New sound card advice please

ttreaders · 31 May 2008 at 14:29

Hey guys, I am looking to replace my ageing basic audigy 2. I watch quite a lot of DVD's and do a lot of gaming (with logitech z5550 speakers).

The Asus Xonar D2 looks awesome and am tempted to get it but trustedreviews says that for gaming it's not recommended as it only supports EAX2 and other newer versions are exclusive to Creative.

Does EAX really make much of a difference for gaming? Would I be better of going for the Creative equivallent?

Uriel · 31 May 2008 at 15:17

Asus' more recent drivers allow the Xonar D2 (and DX, D2X) to emulate EAX up to level 5, the latest iteration. Reviews I've read indicate that it does a very good job of doing so. You won't miss much.

Creative X-Fi cards have EAX up to level 5 in hardware. You might gain a few FPS with an X-Fi, but it will barely be noticeable.

If I was choosing a sound card now a Xonar D2 would certainly be high on my list.

ttreaders · 1 Jun 2008 at 17:15

Thanks for the input Uriel, any other opinions please?

Uriel · 1 Jun 2008 at 18:28

By the way - I went from an Audigy 2 to an X-Fi XtremeMusic. It's certainly an improvement over the Audigy 2. Music sounds much better.

I'm less than pleased with the X-Fi in Vista x64, however. Specifically, I'm unable to use my X-Fi and 4GB RAM. If I try to enable both I get silence. For XP x86 I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the X-Fi. Fortunately there's not much that demands the full 4GB but I think my next upgrade may well be dropping the X-Fi and getting a Xonar.

Not everyone with an X-Fi and Vista x64 has this problem. It's partially luck of the draw.

C64 · 1 Jun 2008 at 19:43

X-fI xtreme music is still the best bang for buck card Imo the eax and the price of the xonar / preludes put me off.

PCDave · 1 Jun 2008 at 19:50

if you can afford a zonar get one else go for the extreme music

Energize · 1 Jun 2008 at 19:51

Avoid Creative at all costs, their attitude is disgraceful. Only by boycotting them can we make a difference.

Uriel · 1 Jun 2008 at 21:14

Energize said:
Avoid Creative at all costs, their attitude is disgraceful. Only by boycotting them can we make a difference.

Agree in principle, but I think they'll be forced to do better in the face of some stiff competition.