What is a good alternative to XFi

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Apr 23, 2005
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I currently have a Creative XFi Fatality installed in my Vista 64 system with 5.1 surround sound. I am having issues with this card and quite a few games. I use Alchemy to gain surround sound in some D3D and EAX games. My biggest problem is crashing in some newer games such as UT3. If I disable OpenAL in games, then they will not randomly crash. If it is enabled it may crash 5 minutes into the game or 2 hours in. If I use my onboard audio with OpenAL on the games do not crash, but I can not get 5.1 surround sound in D3D games such as Half Life 2 Series.

Can some one give me a suggestion on a sound card that can provide 5.1 sound for "older" d3d/EAX games without the use of an external program such as alchemy and also provide stable use of OpenAL. I am currently considering one of th Asus cards. I have had real good luck with other products of theirs.
Thanx.
 
razer's barracuda AC-1 and Asus' Xonor are both superb cards, but have MSRPs of 199.99. they can typically be found for 150 or less, but thats a a good 50% more than the average X-Fi.

they both fit your requirements and have better sound and support than Creative's.
 
the razer ac-1 can be found for 50-60$ now as woot and buy.com dumped a bunch on the market. i have one and an x-fi in my pc. the razer is not as good as the x-fi in games BUT is the best non x-fi card i have heard game-wise! (using windows xp)
 
I, myself, am torn between the Asus Xonar, the Razer AC-1, and the HT Omega Claro +. The Xonar & Claro are leading though as both seem to have kick ass features and much better support than Razer. It's the price that is currently keeping me from getting either.
 
Actually the Xtreme music in my other computer in my lan, didnt have that problem in UT3. when I was testing to see if it would do it with openAL enable. but it hasnt at all. And my other computer is running vista 64.

I using the latest drivers on it. I prolly just lucky or something.

You can try the Daniel_K XFI drivers if your able to find it. before you get another card all together.

And yea Razer doesnt have good support, I used to have a razer barracuda, I got sick of them so I got rid of my barracuda evne tho i did enjoy it when I had it.

If any thing if you want a non XFI chip card then grab the Asus Xonar like the 89 dollar one but its PCIE. But I would try Daniel K driver first then get rid of it, or you can see if PCI latceny set to 64 help you.
 
Has anyone used one of the Asus cards paired with a Nforce 680i mobo with Vista 64. I have read a couple of complaints stating that there is an issue with using the sound card in a PCI-e slot.
Also have you had any experience with the card used with both UT3 and Half Life paired with a 5.1 surround setup.
Thanx.
 
I'll put in a double vote.

Asus Xonar for the more budget minded folks,


Prelude for those with some money to burn :)
 
Has anyone used one of the Asus cards paired with a Nforce 680i mobo with Vista 64. I have read a couple of complaints stating that there is an issue with using the sound card in a PCI-e slot.
Also have you had any experience with the card used with both UT3 and Half Life paired with a 5.1 surround setup.
Thanx.

there suppose to be a bios fix from nvidia coming that deals with that issue
 
Thanx for all the replies. I am going to try a couple more settings in the Creative control panel, but I think my mind is made up. I am probably going to order an Asus card next week and give it a try.
 
are Soundblaster Audigy 2 SE any good still?

Are the drivers OK? Do they sound better than onboard?
 
are Soundblaster Audigy 2 SE any good still?

Are the drivers OK? Do they sound better than onboard?

Have one in my older (close to 2 y/o) computer. Realize that the SE is not a "true" Audigy, that there is a chance it will slow your system down (did mine) ... is the sound better than onboard? For me, yes, definitely. Driver-wise, I'm using the next to latest drivers and it works fine - I installed my way. d/l the drivers onto my desktop, then install card, install those drivers then put the CD in for the software I wanted. Their autoupdate has fubar'ed more times than it hasn't. Please note, I'm using XP Home on that computer with Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo. So I don't know/can't speak to any issues with either 64bit or Vista.

If you've only got like $30 to spend, it's not a bad option. It's just not the best and it is still Creative.

Me? I'm really leaning toward completely blowing my budget and getting a Claro+. Might be a bit of overkill, but the opamps are better, and overall it reminds me of the card I really wanted - an X-Meridian. Actually found someone selling one, but they wanted $200 :(
 
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