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Gaming Sound Card

J

johns996

n00b
Joined
Mar 7, 2006
Messages
16
I'm finally sick of my bgears sound card and the random bugs that keep showing up so it is time for another. I mostly game, so I figured I should probably get a gaming-optimized sound card. I've got the choices narrowed down to the following cards, all are under or slightly above my $100 limit. They all look good and have their pros and cons, but I'm looking for some feedback. Here are the options (in order of how I'm considering at the moment):
AuzenTech AZT-FORTE X-Fi
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156010
Pros: Dedicated sound processor, EAX support, PCI-Express, good reviews
Cons: Uses creative drivers, drivers have not been updated in almost a year, slightly over budget

HT | OMEGA STRIKER 7.1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001
Pros: Lean drivers, extremely good reviews
Cons: PCI interface, not really a gaming card

ASUS Xonar DX 7.1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006
Pros: PCI-Express, good reviews
Cons: Software based processing

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102024
Pros: EAX support, PCI-Express
Cons: it's creative...
​
If anyone can help me fill in the pros/cons, just post. I'm not sure if the Striker or Titanium have a dedicated sound processor or not, kind of hard to find that info sometimes.

I'm still using WinXP but I'll probably move up to Win7 at some point soon. I'm on an EVGA 780i motherboard and that will also probably be upgraded before I look to replace this sound card again, hence the preference for PCI-Express over just PCI.
 
I have always had creatives. Even non-creative creative's like the only Ensoniq 16. In the early Vista days the x-fi's suffered from Creative's lackluster driver support. The PCI based X-Fi's are still having issues in vista and 7. However if you are a gamer the pci-e x-fi works just fine in 7 and I've read reviews of it actually getting a few extra frames in Crysis versus onboard. However since you are still in XP then I would DEFINATELY go X-Fi. The XP sound engine is terrible and sound blasters work very well in XP. The Xonar is good however it won't get you any extras fps versus your onboard in gaming.
 
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X-fi works flaw lessy here for me in Vista 64 bit and has for years.

As for gaming sound card.. most new games are not making use of hardware acceleration anymore. For example, Bad Company 2 uses the CPU for it's sound and it's amazing sound, as good, if not better than BF2/2142 was under full hardware acceleration with the X-Fi back in the day. So, your gaming sound support milage may vary on future titles.

My vote is for the X-Fi, it's all I have used for the past 5yrs since they came out back in 2005 so I can't comment on the other choices you listed. I have had zero problems with X-Fi on Vista 64 after the drivers that came out in 2008 were released. As well, I just did a reformat last month and am currently running the latest drivers with no problem as well.
 
I'm assuming the two recommendations are for the Creative entry. Have either of you guys checked out what AuzenTech has created with their Forte? It uses the creative X-Fi chip on a custom board. They also tweak the drivers a bit and offer a compelling product.

http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_forte.php

I think I would go with that before I chose the creative, since they are basically the same chip, the same drivers and, I would assume, a similar experience.

My main reason for holding back and considering other cards is simply because my creative experiences. Through my builds I've used a SB Live!, Audigy, and X-Fi extreme music (1st gen). I always hated the drivers but when the X-Fi consistently crashed my old n-force 4 board, I gave up on creative. I'll admit that my impression of creative was partially shaped by the negative word of mouth prevalent on the web as well as the nforce 4 board experience. But that board had so many problems that sound was only the first so I'm starting to waver in my boycott.
 
johns996 said:
I'm finally sick of my bgears sound card and the random bugs that keep showing up so it is time for another. I mostly game, so I figured I should probably get a gaming-optimized sound card.

If anyone can help me fill in the pros/cons, just post. I'm not sure if the Striker or Titanium have a dedicated sound processor or not, kind of hard to find that info sometimes.
Click to expand...

Bad news are that two sound cards on your list use the same or similar chip as bgears b-Enspirer. HT Omega Striker uses CMI8770, Xonar DX uses CMI8788. Both are use software processing, both use the same CMedia drivers.

Auzentech Forte - good card, uses re-branded Creative drivers with the same bugs and issues as any other Creative card, especially with Windows 7 - memory leaks, etc. Forte drivers weren't updated since Jul 2009. The card is out of stock almost everywhere or is on backorder. Very slim chances to buy it anywhere, you may try to buy a refurbished one from Auzen store.

X-Fi Titanium - nothing special, usual issues with crappy Creative drivers.
 
Since new games are not supporting hardware acceleration anymore, can you get by with the on board motherboard audio?

Will there be a big difference in sound from an X-fi vs onboard audio in non-hardware acceleration games?
 
eddie500 said:
Since new games are not supporting hardware acceleration anymore, can you get by with the on board motherboard audio?
Click to expand...
That is not entirely true. While it does seem like a majority of games are now using software sound engines, OpenAL sound engine is not dead and it is fully hardware accelerated by the X-Fi cards. OpenAL was not effected by the XP -> Vista/7 transition. In fact, that's what Creative's ALchemy software does, it maps the old DirectSound3D/EAX API calls into OpenAL API calls in order to keep hardware acceleration.

eddie500 said:
Will there be a big difference in sound from an X-fi vs onboard audio in non-hardware acceleration games?
Click to expand...
No. The X-Fi has better DAC's, better snr, and in general better sound quality; however, you are going to have to be some serious hardcore audiophile which some seriously eleaborate setup to notice the difference. Onboard has come a long way over the years.

