Which card is better?

RedvGreen · 16 Dec 2009 at 23:09

Hey folks, i'm in the unusual position where I have 2 high end soundcards. I believe the card supplied (and lame non-existent drivers supplied) with my ASUS Rampage Extreme II is lagging L4D2 as sound stutters.

I have an X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro Gamer and an Asus Xonar D2X card - currently i have my 3rd PCI-E slot vacant and am running Windows 7 x64. I remember a barrage of issues with Vista and the setting up of either card, can I expect better compatibility and ease of installation and use of Skype etc without any poor 'Line-In' loopback.

Which card would be better for my system? TIA

Uriel · 16 Dec 2009 at 23:20

If you have a Xonar and an X-Fi why the heck are you putting up with the thing that came with your motherboard?

As it happens, I don't think either of them is going to help with your sound stutters though.

RedvGreen · 16 Dec 2009 at 23:42

I dropped back to Medium Qual sound and the stutter has reduced/virtually gone now. I will still put a card in though.
Any recommendations on which will be the most hassle-free for Win7x64?

Nameless_87 · 16 Dec 2009 at 23:55

between those two I would say D2X hands down

RedvGreen · 17 Dec 2009 at 00:05

Splendid, i'll get to it right away. Here's hoping the card works good after being in my 'spares' box for 9 months...

Marsman · 17 Dec 2009 at 02:17

Hmm, I am a bit confused here. So you have the X-Fi Fatality, Xonar D2X and the add on card that came with the motherboard? And you are using the add on SupremeFx X-Fi?

Come to think of it, someone had hassle with a D2 I think, it was in one of the threads here. Can't remember the issue, but he got rid of it I believe. I think he was going to go for a DAC.

I have a theory, the X-Fi that came with the board is not a full X-Fi, that much is obvious. Although it has many of the features of a true X-Fi card, it does I believe not have total onboard processing, meaning some is offloaded to the CPU. It is possible the max sound settings coupled with the processing done by the CPU is causing the lag. Lower setting is reducing the processing, which would seem to lessen the lag.

Putting in the true X-Fi or Xonar D2X would stop that as all processing is done on the sound card. That's assuming your CPU is having to process some of the sound. Although, it does surprise me a nice new fancy i7 CPU cannot handle the extra processing offloaded by the SupremeFX X-Fi, even if it is max setting. That is assuming that's the cause of the lag.

RedvGreen · 17 Dec 2009 at 02:23

I don't believe I know the true cause of the lag - i've posted the solution in the Graphics area.
Problem was that FPS would cataclysmically drop from 200+ to around 10 and stutter would occur whilst on Left 4 Dead 2. The solution was to alt+tab and maximise the game. Problem temporarily averted.

You mentioned a DAC - in your opinion will the D2X and XFi be a bit arsey to work with?

I'm using 5.1 surround sound speakers for info.

(as previously mentioned, I spent many hours trying to get Skype/teamspeak + mic working correctly after each driver update with the XFi and D2X).