Creative XFi Xtreme Gamer - xtreme pants more like!

Noto

Noto

Noto

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Joined
1 Dec 2002
Posts
1,884
Now i am going to try to stay calm... I consider myself an Xtreme Gamer.
Now correct me if i am wrong but its fairly safe to assume a large number of xtreme gamers use 4 gb of ram in there systems or plan to in the near future. And to get all 4gb of ram used in windows you have to use a 64bit Operating System. So that is what I have done.

Q6600 @ 3.2ghz - No voltage change (lapped The Ultra-120 Extreme)
Abit IP35 Pro
4gb Gskill ram
HD2900XT
Windows Vista 64
sound b_ _ _ _ _ _ (insert your own letters) X-FI Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Retail.

Fortunately I dont run Crossfire or SLI as there are wide reports of crackling when gaming with SLI and 4gb of ram. But what i do get is HUGE amount of noise when i speak on my mic using Ventrillo, Teamspeak 1/2 any mic application. I also occasionally get an Apache helicopter in my room when i speak. the sound is so loud it makes 24 of my friends throw off their headsets (i play WoW and raid in a high end guild with 25 ppl most nights). I then have to disable and re-enable the soundcard. (this is at least 8-20 times in a 3 hour period) I now no longer speak on the mic.

Now i have tried everything under the sun. Changed the SC to all other PCI slots. Disabled all other sound devices. Tried all drivers. Phoned creative numerous times over four months with nothing to show. Installed different versions of Ventrillo and changed codecs on ventrillo and teamspeak servers.

And ofc I resorted to forums, and on the OFFICIAL creative forums is a guy from Azuntech. A very nice chap who writes drivers. He is single handedly trying to save creative's ass and the gaming community that have problems. Azuntech use some of creative's chips but add their own high quality parts to their cards. So this chap is modifying Azuntech drivers for creative sound cards. Unfortunately the fix rate is hit and miss but some people have reported success.


This i find is totally unacceptable for a company as large as creative. Going by their record they will not release another driver update possibly for 12 months. So I have now no choice but to bin my £60 XFi XTREME PANTS sound card and get another one just so i can talk on skype out, ventrillo and teamspeak... What a joke.

I will NEVER EVER buy creative again. Stay well clear if your using 4gb of ram

Noto
 
I dont rate the Extreme Gamer card as of lower spec DAC and CAPs' the Exteme Music is far better.

Anyhow, some get issues with 4GB others dont, I did not get any issues on current drivers but if you do you can try the modded drivers that are for the Prelude cards.

Creative has always had great hardware but crap software and support.
 
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Noto said:
Now i am going to try to stay calm... I consider myself an Xtreme Gamer.
Now correct me if i am wrong but its fairly safe to assume a large number of xtreme gamers use 4 gb of ram in there systems or plan to in the near future. And to get all 4gb of ram used in windows you have to use a 64bit Operating System. So that is what I have done.

Q6600 @ 3.2ghz - No voltage change (lapped The Ultra-120 Extreme)
Abit IP35 Pro
4gb Gskill ram
HD2900XT
Windows Vista 64
sound b_ _ _ _ _ _ (insert your own letters) X-FI Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Retail.

Fortunately I dont run Crossfire or SLI as there are wide reports of crackling when gaming with SLI and 4gb of ram. But what i do get is HUGE amount of noise when i speak on my mic using Ventrillo, Teamspeak 1/2 any mic application. I also occasionally get an Apache helicopter in my room when i speak. the sound is so loud it makes 24 of my friends throw off their headsets (i play WoW and raid in a high end guild with 25 ppl most nights). I then have to disable and re-enable the soundcard. (this is at least 8-20 times in a 3 hour period) I now no longer speak on the mic.

Now i have tried everything under the sun. Changed the SC to all other PCI slots. Disabled all other sound devices. Tried all drivers. Phoned creative numerous times over four months with nothing to show. Installed different versions of Ventrillo and changed codecs on ventrillo and teamspeak servers.

And ofc I resorted to forums, and on the OFFICIAL creative forums is a guy from Azuntech. A very nice chap who writes drivers. He is single handedly trying to save creative's ass and the gaming community that have problems. Azuntech use some of creative's chips but add their own high quality parts to their cards. So this chap is modifying Azuntech drivers for creative sound cards. Unfortunately the fix rate is hit and miss but some people have reported success.


This i find is totally unacceptable for a company as large as creative. Going by their record they will not release another driver update possibly for 12 months. So I have now no choice but to bin my £60 XFi XTREME PANTS sound card and get another one just so i can talk on skype out, ventrillo and teamspeak... What a joke.

I will NEVER EVER buy creative again. Stay well clear if your using 4gb of ram

Noto
Click to expand...


Sorry but thats what you've found.

I've got a fatality. 4gb of ram and a 8800 all in x64 vista, and its 100% perfect never had a problem.

Have you full uninstalled all drivers before installing new ones? Used driver cleaner?

And used the latest ones from Creative?

As I've had no problems with mine yet.

Also tried a differant headset?
 
There's no two ways about it. The apple's fallen very far from the tree - creative's mainstream soundcards have not been up-to-scratch in a long time.

It's been going back a while. I can remember looking on in horror as my SBLive! driver disk installed what remains to this day, the worst set of fly ridden driver/software excrement to ever be stuffed into the innards of a PC.