Occasionally onboard audio due to it's near proximity to a lot of the mainboard components develops some noise, pops or ticks. A standalone card generally alleviates this, I wouldn't buy one and plan on such unless you actually experience such issues, it's becoming less common.

While yes, Creative drives have a bad reputation for causing system issues, it's largely the vocal minority having issues. There are far more people out there enjoying them issue free not bitching and moaning on the messageboards.

The old PCI X-Fi's work just fine in Vista/7. Unless you have some crazy desire or use for the break-out boxes, the $50-60 XtremeGamer edition is an excellent value.
 
eddie500 said:
Since new games are not supporting hardware acceleration anymore, can you get by with the on board motherboard audio?
Will there be a big difference in sound from an X-fi vs onboard audio in non-hardware acceleration games?
Click to expand...

For me there was a noticeable difference between on-board audio on P6T Deluxe and X-Fi Prelude and Xonar DX.

On-board was very noisy as it reproduced hard disk activity, window scrolls, etc.
Also the sound quality and sound channel mixing were pretty bad.
 
johns996 said:
I always hated the drivers but when the X-Fi consistently crashed my old n-force 4 board, I gave up on creative. I'll admit that my impression of creative was partially shaped by the negative word of mouth prevalent on the web as well as the nforce 4 board experience. But that board had so many problems that sound was only the first so I'm starting to waver in my boycott.
Click to expand...

Not to rehash an old subject, but that was the fault of the nforce 4 chipset and not the X-Fi. Also, most, if not all, manufacturers of nforce 4 motherboards release a BIOS update that worked around or fixed the issue.

Menelmarar said:
The old PCI X-Fi's work just fine in Vista/7. Unless you have some crazy desire or use for the break-out boxes, the $50-60 XtremeGamer edition is an excellent value.
Click to expand...
Yep, just stay away from the XtremeAudio version as that does not have the real X-Fi chip on it. Correct?
 
Bad news are that two sound cards on your list use the same or similar chip as bgears b-Enspirer. HT Omega Striker uses CMI8770, Xonar DX uses CMI8788. Both are use software processing, both use the same CMedia drivers.
Click to expand...
I never really hated my bgears card. I had a chip on it blow out in the first year and the people at bgears fixed the card for me. After that fix, things never were the same. I ended up sending it back to them two more times, both past the warranty date, and they "fixed" it each time. Recently, however, my sound has started to randomly pop which is followed by feedback being sent over my mic. It doesn't bother me that much, but it drives people I game with crazy.

So... I wouldn't really mind going back to another CMedia chip. The drivers were fine, not updated that frequently, but certainty not bloated. The one hesitation with this chip comes from my experience with modern warfare 2. I always felt like I was missing some sounds in the game. Footsteps were not always clear and even some bullet fire, if not fired by me, was hard to distinguish. Maybe those problems are worked out in the newer versions of the chip, maybe they were just MW2 idiosyncrasies but it is something I'm thinking about this time around.

Regarding the availability of the Auzentech Forte, there are 4 on ebay now, 3 claiming to be new and one used for 6 months. There is also the refurbished ones which would more than work for me.
 
I've had both a Xonar DX and an X-Fi Forte, and my vote would be for the Forte for gaming. I use headphones exclusively, so YMMV, but I think the X-Fi does a better job both with the sound in general, and the positioning (which is really just XMSS being better than Dolby Headphone, I guess).
 
Does the X-Fi chip look small to you on the pictures of that card?
Click to expand...

You know, it does. You can get a better look here, but the article does not seem to mention the potential difference.
 
I'd go for the X-Fi Titanium or the AuzenTech FORTE as frankly i've used 3 different X-Fi cards with W7 and never EVER experienced any driver issues, worked perfectly. And these 2 cards will probably be your best "gaming" options based on effects that are slightly pointless now (EAX).
As for SNR, keep it above 110db and you're set, anything over that is just numbers, your ears i doubt will sense the difference. As for general quality, Auzentech have improvements over Creative, though Asus Xonar D2 and Essence are pretty much top at the moment.
 
Thanks for all the good info everyone. I will go with the FORTE or Titanium based on the recommendations and what I can actually find.

[edit] ok... who is the a-hole who went out and bought the last refurb FORTE?
 
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Ah man, that sucks. I had the same thing happen to me when i was looking at buying a new receiver, was there on teh live stock udpate right up until i went to place the order.... LAME. Thankfully somebody cancelled thir order so i got the order through a day later.
Hope you get it soon, they're not all that easy to come by (in the UK at least)
 
johns996 said:
Thanks for all the good info everyone. I will go with the FORTE or Titanium based on the recommendations and what I can actually find.

[edit] ok... who is the a-hole who went out and bought the last refurb FORTE?
Click to expand...

I just bought a used one recently off the for sale forum here.
 
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