Something other than Creative Labs Sound Card?

ITDEFX

ITDEFX

CAGiversary!
Feedback
13 (100%)
In the process of preparing to order my new system, I was thinking about getting another Xi-Fi card and since I was going to switch to vista, I noticed this

http://forums.creative.com/creative...hread.id=116332&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

Apparently drivers for Vista are borked to the point where someone tried to help out by making drivers that make the cards work perfectly under Vista. CL didn't like it and decided to tell the guy to stop helping the community.

Right now I have the Xi-Fi Music card with 7.1 sound and it's great. However I can never enable EAX 2 or higher or get any of that fancy stuff the card advertises to work in XP. At this point I am considering switching over to something else (from newegg) that will support my 7.1 speakers. I haven't installed Vista yet so I don't know if people here has the full features of their CL card enabled under the OS.

They make great cards, but crappy drivers (like ATI did). I know creative dominates the market and put everyone else that was good out of business, so what's left to switch over?

Mostly the card will be used for the latest games and HD/BR Movie playback so I need something that can handle that stuff when I upgrade.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']In the process of preparing to order my new system, I was thinking about getting another Xi-Fi card and since I was going to switch to vista, I noticed this

http://forums.creative.com/creative...hread.id=116332&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

Apparently drivers for Vista are borked to the point where someone tried to help out by making drivers that make the cards work perfectly under Vista. CL didn't like it and decided to tell the guy to stop helping the community.

Right now I have the Xi-Fi Music card with 7.1 sound and it's great. However I can never enable EAX 2 or higher or get any of that fancy stuff the card advertises to work in XP. At this point I am considering switching over to something else (from newegg) that will support my 7.1 speakers. I haven't installed Vista yet so I don't know if people here has the full features of their CL card enabled under the OS.

They make great cards, but crappy drivers (like ATI did). I know creative dominates the market and put everyone else that was good out of business, so what's left to switch over?

Mostly the card will be used for the latest games and HD/BR Movie playback so I need something that can handle that stuff when I upgrade.[/quote]


There are tons of companies that make great sound cards. I personally recommend Auzentech, although there are plenty of other you can find on newegg.com

Auzentech even has a sound card with an X-Fi chip, which means you get EAX and all the X-Fi features. ^^
 
[quote name='dark_eternal']There are tons of companies that make great sound cards. I personally recommend Auzentech, although there are plenty of other you can find on newegg.com

Auzentech even has a sound card with an X-Fi chip, which means you get EAX and all the X-Fi features. ^^[/quote]

Oh good. I am glad to know there are other cards on the market that support EAX and X-Fi chips. Will look into it.

thx
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']Oh good. I am glad to know there are other cards on the market that support EAX and X-Fi chips. Will look into it.

thx[/QUOTE]

I'll throw in another recommendation for Auzentech. The nice thing is that their cards also support digital out, meaning that you can hook your computer up to your receiver and get good sound out of it, which you can't do with standard computer speakers.
 
Despite all the shit that Creative has pulled over the years, I still like their sound cards. For me, both the Audigy and X-fi series have worked well in XP. I still like the X-fi Xtremegamer, since I picked it up for about $60. Their Vista support has been improving... it is much better for the X-fi than for the Audigy line (you pretty much needed Daniel_K's drivers for that).
 
Well considering that I can never get EAX to work on my computer no matter what, I can't tell the difference. I am running 7.1 speakers and Splinter Cell: CT sounded amazing in surround sound mode, but who knows what I am missing out with EAX gimped.
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']Well considering that I can never get EAX to work on my computer no matter what, I can't tell the difference. I am running 7.1 speakers and Splinter Cell: CT sounded amazing in surround sound mode, but who knows what I am missing out with EAX gimped.[/QUOTE]
Use Alchemy.
 
It sucks that I am going to have to hook up my analog multichannel inputs to get surround support from games, what the hell is the use of optical output if it only seems to work on DVDs (and on few DVD players at that)...

Anyway I jsut got an X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI-E, seems to be working fine with Vista.
 
The PCI-E X-fi is not a "real" X-fi; it doesn't contain the EMU hardware acceleration chip. It's basically a repackaged Audigy SE in PCI-E format. It's not even a true Audigy, much less an X-fi. But, it does have pretty decent DACs, so normal sound reproduction should be good.

Analog multichannel is, in theory, better quality than multichannel optical output. On optical, multiple channels need to be encoded into Dolby Digital (or similar) on the fly... so you get a very small delay and loss of quality because of compression.
 
Yea bummer there.

The Xtreme Music used to be the best option for price. Now the lowest "true" X-Fi card is the Xtreme Gamer, which is worse than the old music.
 
[quote name='crystalklear64']Yea bummer there.

The Xtreme Music used to be the best option for price. Now the lowest "true" X-Fi card is the Xtreme Gamer, which is worse than the old music.[/quote]

I have no problems with the Xtreme Gamer in XP and Vista ... yet then again I'm using headphones and partially deaf (by my own standards :D ) so I probably never notice anything wrong
 
Well, IMO, if you're going to buy an X-Fi sound card, you're either doing it because you're trying to get the most performance boost possible with like.. the ultimate god mode gaming rig, or you want one of the feature's the card offers.

Audiophiles won't want an X-Fi card, and onboard sound is more than enough for gaming.

I personally bought my X-Fi card for the native ASIO support for when I'm DJing.
 
The xtremegamer is very similar to the xtrememusic and even contains a standard front panel connector (Intel HD Audio, but unfortunately not AC'97).