Their official forums have looked like something out of a civil war for as long as they've had them. It's almost like they've made a policy of refusing to bother to ever write anything remotely resembling proper drivers or updates for their hardware. Hang the consequences. Customers? Don't worry about them, they'll fork out the cash anyway ;) Flash some fancy marketing around and it will all be cool.

I got an xtream music last week for £30 second hand. I considered it a £50 GAMBLE after my Audigy 2 zs started crackling. It seems to have worked out, but I've been getting some blue screens of death related to the drivers. I appear to have got off lucky :eek:

If only Azuntech could compete on price....
 
Will have 2x2GB OCZ RAM arriving tomorrow, will see if it causes any problem with my setup. I installed an Xtreme Gamer a couple of weeks back, the drivers are pretty shoddy but once I got it up and running its been pretty impressive.
 
Bought Xtreme Gamer sound card for new rig, got 4GB of Crucials Ballistix,E6850 etc and sounds superb..:D no crackles or distortion, great sound card at a great price :cool:
 
If it's the case that this happens when I stick in my 4GB of ram (sitting in a box woot!) then my Fata1ty card is going to go. I for a long time have wanted to upgrade the sound card and get a headphone amp, so Creative's effort is sort of surplus atm.
 
helmutcheese said:
I dont rate the Extreme Gamer card as of lower spec DAC and CAPs' the Exteme Music is far better.
Click to expand...

I thought it was the Extreme Audio that was a step down and that the Gamer and Music were almost identical? (I'll be very happy if the Music is also better than the Gamer since I ended up going for one over the Gamer... just curious though.)
 
Nope, you would need go to the hardcore audiophiles sites who mod the cards etc.

Lot of info on DAC's/CAP's etc, the Fatal1ty Gamer is same as one with front bay drive though (Line Drive).

I dont have a clue WTF Creative were playing at releasing more card models as they normally only have 2-3 models per series. (more sales probably as they really need them).

If your getting issue with EAX in games in Vista, make sure the game is not a DirectSound game, it is is you will need to install Creative Alchemy to get EAX working in Vista.
 
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waso_dude said:
Sorry but thats what you've found.

Have you full uninstalled all drivers before installing new ones? Used driver cleaner?

And used the latest ones from Creative?

As I've had no problems with mine yet.

Also tried a differant headset?
Click to expand...


Brand new build so there were no drivers to clean and it started straight away, used official drivers from CD and off the internet, Then tried the modified Azuntech drivers for creative soundcard. I have 3 headsets, steelpad 5H, sennheiser HD497, plantronics . and also 3 mics, bog standard desktop mic and other 2 attached to steelpad and plantronics.

Tried putting the Soundcard in every other PCI slot incase there is an IRQ conflict, tried a different brand of ram but still 4gb. (I am not willing to downgrade to 2gb - ps mic works fine with 2gb of ram)

My main problem is getting the mic to work. without noise in the background or the apache helicopter showing up every so often.
 
Sorry if it's already been said, but have you tried different codecs within ventrilo and teamspeak?
Record yourself through windows sound recorder, if you sound OK there then its vent/teamspeak.
 
Helium_Junkie said:
Sorry if it's already been said, but have you tried different codecs within ventrilo and teamspeak?
Record yourself through windows sound recorder, if you sound OK there then its vent/teamspeak.
Click to expand...

ya its contained in the orig post :) "Installed different versions of Ventrillo and changed codecs on ventrillo and teamspeak servers." My friend has his own vent server, we even moved vent servers to holland to see if it was server based.

I tried the sound recorder, nice idea but all i hear is the hissing noise which is about the same volume as i speak.


Reviewed by: Carl

About time, I have replaced my X-Fi, and can finally have both optical and headphones plugged in to the back of my PC out of sight, instead of having to use the creative drive bay add in. There is now no hissing when in desktop from my speakers, music and movie playback are improved. Check out auzentech's site to see the improvements that will shortly be available with new drivers.


Reviewed by: Michael

Installed mine today to replace a faulty x-fi music which I,ve been using for over a year.The sounds are more clear & the bass is a touch better.The build quality makes the ordinary x-fi's look silly too.
Click to expand...

From 1 of the azuntech's review :/ at least im not alone
 
Another problem. On the official Creative site when going for drivers or customer support. There is no Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1

I see:

X-FI Fatal1ty
X-FI Elite Pro
X-FI Exreme Music
X-FI Platinum

So which dang drivers do i go for?

So i goto Customer Support to email them which drivers i should download: I try to select my product and I only have 5 options:

X-FI Fatal1ty
X-FI Elite Pro
X-FI Exreme Music
X-FI Platinum
X-FI Exreme Audio


MY Xtreme Gamer isnt the fatal1ty brand one so i have no idea what to choose now to re-download my drivers.
 
XG here and no problems anymore :)

4x 1GB Corsair XMS2 Extreme 800
Q6600
Asus P5KC
8800GTS :)


The noise levels especially playing reference music tracks is outstanding.
 
Minstadave said:
Will have 2x2GB OCZ RAM arriving tomorrow, will see if it causes any problem with my setup. I installed an Xtreme Gamer a couple of weeks back, the drivers are pretty shoddy but once I got it up and running its been pretty impressive.
Click to expand...

Installed my 4GB OCZ kit, now my microphone doesn't work either :(

Edit:

Did some fiddling, works fine now.
 
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Never managed to get the mic working with my xtreme gamer. The front ports give terrible interference and I can’t get it to work with the rear mic port (the rubbish flexijack thing). Currently got sound coming out of my Xtreme Gamer and the mic connected using the onboard sound, screwed solution but at least I can use my mic.
 
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