only x-fi for gaming?

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Riddleofsteel

[H]ard|Gawd
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I really don't want to buy another creative card since I had such a bad experience with my old Xtreme Gamer that died on me. But for my pc usage, it measures about 50 percent music and 50 percent games. I know there are lots of cards that are good for music, but if I have gaming in there at all, and especially at 50% of the time I am on my computer, do I need to go for an x-fi card?

I know the asus cards can mimic eax, but with fewer games (seemingly) using eax do I really need to worry? Thanks for any help.
 
Just because one card died on you I dont think I would count that as a bad experience that will prevent me from buying from a company again....just a thought....
 
If you want an X-Fi card without Creative's crap support, get one of the Auzentech cards.
 
I never had any driver issues...at least no worst than with any other company around so not sure what to say there.
 
With Vista I had all kinds of issues with their drivers. Anyway, I think I will check out Auzentech. Is the Forte any good or should I wait and get a Prelude? Thanks.
 
shaolin95 said:
I never had any driver issues...at least no worst than with any other company around so not sure what to say there.
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That's pretty much the case. There isn't really a consumer sound card on the market today that has "good" drivers and accompanying software -- they're all bloated in differing degrees. Prosumer cards tend to have better software, but can often lag behind significantly when it comes to driver updates.

Riddleofsteel said:
...with fewer games (seemingly) using eax do I really need to worry? Thanks for any help.
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Not really. If you don't play any EAX-supporting games today, you really have no reason to bother with an X-Fi.
 
For what it's worth, Creative's drivers for the X-Fi on Vista are good.
 
I have the Auzentech X-Fi and have never had problems with the creative cards.
 
Auzentech FTW! I've had my Auzen X-Mystique 7.1 GOLD for a good while now and its lovely (even in Vista). I really like the X-Fi Prelude but am not in any hurry to upgrade since mine is still pretty nice and definitely working top-notch.
 
When did the Creative x-fi vista drivers improve? I am guessing it's subjective and it works for some people and not for others. How is the xtreme gamer for dac and headphones compared to a higher end product like the Auzen Prelude?
 
I just installed a xifi recently on vista and i have no problems whats so ever.and Auzentech uses the same exact drivers and software.
 
Actually, that is not a correct statement. Auzentech's drivers are definitely more stable in Vista, and Auzen cards also feature Dolby/DTS, which the drivers also have to handle. The Auzen X-Fi prelude was also the first X-Fi chipset-based card to feature onboard deadicated RAM, so the drivers would have needed to have that support written in as well.

Since the X-Fi Prelude wasn't a collaboration but rather a licensed venture, I highly doubt Creative had very much to do with it other than handing over basic information and drivers to Auzen's higher-qualified development teams.
 
LAiN_OfTheWired said:
Actually, that is not a correct statement. Auzentech's drivers are definitely more stable in Vista, and Auzen cards also feature Dolby/DTS, which the drivers also have to handle. The Auzen X-Fi prelude was also the first X-Fi chipset-based card to feature onboard deadicated RAM, so the drivers would have needed to have that support written in as well.

Since the X-Fi Prelude wasn't a collaboration but rather a licensed venture, I highly doubt Creative had very much to do with it other than handing over basic information and drivers to Auzen's higher-qualified development teams.
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My Creative X-Fi Elite Pro has 64MB RAM onboard.
 
The Prelude has a funky issue with it's SPDIF out. Basically it passes before the chip, so you can't have any effects with it (CMSS 3d, Alchemy, etc.) With no Alchemy gaming becomes a problem in Vista, unless you're happy with software audio.

The Forte apparently doesn't have this restriction. But if you don't use the SPDIF then no issue at all.
 
I've had an X-Fi on my XP32 and loved it, sound was noticeably better in games, movies and music due to crystallization mainly (other features helped too when they were supported).

Once I upgraded to Vista64 I passed on the soundcard since it had too many issues back in the day. Nowadays the support has grown, however it still takes a great deal of effort from the user to research compatibility.

I am now going back to XP (64 this time) and I simply cannot pass up picking up an X-Fi again (I especially miss how great some of songs sounded). The price for a refurb PCI slot X-Fi is amazing as well.
 
Both the Creative and Auzentech X-Fi cards can do Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1.
Its free with the Auzentech Prelude and the high end X-Fi cards, all others can buy an upgrade from Creative.
(Note the X-Fi Extreme Audio cards cannot do this as they do not have an X-Fi processor)

The Prelude has a high end HiFi DAC and op-amps.
The op-amps are replaceable if you feel the need to liberate more from your hifi.

I'm using the Prelude with analogue out to a Onkyo TX-SR875 amp, Mission/Acoustic Energy speakers, BK Monolith and REL Strata II subs and it is truly awesome!
 
Riddleofsteel said:
Is SPDIF the way to go though if you use an amp/dac? Thanks for letting me know.
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Only if the DAC/Op-amps in your amp are better than those on the soundcard.
The best way to find out is try it but remember that for Digital out, the PC's volume is on max.
So dont be fooled thinking it is better when it is only louder, easy mistake.

For example, if you buy a Prelude, you will want to use Analogue unless you have a very good amp or very good external DAC.
If using digital, you dont need an expensive card as they offer analogue improvements.
 
Turn off all of Creative's bloatware, update drivers to newest, and they'll work a lot better. Personally, I don't really care for any of their features except for EAX, so I leave them off.

Also, if you get SCP, turn off CMSS-3D.
 
Newer games not as much but older games still need it. I have Fatality PCI-E Champion Series works great. X-fi prelude won't work with my analog speakers.
 
AVT said:
Turn off all of Creative's bloatware, update drivers to newest, and they'll work a lot better. Personally, I don't really care for any of their features except for EAX, so I leave them off.