X-fi, unlike onboard, has better DACs and usually provides better quality output. It also supports EAX above version 2.
 
I have been using a Sound Blaster Live! Value for longer than I can even remember. It has been in like my last 5 computers. I think it was originally in my AMD K6 233mhz PC when I was a teenager.
 
Sometimes whenever I switch a web page I get some sound interference when listening to music, I thought having a sound card was supposed to eliminate stuff like this?
 
Funny, both my Creative sound cards have been screwing up the past few days. My Audigy 2 software won't let me adjust the volume. The damn card will suddenly go disabled whenever I move the volume slider. My Audigy SE in another machine is acting up too. WTF? There was a recent XP auto-update a few days ago, I wonder if this is causing the problems. Anybody else?
 
Hi. Sorry but I am going to necro this since it is relevant... I just bought a X-Fi Xtreme Audio from Newegg because I needed a SPDIF out and it was only $20. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me figure out why I cannot get it to work. My speakers just buzz and make no sound. I am certain that the cards digital out is where the sound is being outputted but nothing is coming out of my speakers.

Has anyone dealt with this or any SB cards in Windows 7 using a digital SPDIF out and had issues? Googling this issue has been a nightmare of confusing and useless information.
 
[quote name='SpecTrE3353']Hi. Sorry but I am going to necro this since it is relevant... I just bought a X-Fi Xtreme Audio from Newegg because I needed a SPDIF out and it was only $20. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me figure out why I cannot get it to work. My speakers just buzz and make no sound. I am certain that the cards digital out is where the sound is being outputted but nothing is coming out of my speakers.

Has anyone dealt with this or any SB cards in Windows 7 using a digital SPDIF out and had issues? Googling this issue has been a nightmare of confusing and useless information.[/QUOTE]

Sounds like a hardware or IRQ problem.

I would reset the card in another spot and try again.
 
[quote name='Megazell']Sounds like a hardware or IRQ problem.

I would reset the card in another spot and try again.[/QUOTE]

Tried that but still nothing :/ I have heard several stories of people getting cards that were busted right out of the box. I am going to assume at this point that that may be my problem. fucking Creative.
 
[quote name='SpecTrE3353']Tried that but still nothing :/ I have heard several stories of people getting cards that were busted right out of the box. I am going to assume at this point that that may be my problem. fucking Creative.[/QUOTE]

If you have another PC I would test it there first.

Also call customer support...usually when that happens...with and without a receipt....I have gotten the company to exchange either by mail or at the store.
 
[quote name='SpecTrE3353']Tried that but still nothing :/ I have heard several stories of people getting cards that were busted right out of the box. I am going to assume at this point that that may be my problem. fucking Creative.[/QUOTE]

Did you try the software that came with the card?
 
[quote name='Tony208']Did you try the software that came with the card?[/QUOTE]

I was not able to get the bigger driver package that includes some software to even install under Windows 7. Just gives me an error. The drivers themselves installed fine though.

I think I finally might have found something that shows what my problem is:

http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=64440

My audio devices list a couple of things for the X-Fi including a speaker out and digital out but nothing that says SPDIF Out like in that picture. I'm not sure how to get it in the list but for now I am going to keep trying to get the Creative software installed and maybe it'll help.
 
[quote name='SpecTrE3353']I think I finally might have found something that shows what my problem is:

http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=64440

My audio devices list a couple of things for the X-Fi including a speaker out and digital out but nothing that says SPDIF Out like in that picture. I'm not sure how to get it in the list but for now I am going to keep trying to get the Creative software installed and maybe it'll help.[/QUOTE]

Hmm thanks for that link. I have the 1st audigy (platinum) card and sometimes my audio is off when I watch divx files. Going to see if that helps me out.
 
HAHA you guys bumped a 2 year old thread of mine.

Anyways I did end up getting another SB card. Just like the other SB cards you have to change the bios settings in order to get it to work properly :(
 
In these days of mobos with 7.1 and optical out (at least mine does) powered by multi-core cpus that are hyperthreaded, is a dedicated sound card really needed? To me it's just a component that has the potential to add conflict problems.
 
[quote name='mogamer']In these days of mobos with 7.1 and optical out (at least mine does) powered by multi-core cpus that are hyperthreaded, is a dedicated sound card really needed? To me it's just a component that has the potential to add conflict problems.[/QUOTE]

The only reason I bought it is because I have speakers that are digital and require a SPDIF. My motherdoes does have a SPDIF out but its optical which means I would have to buy some sort of converter. The X-Fi was only $20 on sale and has a SPDIF out so I figured I would just buy it instead of having to buy new speakers or get a SPDIF converter or buy a $30 bracket for my motherboard. Looks like I made the wrong choice :/

Speaking of which, does anyone know what it would take to convert an optical SPDIF to a regular stereo cable SPDIF? I did a little looking around on monoprice and all I saw were big, bulky, complex converters that required being plugged in to a power outlet. I am not certain though that I was looking at the right thing for what I needed.
 
[quote name='mogamer']In these days of mobos with 7.1 and optical out (at least mine does) powered by multi-core cpus that are hyperthreaded, is a dedicated sound card really needed? To me it's just a component that has the potential to add conflict problems.[/QUOTE]

I use a soundcard because, even with 7.1 onboard audio, the soundcard still picks up things onboard doesn't. I can hear things many of my teammates cant when playing FPS's. Other people in vent wonder what the hell I'm doing because they cant hear footsteps across the map while I can.
 
It's unfortunate that Creative monolopolized that market... with EAX into every game, they pretty much and price anything and people will have to pay that price.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top