X-Fi Music (OEM) or Gamer (Retail)?

Biglunn

Biglunn

Biglunn

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Im fed up with on board sound, and fancy spending a bit of dosh!

Both cards are abouty the same price, but what are the differences?

The Gamer looks like a much smaller card and the CPU has a heatsink on it. What does each card do that the other doesnt?

Cheers.
 
I two am looking for help on this...

Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card worth an upgrade? (100£ for the basic one) ??

i play Battlefield 2142...i hear it sound amazing??

anyone care to back this up for me?

CHeers..

(sorry for jacking your question buddy)
 
music is better and it too has a heatsink on it but heatsinks aint gon improve performance rofl the music has the better feature set and will genrally be a better card
 
It's hard to get a proper answer on this, most of the sound card guru's don't bother answering :(

Come on where are you guys?

I *think* that it comes down to what you do more. If you play games and like occasional music, then go for the gamer. If you listen to music and sometimes play games, then go for the music.
 
Would be interested to hear what the difference between them is, I've got the Music version and as a gamer it's great.

Jokester
 
Can't answer your question.

Depending on how much money you don't mind spending, I'd get the cheapest out of the two as it's still going to be superior to your on-board audio experience.
 
Has anyone decided this debate yet? I’m in the market atm, and I want it sorted soon – Christmas is coming :D

SW.
 
I just faced this decision myself and went for the Music version purely because I listen to a lot of music on here.

Games sound amazing with it (especially ones that have full X-Fi support like BF2/2142.)
 
Thinking of upgrading from onboard too, the electrical hisses you get from the mobo etc hack me off, and I hope that the sound will be improved as well.

Do you (if you use headphones) notice any background noise using this card?

Its going to be routed through my stereo amp like it currently is if I get it.
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
I just faced this decision myself and went for the Music version purely because I listen to a lot of music on here.

Games sound amazing with it (especially ones that have full X-Fi support like BF2/2142.)
Click to expand...

Hello, i'm kinda new to these soundcards. I used to have a creative awe32, and afterwards, i just think i stuck to onboard. My needs are the following:

I need a decent soundcard to listen to music everyday in my 5.1 Logitech set (Z-5500) through all the speakers, just like my C-Media Xear3D 5.1 onboard audio card does.

But then also, i want to use the soundcard to listen to games properly. For example i play a lot of doom 3 and a lot of medal of honor: pacific assault, and i have to deactive some of the stuff for the sound, like going down to EAX 1.0, so that i can get good frame rates.

I've heard, that with these cards, you can free the cpu, and also you hear the sounds and everything a lot better.

I'm planning using the analog ports at the back of the card so that i can get the surround on games and music. Maybe i'll use the spdif out on DVDs if it's possible to do so.

Any advise appreciate it.

Regards,


JamworkS.
 
On the original question I replied to a similar question this morning.


http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17658740
sprognak said:
As far as I understand it, the only difference from the Music to the Fatal1ty FPS series is the Fatal1ty (and Elite Pro) versions have 64Mb onboard memory.

This is used in newer games (BF2 currently) to move all the sound processing to the Sound card and can give a small FPS boost as the CPU is then freed from sound.

Although the Music has the same processor, it is restricted to 2Mb RAM meaning it must use more system RAM when processin sound effects.

Given the card's ability to use 128 simultaneous voices, processing would be a lot more for sound than say standard embedded audio. That's what prompted me to go for the Fatal1ty FPS.

See here for details:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/sound/246/1/ (Page 6 gives a rundown on the X-RAM difference)
Click to expand...


Think it might help with the last reply too
 
I'm still so confused. So which should i get? I don't want all the music stuff ... like the box and that. Should i get the gamer, because it works well for music too ... or should i go for the other. If you could extend on this a bit, i'll appreciate it cuz i'm in a serious brain crash about theses cards.

I know that some games are prepared just for the creative ... but what about the others? does it work well too? What about those 2 games i mentioned (Doom3, MOH:Pacific assault). What about the newer ones?

Sorry for all these but i've read so much today that i'm totally confused.

Regards,


JamworkS.
 
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