Creative X-Fi Platinum Vs Onboard Realtek ALC888

Stonedofmoo · 23 Jul 2009 at 08:21

Hi guys

In days gone by I wouldn't have used anything but Creative labs cards, but nowadays to be honest they don't seem to have any real advantage. Since Windows XP went they don't have proper EAX support and theres no Direct Sound support. OpenAL is supported but how many games does that support?

Anyhow I'm rambling. Do you think the Realtek ALC888 onboard controller is decent? I was thinking of taking out the Creative card and swapping to that instead as the creative card uses more power/space and all I use it for nowadays is watching movies and playing music.

Any thoughts. Onboard Realtek... yay/nay?

Cheers

Uriel · 23 Jul 2009 at 16:26

What are you talking about? Creative has the best EAX and directsound support in the industry (by Alchemy). Sound quality on the X-Fi is far in excess of the onboard. OpenAL is becoming more and more poplular.

By all means try the realtek but I think you'll be disappointed. It's a big downgrade.

varkanoid · 23 Jul 2009 at 17:22

I agree onboard sound lags and is damn right awful due to the CPU hit. Stick with the add on card.

Stonedofmoo · 23 Jul 2009 at 17:49

I'll give it a try. I don't play games anymore so EAX support is not important to me now. Besides other than a few OpenAL first person shooters and emulated Directsound3D games courtesy of Alchemy, not much uses EAX now.

I'm more interested in playback quality of AudioCD, MP3 and HD movies.

james.miller · 23 Jul 2009 at 18:08

varkanoid said:
I agree onboard sound lags and is damn right awful due to the CPU hit. Stick with the add on card.

thats a blanket statement if i ever did see one.

mine doesnt, not that i use it. my laptop's doesnt either, and thats effectively just a basic realtek codec with hdmi support.

Stonedofmoo · 23 Jul 2009 at 18:20

I think they did use to be awful back in the days of AC97 sound chipsets. But now they've improved dramatically. The ALC888 for example meets Vista's Premium spec certification, has EAX1/2 support, does full decoding of Dolby and DTS etc

In other words it's far from terrible and probably comparable to an early Creative Audigy card. More importantly though Realtek actually update their drivers unlike Creative who are frankly rubbish when it comes to driver support.

I do still rate Creative products, but I think they've lost their way and dedicated soundcards are a dying breed other than to enthusiasts who demand the very best, or audiophiles.

AbsenceJam · 23 Jul 2009 at 18:21

Analogue output quality of onboard is horrific.

MikeHunt79 · 23 Jul 2009 at 18:28

AbsenceJam said:
Analogue output quality of onboard is horrific.

Yep, I find if you use the digital out things are great tho.

horse · 23 Jul 2009 at 20:44

get a presonus firepod, it will blow the creative stuff out of the water if you are not playing no games, its a pro soundcard, clear and pristine sound.

james.miller · 23 Jul 2009 at 20:50

horse said:
get a presonus firepod, it will blow the creative stuff out of the water if you are not playing no games, its a pro soundcard, clear and pristine sound.

i dont think a £300 sound card with 8 mic inputs is really what the op is after.

AbsenceJam · 23 Jul 2009 at 22:37

james.miller said:
i dont think a £300 sound card with 8 mic inputs is really what the op is after.

Also, you can get much better SQ for a lot less if you don't need all those features.

horse · 24 Jul 2009 at 01:16

AbsenceJam said:
Also, you can get much better SQ for a lot less if you don't need all those features.

the only thing that tops presonus quality wise are RME, and they cost more

Uriel · 24 Jul 2009 at 10:12

horse said:
the only thing that tops presonus quality wise are RME, and they cost more

Unless he's plugging it into a serious speaker system or some very good headphones, I doubt he'd be able to tell the difference in quality over a £60 soundcard like the Xonar D1 or DX.

By comparison, I'm pretty sure the OP will notice a drop in wound quality when downgrading from his X-Fi to onboard.

Forgot to mention, if the OP will still be doing much gaming, Realtek do some software called 3DSoundback, which is essentially their version of ALchemy. You will still need it for any games that you would use Alchemy for on the X-Fi.

Spooter · 26 Jul 2009 at 00:38

Just put a second hand Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music from mm £26 in and it sounds way better than my onboard. I guess you dont notice it until you try. I was happy with my onboard but this does sound way crisper now.

The onboard I had was:-

VT1708B 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O
- Support Jack Detection and Multi-streaming

Monkeynut · 26 Jul 2009 at 01:01

OP: The ALC889A is better than the ALC888. The ALC888, atleast on paper, seems to be very similar to the ALC880.

I think you will notice a loss in quality. You will still have the option of using the X-Fi, though, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Stonedofmoo · 26 Jul 2009 at 16:27

Well I've taken out the X-Fi and spent the last few days using the ALC888. For music and video I've not noticed any difference. Looks like the X-Fi is going up for sale!

jak731 · 26 Jul 2009 at 16:33

What speakers/headphones are you using?

Zerolimitz · 26 Jul 2009 at 16:37

Creative X-Fi Platinum beats onboard sound hands down you cant even compare but again what do you expect? you pay your moneys worth and no one can expect onboard to ever be better then buying a sound card