up to EAX 5 through the driver and it works."

 

[ourfpshero]

"For EAX, Asus Xonar DX, D2 and D2X support up to EAX 5 through the driver and it works."

Absolutely False!!! the asus cards do NOT support eax5 -only eax2. the asus drivers tell a game that it accepts eax5 calls and then converts them to eax2.
remember- peeps complain the most about creative labs because they have the most add-in sound cards out there
if you go to nvidia forums there are tons of complaints
if you go to ati forums there are tons of complaints
everyone complains about windows more than linux

i'm not a fanboy and would use a viable competitor (i have a razer as well as an x-fi in my pc) but creative labs has a tremendous advantage in gaming audio right now. everone else is trying to make eax2- a 9 year old standard- still work in todays games
creative labs has worked themselves into a (probably self destructive) monopoly for 3d gaming audio

 

[silverlai3]

yeah... and here's a quote from other site..

List of EAX5 titles:
"Doom 3
Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil
Quake 4
Prey
Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2: Special Forces
Battelfied 2142
Full Spectrum Warriors: Ten Hammers
F.E.A.R.
Titan Quest
Unreal Tournament 2k4 (with Xfi patch)

Needless to say, Creative does a horrible job getting developers to use their tech. Most seem stuck on EAX4 or default onboard these days. You'd figure with this tech, they'd have developers all over BEFORE the launched the card. But here we are a year later..."

Source: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/archive/index.php/t-80148.html

 

[ourfpshero]

that list is from 2006
also add all eax3 and 4 games to the list of 'not properly supported under any other cards but creative's'. pretty much every fps game developer has used eax, and many many others
granted-eax3 games dont sound all that bad on an eax2 card, but eax5 games sound like hell on eax2 cards- some, like bf2142- wont even work right

the only hi-profile shooters not to use eax are crysis and some half-life2 engine games

basically-not using an x-fi for 3d gaming audio is like not using a geforce or radeon for gaming graphics. should there be competition for 3d audio? of course. competition drives the market. but atm its a 1 horse race with a lot of donkeys way in the rear

 

[silverlai3]

so Techreport reviewers and Extremtech reviewer have donkey ears, I guess...

to be frank, like in the reviews, I can't tell the DS3D GX 2.0 effects from EAX5, that's enough said...

 

[Dual]

What frustrates me the most with my x-fi is that the problems I have could be cured if I had the ability to adjust the pci latency of my soundcard and/or video card. There are utilities that work in XP and possbibly 32 bit Vista but not in Vista 64.

If Creative did care about their customers they could probably come up with a solution for this.

If you buy Creative make sure you buy from somewhere that allows returns if you have problems.

 

[robber98]

Absolutely False!!! the asus cards do NOT support eax5 -only eax2. the asus drivers tell a game that it accepts eax5 calls and then converts them to eax2.

Granted, DS3DGX 2.0 is a software based DSP and it probably not 100% compatible with EAX3-5 but I never heard that it converting EAX 5 to EAX 2. Any prove?

Here is the highlight from review http://techgage.com/article/creative_eax_vs_asus_ds3d_gx_20/ :

"In the three games I tested, I found that while EAX effects on the Creative X-Fi had a slight edge in sound quality when compared to the Xonar, it was hardly a night-and-day difference."

"While ASUS hasn't managed to de-throne the X-Fi's hardware-accelerated EAX environmental and positional audio effects where sound quality is concerned, they've come extremely close, and have managed to duplicate much of the functionality of EAX 5 to boot.

In fact, as far as practical conclusions are concerned, in most games you're not even likely to notice a difference, and if you do, it's a slight one at that."

What that mean is, GX 2.0 is capable to deliver the sound effect from EAX 5 enabled game. If you still disagree, get an Asus Xonar DX and write your own review. I will be glad to read that.

remember- peeps complain the most about creative labs because they have the most add-in sound cards out there
if you go to nvidia forums there are tons of complaints
if you go to ati forums there are tons of complaints
everyone complains about windows more than linux

I agree with you, software and hardware issue happens all the time and they can be fixed/workaround. But what CAN'T be fixed, is business practice & integrity. If it wasn't our hero, daniel_k, caught Creative lying to their customer, people probably bury their old Creative card (SB Live, Audigy...etc) and get X-Fi.

