I read the advertisments and they claim with this card your games will perform 40% faster....ummmm....that is a massive jump in performance considering it processes sound. Does anybody have this card and see that kind of a diffrence?
I currently run a Audigy 2 ZS and it sounds awsome, all nice and THX certified (which means nothing lol) but still it does mean it is a good card.
I have never heard of a sound card increasing performance of anything unless you processed sound from your CPU while gaming as well, so if you had no sound card then yes, you woudl notice a diffrence..
Also, IMO I still think teh SB Live! sounds great to.
Just how good is this soundcard?
SoundBlaster X-Fi performance question.
Akilles
kvndoom
Key word in your entire post: "advertisements." Fear the marketeers! They may have one, ONE benchmark somewhere, where using this card managed to give a 40% increase in a game, and they'll stick to it as if it were the holy grail.
I have an Audigy 2ZS and love the sound quality, despise the drivers. Creative has an ongoing, unfixed-for-years issue with 4-speaker surround setups, which forces me to use KxProject drivers.
When in doubt about hardware, always check the Tech Report (shameless plug here...)
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4...i/index.x?pg=1
I have an Audigy 2ZS and love the sound quality, despise the drivers. Creative has an ongoing, unfixed-for-years issue with 4-speaker surround setups, which forces me to use KxProject drivers.
When in doubt about hardware, always check the Tech Report (shameless plug here...)
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4...i/index.x?pg=1
Old Dood
Well I was reading that the sales of sound cards was really down...so...what do they do? Make a New "Better" card. Personally my Audigy 2ZS is good enough. The fact that there is allot of motherboards now with decent built in sound that people are not buying a dedicated sound card like they use too. I like having a actual sound card to free up the CPU resourses....but I do not need the latest greatest either.
Serafita Kayin
Well, I HAVE an X-Fi.
It carries its own internal RAM supply, and has a very powerful onboard processor to do some just plain incredible things with sound.
We ran a test at work with my system up against an onkyo reciever. I tore it a new one. Somebody brought in their Denon ultra-high end reciever and I bested it too. The DACs are the same in the Denon and in my card.
It's worth it. It's absolutely amazing in-game.
It carries its own internal RAM supply, and has a very powerful onboard processor to do some just plain incredible things with sound.
We ran a test at work with my system up against an onkyo reciever. I tore it a new one. Somebody brought in their Denon ultra-high end reciever and I bested it too. The DACs are the same in the Denon and in my card.
It's worth it. It's absolutely amazing in-game.
EternalTempest
The reviews I've read about the X-Fi ability to "fill back in" missing sounds with mp3 files does work and makes listening to mp3's sound much better.
If the game supports EAX (GW does not but many others do) this is true. If your running a game without EAX or it's turned off, not really.
X-Fi supports EAX 4 at the hardware level compared to Audigy 2 ZS to supports EAX 1,2,3 at hardware level and has to do some cpu software emulation for EAX 4.
There area also 3-4 versions of this card, some with more memory.
I currenlty own an Creative Audigy 2 ZS. What every you do, don't go with an Audigy 4.
Quote:
| I have never heard of a sound card increasing performance of anything unless you processed sound from your CPU while gaming as well, so if you had no sound card then yes, you woudl notice a diffrence. |
X-Fi supports EAX 4 at the hardware level compared to Audigy 2 ZS to supports EAX 1,2,3 at hardware level and has to do some cpu software emulation for EAX 4.
There area also 3-4 versions of this card, some with more memory.
I currenlty own an Creative Audigy 2 ZS. What every you do, don't go with an Audigy 4.