New sound card for gamming

Boozebeard

Boozebeard

Boozebeard

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I currently have an X-FI Fatal1ty pro. However it doesn't seem to like vista/win 7 very much. I've read the newer creative cards work much better now. I've also read that the fatal1ty and the gamer cards are abit of a rip off. Before people tell me to get an asus or something the most important thing for me is the 3DCMSS for headphones, as I game steelseries 5H v2 and need the surround sound effect.

Basically I'm asking for advice on which creative card will be best for my needs and reasurance that it will work properly in win 7. I was recommended this, in the thread that I have in the general hardware section:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-049-CL&groupid=701&catid=11&subcat=

I was considering buying a new motherboard because mine doesn't have a spare pci-e slot and I thought all the new cards were pci-e. So does anyone know if this works properly in win7? (as it would save me upgrading my mobo)

(I realise I spelt gaming wrong xD)

Edit: I was reading the thread about the Asus xonar and it mentioned something about virtual 3d sound. Do they have a similar feature to 3DCMSS?
 
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Blimey, why on earth would anyone recommend the Xtreme Audio for gaming? If you want an X-Fi, get the Xtreme Gamer, far better buy. Only the Fatal1ty cards are a rip off, Creative gives cards a new name, slap some new paint on it, and charge an extra £50 for their trouble. Xtreme Gamer at £63 roughly, is reasonable. Still a bit overpriced IMO, but a damn sight better than the £75 it used to be.
 
All Xonar's except the DS, have Dolby Headphone. Some prefer it to CMSS 3D, some don't. CMSS 3D is probably better for gaming on the whole, it has elevation and more directions. Dolby Headphone is horizontal plain only, and it simulates 5.1.
 
What's the problem with Windows Vista and 7 exactly?

Any Creative card has pretty much the same drivers so I would think the issues you might have would be the same.
 
Uriel said:
What's the problem with Windows Vista and 7 exactly?

Any Creative card has pretty much the same drivers so I would think the issues you might have would be the same.
Click to expand...

Well the sound quality can be abit dodgey; get crackles and pops sometimes. Mainly I have to disable "sound blaster enhancements" because otherwise the process audiodg.exe grows in memory everytime a sound is made untill I have to reboot my PC. I've tried reinstalling drivers and reformating. I've had it since I was using vista.
 
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I have a selection of Creative cards. Among them I have 2 XFI Gamers but they are both completely different physicaly ( one has Optical I/O for example the other does not ).

I also have the Fatal1ty

Ialso have other Audigy cards too the A2ZS, the A2 platinum, the A4 Pro, The Audigy 1 and heck some thers that are lying about... I have a few

Ok, first off, the XFI Cards for me, in all teh Systems I have tried them in, absolutely love Win7...There is nothign wrong with them in Win7

Is there any difference in Audi quality between the Gamer and the Fatal1ty? - NO!
Is there buggers like. The one and only benefit I have had frmo my XFI Fatality is the Live Drive... But then all my Creative cards have them now in various flavours due to me and the kids simply wanting the PCs to look "Busy" up front!

Other than that the XFI Gamer and the XFI Fatality are pretty much the same when it comes to Audio quality.

Irritatingly, I moved frmo the A2ZS and its live Drive to my XFI Fatality on my No1 PC because the A2ZS sometimes has a few hiccups... Its rare, but enough to annoy me.
Now, I have moved it to my No2, the hiccups are gone. Even moer irritatingly, for some strange reason I am no able to use Digital outputs into my speakers now so they sond a tad better and I never managed that before??? - Go figure?

But anyway if you already have the Fatal1ty pro, then there should be no reason why you are having any trouble?

Oooh, no hang on... haaaaang on a minute.... Yes, you are bloody right...

Uninstall the drivers for it, and let Win7 do its own junk.

When I installed teh drivers they sonded bad and did somethign poo po to it... I am currently using Windows own drivers and its seemingly fine!

I forgot all about, but hey, like I said, I have a few cards on a few PCs so yo utend to lose track a bit.
 
Uriel said:
Before you go off buying another card, I suggest trying these drivers: http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound-Blaster/SB-X-Fi-Series-Support-Pack-2-0-05-15-2009/td-p/527485

They're based on the Auzentech Prelude drivers, which access RAM differently. You might find they address some of your problems.
Click to expand...

I've tried these when I was on vista and it didn't fix anything. I'll give them another shot though.

Edit: Can't get them to work. Well I've got sound but I can't open the console or anything, says it can't detect a compatible device. Will they even work if they aren't digitally signed? I think I had this problem when I tried to do it on vista.

Edit 2: Gah, doesn't even work if I disable signature enforcement. I dunno whats wrong.

Edit 3: Well I can't access any of the software but I can still see that audiodg.exe grows and grows everytime I speak on vent. So hasn't fixed it anyway.

Maybe I should just get an asus, 5.1 would be good enough.

I looked the on the creative forums and found posts of people complaining about the memory leak from about this time last year all the way up to this month. It seems it's only ventrillo that does it. Doesn't help me though as I need to use ventrillo all the time.
 
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