Also, if you get SCP, turn off CMSS-3D.
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SCP?
 
43st said:
I believe he means 'snap crackle pop', which was an issue with the older non-PCI-E X-fi cards. In my experience this was unrelated to CMSS-3D being enabled.
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If I recall correctly it was mainly due to having an nforce board.
 
I have a Creative Audigy 2. I'm planning to have Win XP 64 bit and Win Vista 64 bit both with dual boot.

I'm currently on a Creative Inspire 6.1 Analog Speaker setup and I'll be still using it with the new system for a while, with 5.1 on Vista and 6.1 on XP. Later I'm planning to replace them with Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speakers.

I'm looking for a new sound card which will be used for 60% games, 30% music and 10% movies.

Considering all of this what would you recommend?

I'm having a hard time choosing between Creative and Auzentech, as I've been happy with my Creative Audigy 2, but have been hearing bad things about Creative's latest cards... If I went Creative I'd go for the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro, but with Auzentech I'm not sure. I take it both Creative and Auzentech use ALchemy, so there should be no sound compatibility problem with older games.

But is the performance hit the same on both cards? I'd suppose so since it's the same software?

Also what are the differences between the Prelude and the Forte besides size and the SPDIF issue (I don't use SPDIF so it's not a problem for me)?

If you recommended Auzentech would the Forte be the way to go if I wanted better airflow while having a sound card with the same performance as the Prelude?

Thanks
 
Pedrovsk said:
Also what are the differences between the Prelude and the Forte besides size and the SPDIF issue (I don't use SPDIF so it's not a problem for me)?
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Here's my brief take on it, as it effected me. Some of this may be subjective to me, or perhaps something unique in my setup.

Original X-fi Fatality:
- Great upgrade from the older Audigy line at the time.
- Problems with audio quality in the long run and small scratch and pop issues in certain situations. (BF2142 artillery)
- General poor audio quality, huge difference in quality when going from gaming mode to entertainment or audio creation mode.

Prelude:
- Audio quality much better, but same issue with low quality in gaming mode. Also same issue in BF2142.
- Without a doubt a better card the 1st gen. X-fi from Creative.
- S/pdif issue with stereo audio effects. :(
- S/pdif to external DAC/Amp vastly better quality than it's analog outs.

Forte:
- No apparent quality drop in gaming mode (perhaps this is the new PCI-e X-fi chip?)
- Headphone amp is of remarkable quality, maybe not better than, but comparable to an external DAC/Amp. (this was a bit of a surprise for me)
- S/pdif can send stereo effects now (though I'm not using it currently).
 
43st said:
Here's my brief take on it, as it effected me. Some of this may be subjective to me, or perhaps something unique in my setup.

Original X-fi Fatality:
- Great upgrade from the older Audigy line at the time.
- Problems with audio quality in the long run and small scratch and pop issues in certain situations. (BF2142 artillery)
- General poor audio quality, huge difference in quality when going from gaming mode to entertainment or audio creation mode.

Prelude:
- Audio quality much better, but same issue with low quality in gaming mode. Also same issue in BF2142.
- Without a doubt a better card the 1st gen. X-fi from Creative.
- S/pdif issue with stereo audio effects. :(
- S/pdif to external DAC/Amp vastly better quality than it's analog outs.

Forte:
- No apparent quality drop in gaming mode (perhaps this is the new PCI-e X-fi chip?)
- Headphone amp is of remarkable quality, maybe not better than, but comparable to an external DAC/Amp. (this was a bit of a surprise for me)
- S/pdif can send stereo effects now (though I'm not using it currently).
Click to expand...

Thanks! I take it you had experience with all the 3 cards? The Forte really sounds like what I'm looking for. Seems very nice for its size!

Thanks for your contribution once more! :)
 
43st said:
Here's my brief take on it, as it effected me. Some of this may be subjective to me, or perhaps something unique in my setup.

Original X-fi Fatality:
- Problems with audio quality in the long run and small scratch and pop issues in certain situations. (BF2142 artillery)
- General poor audio quality, huge difference in quality when going from gaming mode to entertainment or audio creation mode.
Click to expand...

I never had problems with "scratch and pop" as I don't run a NVIDIA chipset.

And /DUH...the is a big difference in the 3 audiomodes...hence they are DIFFERENT.
 
LOL, that scratch and pop sound effect with the 2142 artillery. It's supposed to be "static" sound because the artillery blast is screwing with the NetBat helmet and is part of the game. It's a sound effect and it's not present in anything but Ultra High because other sound cards can't handle rendering that many voices in hardware.
 
Met-AL said:
LOL, that scratch and pop sound effect with the 2142 artillery. It's supposed to be "static" sound because the artillery blast is screwing with the NetBat helmet and is part of the game. It's a sound effect and it's not present in anything but Ultra High because other sound cards can't handle rendering that many voices in hardware.
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LOL, yeah.. we'll include a sound in our game that sounds exactly like a hot signal hitting a DSP too hard. It sounded like complete ass and I can't imagine any sound designer working at that level would intentionally include shit audio and write it off as a design decision. Funny they didn't include that high pitch scratch with any of the EMP effects that were actually DESIGNED to screw up your Netbat. :rolleyes:

As for the different modes.. Gaming mode was the only one with really bad frequency response, I'm glad it's been updated. :)
 
Riddleofsteel said:
When did the Creative x-fi vista drivers improve? I am guessing it's subjective and it works for some people and not for others.
Click to expand...

Exactly, I had to just help a friend because his X-fi gamer wouldn't play nicely with Vista. The drivers kept telling him that there wasn't a card supported. So I had to use some hacked drivers that are readily available and supported in Creatives Forums. You would figure that they would fix the problem though.......
 
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