newls1
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2003
- Messages
- 4,628
I need to buy a new sound card, as read on here a few weeks ago that the new X-Fi soundcards are actually causing BSOD's, and Slow performance in games. Have they fixed this issue yet?
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X-FI xtrememusic version?
- Thread starter newls1
- Start date
codebasher
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2005
- Messages
- 84
No problems here....
But anyhow my personal opinions on this one card...
In BF2 Locating what direction a sound comes from in all three planes is precise and perfect. As for placing the distance of the sound the results are mixed with this game. Aircraft and helo's are perfect in every aspect as immediately one can hear what direction and how far a away a particular aircraft sound is coming from. BUT... ground based sounds are not so easy to place distance although direction and quality is perfect and extremely sharp.
At least comparison wise, I was using the A8N on board sound and yes the X-Fire Extreme music craps all over it.Also, compared to the old SB-Live on the my other PC I'd say the X-Fire lives up to all the hype except for locating sounds outside the headphones.
In addition to FB2, in FEAR I also could pinpoint the direction a sound was coming from and also had pretty darn good Idea how far away. Although I get a good sense of distance I can still tell it is artificially created. For fragging I'd never go back as I've literally gained and extra sence in gaming, but I personally was hoping for complete fooling of my hearing insofar I'm just wearing headphones.
Sound quality itself and separation of various noises in a fire-fight though is second to done.
I can see room for improvement regarding the new virtual audio 3D placement of objects but the X-Fire is definately head and shoulders above anything I've tried thus far.
Is it worth it.... Yes
Did I wet myself at the enhanced gaming experience? ... I sure appreciate the the step up in gaming but no...
====================
A week later
====================
I spent time Playing some Quake 4 at a LAN today and man, you can seriously place a sound exactly anywhere in a 3D sphere around you.. Two floors above and to the right 10 metres etc et al and so forth. I still play like crap but wow, the precise placement of all sound sources in all directions is amazing.
Also I installed the demo multiplayer version of Vietcong II and once I set the sound to EAX HD I hit the test audio button. OMFG!!!! I took the headphones off as I could have sweared blind that the test voices were real as they came from 3 metres away in the specified directions!!!!! Now I am impressed..... Holy ____, _____ man!!!!
I had a sneaking suspicion that my earlier tests were ok but not fantastic due to less than stellar coding in the games I was testing. I was right, these two new examples (especially vietcong) have given me a new joy in owning this sound card.
But anyhow my personal opinions on this one card...
In BF2 Locating what direction a sound comes from in all three planes is precise and perfect. As for placing the distance of the sound the results are mixed with this game. Aircraft and helo's are perfect in every aspect as immediately one can hear what direction and how far a away a particular aircraft sound is coming from. BUT... ground based sounds are not so easy to place distance although direction and quality is perfect and extremely sharp.
At least comparison wise, I was using the A8N on board sound and yes the X-Fire Extreme music craps all over it.Also, compared to the old SB-Live on the my other PC I'd say the X-Fire lives up to all the hype except for locating sounds outside the headphones.
In addition to FB2, in FEAR I also could pinpoint the direction a sound was coming from and also had pretty darn good Idea how far away. Although I get a good sense of distance I can still tell it is artificially created. For fragging I'd never go back as I've literally gained and extra sence in gaming, but I personally was hoping for complete fooling of my hearing insofar I'm just wearing headphones.
Sound quality itself and separation of various noises in a fire-fight though is second to done.
I can see room for improvement regarding the new virtual audio 3D placement of objects but the X-Fire is definately head and shoulders above anything I've tried thus far.
Is it worth it.... Yes
Did I wet myself at the enhanced gaming experience? ... I sure appreciate the the step up in gaming but no...
====================
A week later
====================
I spent time Playing some Quake 4 at a LAN today and man, you can seriously place a sound exactly anywhere in a 3D sphere around you.. Two floors above and to the right 10 metres etc et al and so forth. I still play like crap but wow, the precise placement of all sound sources in all directions is amazing.
Also I installed the demo multiplayer version of Vietcong II and once I set the sound to EAX HD I hit the test audio button. OMFG!!!! I took the headphones off as I could have sweared blind that the test voices were real as they came from 3 metres away in the specified directions!!!!! Now I am impressed..... Holy ____, _____ man!!!!
I had a sneaking suspicion that my earlier tests were ok but not fantastic due to less than stellar coding in the games I was testing. I was right, these two new examples (especially vietcong) have given me a new joy in owning this sound card.
Well it´s just that much you can do with headphones. correctly placed 5.1 speakers will always be better I feel.
I can honestly say that I can hear the difference from an Audigy 2 to an X Fi. And I don´t get some super 250$ headphones or 1000$ speakers or anything. I got a Kinyo 5.1 headphone which does have it´s own amplifier but of the cheap kind of course. Still these headphones certainly sound way better than most cheaper stereo headphones I have tried.
But I can still hear a clear improvement with the X fi with those cans and of course when I get my DT 770 PRO I expect to be able to hear an even larger difference. I have an Audigy 2 ZS on another computer so I can try it out even though I will never reinstall my Audigy 2 again
I can honestly say that I can hear the difference from an Audigy 2 to an X Fi. And I don´t get some super 250$ headphones or 1000$ speakers or anything. I got a Kinyo 5.1 headphone which does have it´s own amplifier but of the cheap kind of course. Still these headphones certainly sound way better than most cheaper stereo headphones I have tried.
But I can still hear a clear improvement with the X fi with those cans and of course when I get my DT 770 PRO I expect to be able to hear an even larger difference. I have an Audigy 2 ZS on another computer so I can try it out even though I will never reinstall my Audigy 2 again
i'm having problems with my x-fi extreme music as mentioned in some threads below
and i recently found out it's a widely known issue among most of users with scsi setup in their system. furthermore, there is another issue with slowdowns in BF2 specifically and that problem has also not been fixed. I really wish creative would step up to the plate and knock these problems out.. i almost feel like returning my soundcard and going back to my audigy2.
and i recently found out it's a widely known issue among most of users with scsi setup in their system. furthermore, there is another issue with slowdowns in BF2 specifically and that problem has also not been fixed. I really wish creative would step up to the plate and knock these problems out.. i almost feel like returning my soundcard and going back to my audigy2.