X-Fi Titanium PCI-E Sound Card $39.99 Shipped

Sabrewulf...

Sabrewulf...

Gawd
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Wasn't the Recon one worse than the X-Fi? I think if you're going above the X-Fi you have to go to the one with the built in headphone AMP.

*EDIT*

Nevermind, that's not the X-Fi Titanium "Fatality" version.
 
I approve of this deal. See sig :) Great card once they sorted out the Win8 driver problems.
 
Have creatives drivers improved? Every now and then I still get bluescreens or sound glitches on my old X-Fi Xtreme Gamer (regular PCI) in win7. Bluescreens were traced to the soundcard, and well sound glitches (yea that's the card too, usually going to the console and flipping between profiles fixes it, then a restart of the program with glitched sound). Its great when working though (99% of the time).

Big improvement over modern onboard audio like the ASUS Hero?
 
I haven't had a single problem with the Win8 drivers. Before that, Win7 was fine for quite a while.
 
I ordered one. I had a PCI version, then got a new pc with only PCIE slots. Now to sell my pci version.
 
How would this compare to the sound from a board like the z87 Hero? I was starting to think that everyone was switching to onboard sound.
 
As a heads up, I had the xtremegamer and Titanium HD. Every time I booted with one of them, I had to mess with the Creative Control Panel. (switch between entertainment and gaming modes). Otherwise I wouldn't have any sound. This was on windows 8.
 
topdragon147 said:
As a heads up, I had the xtremegamer and Titanium HD. Every time I booted with one of them, I had to mess with the Creative Control Panel. (switch between entertainment and gaming modes). Otherwise I wouldn't have any sound. This was on windows 8.
Click to expand...

That has been fixed. That was the problem I was eluding to earlier in the thread.
 
Justintoxicated said:
How would this compare to the sound from a board like the z87 Hero? I was starting to think that everyone was switching to onboard sound.
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It would technically be better, but it depends on your speakers/headphones, and most importantly your ears.
 
prtzlboy said:
It would technically be better, but it depends on your speakers/headphones, and most importantly your ears.
Click to expand...

Well I get that, I'm running Z5500, so just expensive computer speakers, but I do often use headphone. Unfortunately my gaming headset is as good as my AT headphones...
 
topdragon147 said:
As a heads up, I had the xtremegamer and Titanium HD. Every time I booted with one of them, I had to mess with the Creative Control Panel. (switch between entertainment and gaming modes). Otherwise I wouldn't have any sound. This was on windows 8.
Click to expand...

Not sure why but my titanium hd doesn't want to stay on 5.1 after reboot. It always goes back to the headphones setting.
 
my issue was always the bass redirection would get reset for 5.1 sound and my sub would no longer work. I have since just been using HDMI out for 5.1 to my denon receiver then the X-Fi Titanium for my headphones (sennheiser (sp?) HD515)
 
Anyone compared the X-Fi to the newest "Z" line? I have the old XtremeMusic card that I am considering updating just to use a pcie slot.
 
I had a titanium, and the windows 7 drivers were complete garbage. Unless they completely trashed them and went back to the drawing board since March, I'd say pass.
 
bigsnyder said:
Anyone compared the X-Fi to the newest "Z" line? I have the old XtremeMusic card that I am considering updating just to use a pcie slot.
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I'm also interested in comparisons with the Z. From what I know is that the Z > X-Fi Titanium > Recon 3d. Anyone had a chance to compare them recently?

I had the PCI Xtremegamer a while back but had to give it up when I upgraded to IB so I'm currently looking for something better than on board.
 
From further reading it appears most (not everyone) prefers the new Z cards over the X-Fi (not TitanHD), especially for positional sound effects. However, for straight two channel music, not sure I ever found a consensus. I would say the X-Fi would be better than most onboard solutions unless a particular board has a really tricked out audio implementation. Considering how old the X-Fi, it is amazing that they are still considered in any discussion.
 
kingk said:
I had a titanium, and the windows 7 drivers were complete garbage. Unless they completely trashed them and went back to the drawing board since March, I'd say pass.
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Win7 drivers are fine. Win8 drivers are fine as well.

I am guessing either you had a faulty card or there was something else wrong with your system.
 
bigsnyder said:
From further reading it appears most (not everyone) prefers the new Z cards over the X-Fi (not TitanHD), especially for positional sound effects. However, for straight two channel music, not sure I ever found a consensus. I would say the X-Fi would be better than most onboard solutions unless a particular board has a really tricked out audio implementation. Considering how old the X-Fi, it is amazing that they are still considered in any discussion.
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It's because they have pretty good DACs in them. WAAAY better than any mobo sound I've ever tried.

I've never had a single X-fi related issue in Win7
 
chameleoneel said:
It's because they have pretty good DACs in them. WAAAY better than any mobo sound I've ever tried.

I've never had a single X-fi related issue in Win7
Click to expand...

