Curse

Akilles · Mar 14, 2006, 05:26 AM // 05:26

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?

kvndoom · Mar 14, 2006, 10:35 AM // 10:35

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

Old Dood · Mar 14, 2006, 12:23 PM // 12:23

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 · Mar 14, 2006, 01:43 PM // 13:43

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.

EternalTempest · Mar 14, 2006, 08:13 PM // 20:13

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.

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.

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.