New X-Fi Titanium spotted @ Newegg, $99, no Fatal1ty

So they take off a cover and the name and it's $30 less? lol @ Creative.
I am happy to see they offer an alternative to a Fatality named card though.
 
a5i2c said:
So they take off a cover and the name and it's $30 less? lol @ Creative.
I am happy to see they offer an alternative to a Fatality named card though.
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Yea $30 going to the guy's pocket for each one sold.
 
What chipset is on this card ?? I don't see a pci bridge on the pcb, so I assume there is no hardware acceleration.

Unless the ported the previous chipset to pci-e ( I forgot the name). But I doubt they invested in new hardware since vista can't take advantage of hardware acceleration anyway. What do you guy's think, An extreme-audio with more i/o ?
 
noxlord said:
What chipset is on this card ?? I don't see a pci bridge on the pcb, so I assume there is no hardware acceleration.

Unless the ported the previous chipset to pci-e ( I forgot the name). But I doubt they invested in new hardware since vista can't take advantage of hardware acceleration anyway. What do you guy's think, An extreme-audio with more i/o ?
Click to expand...

You don't see a PCI bridge because all the X-Fi Titanium cards are native PCI-E by design (unlike, say, the Xonar D2X, which is native PCI and needs the PCI-to-PCIE bridge), they also feature a slightly updated X-Fi chip for better Vista compatibility. This card is exactky like the other two previous X-Fi Titaniums floating around just minus the shield and branding. Hardware acceleration through Vista is provided via the ALchemy software (which I'm rather surprised you haven't heard of apparently, considering its been out for years).
 
King of Heroes, I know about Alchemy. However, correct me If I am wrong, I thought it only works as a layer between the games and the vista audio core. I don't think it can enable hardware acceleration on vista, only software emulation.
 
noxlord said:
King of Heroes, I know about Alchemy. However, correct me If I am wrong, I thought it only works as a layer between the games and the vista audio core. I don't think it can enable hardware acceleration on vista, only software emulation.
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Nope, it's real hardware acceleration. OpenAL to EAX. Vista does support hardware acceleration, but only via OpenAL, not DirectSound/DirectSound3D like XP and its ilk.
 
noxlord said:
King of Heroes, I know about Alchemy. However, correct me If I am wrong, I thought it only works as a layer between the games and the vista audio core. I don't think it can enable hardware acceleration on vista, only software emulation.
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Ah, no. The OpenAL audio API is still capable of hardware acceleration even in Vista. Based on this, ALchemy simply translates EAX commands into OpenAL commands (leading some to believe (read: hope) in the inevitable death of EAX and the embrace of OpenAL in the future).
 
This looks exactly like the Fatal1ty version without the EMI shield and LEDs. Even has the rear screw holes for the shield. But it's $50 less and still comes with DDL? That's a win! Why couldn't this have been here a month ago?
 
Please realize that OpenAL isn't like OpenGL. Sure it's a "somewhat" open standard, but it's still a "Creative" standard.

Time will tell how it's embraced by software developers. Utilizing a more "standard" API like DirectSound/DirectSound3d allows for easier ports to XBOX360 or vice versa.

So instead purchase it because it sounds good and meets your current needs. If you are using Vista, ignore all the other bells n whistles unless each game you play is OpenAL or works well with Alchemy.
 
Good card, i have the fatality one, if this came out earlier i would save 50 bucks and get this, but it didnt, anyway its a good card and should not be overlooked, like said above it is a native pci-e chip, unlike asus cards which use a bridge.
 
gar818 said:
unlike asus cards which use a bridge.
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Not that that matters in this day and age...

I mean, the Asus cards have other problems that might make you not want to buy them. I really, really doubt that the presence of a bridge chip is anything anyone will notice, even with synthetic benchmarks.
 
King of Heroes said:
Ah, no. The OpenAL audio API is still capable of hardware acceleration even in Vista. Based on this, ALchemy simply translates EAX commands into OpenAL commands (leading some to believe (read: hope) in the inevitable death of EAX and the embrace of OpenAL in the future).
Click to expand...

I think you are confusing EAX and OpenAL or something, because your post makes no sense in that reguard.

OpenAL can (and does in eg Quake4) use EAX, up to EAX5...share wathever you are on, please.
 
Atech said:
I think you are confusing EAX and OpenAL or something, because your post makes no sense in that reguard.

OpenAL can (and does in eg Quake4) use EAX, up to EAX5...share wathever you are on, please.
Click to expand...

Ah, yes, my apologies. My post is not properly worded at all.

I should say: "DirectSound3D cannot hardware accelerate EAX effects in Vista, OpenAL can. ALchemy changes DS3D calls to OpenAL calls, allowing EAX effects to remain hardware accelerated in Vista."
 
Is the front panel hook-up on these the same as the XtremeGamer? I've seen the regular XtremeGamer (PCI) for $99 locally (only $9 more than Newegg, surprising for Puerto Rico where anything is usually a bit more expensive), haven't seen the PCI-E yet tho.
 
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