I have 2 of these cards in PCI flavor, and they screw up on win7 from time to time. I have to go into the control panel and change profiles around.

Had a couple bluescreens where the errorcode traced back to Creative drives as well.

Sound is pretty good but if I could get nearly the same sound out of a motherboard with a fancy DAC then I would certainly go that route from my experience. Just not sure any MB will have as good of sound + no EAX :(.
 
bigsnyder said:
...especially for positional sound effects.
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Not sure what your talking about there, been using one for years and positional audio in games is excellent with a decent 5.1 system. (mine is actually 5.1 +4 if you count using my home theater subs as well as the tactile transducer bolted on the back of my executive chair :D)

bigsnyder said:
...Considering how old the X-Fi, it is amazing that they are still considered in any discussion.
Click to expand...

Because its still a great card and really great at $40. Its not like there's been any amazing audio innovations over the last years, what do the new cards give ya over this for gaming that you can hear? a bit cleaner sound maybe? Doubt my ears can tell...
 
X-fi's also have a really good equalizer build into the driver software. It's very clean (doesn't distort sounds, actually changes levels) and does a good job of isolating the stated frequency range on any given slider.

Where's most mobo sound I've tried, the equalizer built into the driver was not very clean or predictable. add on top of that muddy DACs----the X-Fi is just a much better option.
 
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bigsnyder said:
From further reading it appears most (not everyone) prefers the new Z cards over the X-Fi (not TitanHD), especially for positional sound effects. However, for straight two channel music, not sure I ever found a consensus. I would say the X-Fi would be better than most onboard solutions unless a particular board has a really tricked out audio implementation. Considering how old the X-Fi, it is amazing that they are still considered in any discussion.
Click to expand...

I went to a Z card (the red shielded one) and have been so far impressed, the fact I haven't noticed the drivers is a plus. The Xfi it replaced (dead) always had driver related crashes, especially in games using the Frostbite 2 engine.

I did lots of testing and comparisons, it fit my need for a 5.1 card. I do use digital out and it is capable of doing Dolby encoding on the toslink - usually it's just a passthru.
 
I bought a Xonar DGX headphone audio card for my work computer and when I take my Ultrasone 750 Pro headphones to work I can hardly tell the difference between it and my SoundBlaster Z with media and music, probably for games might make a noticeable difference, but considering the DGX was only $29.99 new, I'd probably get that over the Z and pocket the difference if I could do it over again.
 
cyclone3d said:
Win7 drivers are fine. Win8 drivers are fine as well.

I am guessing either you had a faulty card or there was something else wrong with your system.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you enjoy gimped out crippled hardware.

The driver would automatically lower the main volume setting every time any game was started. The switching of modes was a joke, and the DTS Connect and DOLBY encoding were horrid and barely useable at best.

The only reason I bought one, was because my auzentech xplosion was PCI and wouldn't work in my msi gd-65-z77. Needless to say, the auzentech ran circles around this POS in every way. It was such a POS, it was yanked in favor of bit-streaming from onboard optical.

Maybe @ $10 this is worth it....
 
kingk said:
I'm guessing you enjoy gimped out crippled hardware.

The driver would automatically lower the main volume setting every time any game was started. The switching of modes was a joke, and the DTS Connect and DOLBY encoding were horrid and barely useable at best.

The only reason I bought one, was because my auzentech xplosion was PCI and wouldn't work in my msi gd-65-z77. Needless to say, the auzentech ran circles around this POS in every way. It was such a POS, it was yanked in favor of bit-streaming from onboard optical.

Maybe @ $10 this is worth it....
Click to expand...

Know any new card, well card currently in production, that's good at actual audio reproduction, e.g. 192khz output? I have a HT Omega Claro in my old rig and I need another card for my new rig so.
 
kingk said:
I'm guessing you enjoy gimped out crippled hardware.

The driver would automatically lower the main volume setting every time any game was started. The switching of modes was a joke, and the DTS Connect and DOLBY encoding were horrid and barely useable at best.

The only reason I bought one, was because my auzentech xplosion was PCI and wouldn't work in my msi gd-65-z77. Needless to say, the auzentech ran circles around this POS in every way. It was such a POS, it was yanked in favor of bit-streaming from onboard optical.

Maybe @ $10 this is worth it....
Click to expand...

Sorry but I'm using an Xfi PCIE right now, and I sure don't have these problems you mentioned with the volume....
 
kingk said:
The only reason I bought one, was because my auzentech xplosion was PCI and wouldn't work in my msi gd-65-z77. Needless to say, the auzentech ran circles around this POS in every way. It was such a POS, it was yanked in favor of bit-streaming from onboard optical.

Maybe @ $10 this is worth it....
Click to expand...

I have an Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 with upgraded Op-Amps and love it. Picked it up on ebay for about $50 last year.

Gettin hard to come by now.
 
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