 

[silverlai3]

that list is from 2006

So 2 years has passed, there must be tons of AAA titles supporting EAX5, and hot game like Crysis must have supported it, and guess what, none of the above stands. Yes, BIOSHOCK has it, but it's just not on the same level of Crysis ...

basically-not using an x-fi for 3d gaming audio is like not using a geforce or radeon for gaming graphics. should there be competition for 3d audio? of course. competition drives the market. but atm its a 1 horse race with a lot of donkeys way in the rear

Again, there must be huge cognitive dissonance between gamer and game makers, and I'll say game makers know about what to use better than we gamers. If it ain't good, why waste time using it...

I wonder if people have noticed that all these EAX/Alchemy/DS3D GX issues are just for EAX on LEGACY games, new games rarely use EAX anymore. I'm sure Asus Xonar only providing EAX compability just to get we gamers' attention for now, I bet they'll quickly go far beyond it and leave Creative way behind.

 

[ourfpshero]

Again, there must be huge cognitive dissonance between gamer and game makers, and I'll say game makers know about what to use better than we gamers. If it ain't good, why waste time using it...

.

then why would asus (who has a lousy driver support record all their own) go through the trouble of making an eax5 hack. quick -everyone look up the fake a3d.dll wrapper file that comes with all sound drivers

 

[Brian48]

Hello guys, i know im a newbie to this forum been looking at this forum for a few weeks and decided to register. took 2days but i agree its worth it!

My question is im on ALC888 Onboard realtek HD 7.1
i'm a full out gamer that would like a good sound card for me needs
i use headphones while i game and when im out of gaming i like to listen to my music via speakers.

my headphones needs to have two 3.5mm ports (one pink microphone and another for my audio) ive been looking at the X-fi cards for there 3D audio performance.

i have been thinking about geting a good 5.1 kit for a while so there could be a nice deal if i didnt need to re plug anything.

I am mostly a gamer that enjoys counter strike source and i do play other games when i feel bored. Good sound + frames per second is all what i need No budget but i wouldnt mind keeping it alittle around the £100 marker as long as i can hear a difference and also im running XP 32bit and am not going to hop to vista anytime soon

i would like to say thank you for anyone that replies to this thread

I have both a Xonar and an X-FI. The Xonar is superior in several areas, most notably playing movies for me, but if you're primarily a gamer, the X-FI does sound noticable better in most games I have. There is also a very annoying issue with surround sound in Source engine games (check out the Xonar forum over at Asus). Both companies have issues with their drivers, but lately Creative has been pissing off more people.

 

[robber98]

then why would asus (who has a lousy driver support record all their own) go through the trouble of making an eax5 hack. quick -everyone look up the fake a3d.dll wrapper file that comes with all sound drivers

This is obvious: marketing.

BTW, It's funny that you said Asus has lousy driver support while not even mention Creative who didn't even bother fixing their sh_t. LOL

 

[robber98]

I have both a Xonar and an X-FI. The Xonar is superior in several areas, most notably playing movies for me, but if you're primarily a gamer, the X-FI does sound noticable better in most games I have. There is also a very annoying issue with surround sound in Source engine games (check out the Xonar forum over at Asus). Both companies have issues with their drivers, but lately Creative has been pissing off more people.

Check out asus driver download page, they just release a fix for source engine game.

 

[ourfpshero]

This is obvious: marketing.

BTW, It's funny that you said Asus has lousy driver support while not even mention Creative who didn't even bother fixing their sh_t. LOL

everybody has had lousy driver support at some point. its just most obvious with the most prominent companies. i have been lucky with my x-fi (and most sound cards). not so lucky with vid cards (still waiting for nvidia to fix 8800 and ut2004 engine games)

 

[General Crespin]

I think the better question is, why bet the money on a company who:

1, doesn't care about their customers
2, failed to release driver that works without issue (X-Fi)
3, decided to deprecate a product due to "business reason"

If X-Fi works on your computer, congratulation, you are one of the lucky winner. However, there are many people screaming for help out there.

Check my sig... That's why I gave away my X-Fi (free).

 

[Brian48]

Check out asus driver download page, they just release a fix for source engine game.

This hotfix appears to be for the D2X and DX. I have the D2 (PCI version) and use a slightly different driver. Not sure why the differences are so great between the two interfaces that Asus can't develop a unified driver.

 

[silverlai3]

I just checked.. the patch also in the Xonar D2 download area.
Perhaps check again?