X-Fi....worth the upgrade?

Griffyn

Griffyn

Griffyn

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17 Jun 2004
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Well I am going to sell my current setup soon and go down the conroe route most likely with an x1900 xt-x. My pc is used a lot for gaming, watching movies and listening 2 music. I currently have a Creative Audigy ZS2 THX 7.1 card with the Creative 7.1 Gigaworks S750.

Now is it worth keeping this card or sell it with the current rig and use onboard sound or upgrade and get the Creative X-Fi.

I admit I am audiophile and one of those annoying people who can hear the difference between 192 and 320kbps MP3's especially in my car which has Alpine Type-R Speakers (if ** not in the know they sound rather nice).

Also since its a gaming rig I want to get the best FPS possible so presume onboard cpu power will be used if I use the onboard sound and surely this wont be as good?

Cheers for the replies :)
 
If you are an audiophile then you will definitely hear an improvement. I'm no audio-know-it-all but noticed a decent improvement with an X-FI over onboard sound.


Its also meant to be a nice step up from the audigy 2 aswell
 
CPU usage of Audigy 2 ZS and X-Fi are very similar based on the detailed X-Fi review I read. However, onboard does use significantly more CPU cycles. In a situation where a games framerate is CPU limited, there would be a framerate cost from using onboard - nothing huge - but if you've spent that extra £40 on a 5% faster CPU, you don't want to lose that 5%. If the framerate is video card limited though, there would be little measurable difference.

Whether a games framerate is CPU or video card limited can vary from second to second though based on the complexity of the current scene being rendered. Personally I wouldn't put together a great gaming system and then use onboard.
 
Ok so is the sound difference big enough to warrant buying "Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music" over the Audigy ZS 2 THX 7.1....bearing in mind I already have the ZS 2 THX 7.1. Just that since the cheapest X-Fi is £80 this could be the difference between a new conroe 6700 and 6600 or something. Cheeers
 
I agree, might as well sell the A2ZS and get an X-Fi. In terms of hardware (DAC/Op-amp) I don't think there is a major/any difference between the ZS and the lower end X-Fi. However the weakness in pre X-Fi card is that they resample when you play music, and the resampling algorithm isn't great. Both issues are fixed in the X-Fi series (no resampling in Audio Creation mode, and the resampling algorithm is considered good in other mode).
 
yeah i upgraded from an audigy 2zs to a extreme music and i definately noticed an improvement, especially with the crytalizer on!
 
Unfortunately I dont know any1 with a X-Fi. I must admit tho I dont talk about pcs to ppl considering I wld jst get strange looks and most people would probably consider it a bad hobby!

That is true I will get money for my Audigy ZS2.

I have read a few reviews and they reckon the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Edition is a worthwhile upgrade. The only thing they dont seem to mention is what the hell is the remote used for? I mean what can be done with it? I think I may go for this card since I quite like the input in the 3.5" bay plus the onboard memory sounds like it will useful in the future and the card is meant to better so may as well go for it :rolleyes:
 
IMO, it is worth thinking if you need the connectivity first.
The Xtreme Music -> Fatal1ty all use the same DAC/Op-amp, so no difference from a music playback point of view. I am also skeptical about the benefit of the onboard memory (completely negligible right now, and by the time games really benefit from it, if it ever does, we'll probably be seeing the X-Fi's successor). That makes the Fatal1ty the worse buy IMO. If you don't need the connectivity, the Xtreme Music is the best buy, if you need it, the Platinum would be the next best. The Elite Pro is the versatile right now since it actually has upgraded DAC/op-amp that puts it in the same class as some pro card (with gaming support and all decent connectivity)... But it comes at a very significant price premium and is probably overkill for the Gigaworks S750. As for the remote control, it can be used with the Creative media center. Not much use really when you are at your desk, but if you watch movies/listen to music from your bed it might come in handy (personally, I've not used mine so far).
 
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Still dont know about the Fatal1ty as I know BF2 uses it and I am sure BF2142 will also use it.....and well BF2 is my fav game currently!

Also the ports on the front would be useful.

Also I do watch a fair amount of stuff on the pc at uni and listen to music pretty much all the time. So remote could be handy. Would you be able to use it for winamp though? Maybe a hack for it somewhere?
 
Well, look at it this way: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2518&p=10

Hardly any difference between the X-Fi Elite Pro and Audigy 4 Pro in terms of performance. Even in BF2 where the X-RAM is supposed to do something, it doesn't do very much. That's why I think the Platinum is a better buy than the Fatal1ty. If you really want to go above the Platinum though, I would go Elite Pro simply because it has better DAC/Op-amp for music.
 
Okay points noted....will see what the prices are like when I come to build rig in a few months or so. But the difference in price between the x-fi platinum and fata1ty are quite minimal so seems more future proof to get the one with the X-ram. Since I do like the idea of the inputs on the front.
 
spinna said:
ive just gone from a Audigy 2 ZS to a X-Fi Fatal1ty and im over the moon with it :)
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Did yours install easily? My pc wont boot up just locks up before anything gets on the screen, maybe my Xi-Fi is duff - The Audigy 2 ZS works when I replace it, removed drivers etc prior to install. :confused:
 
yeah works fine.
i used a program called driver cleaner to get rid of my old Audigy 2 ZS drivers ,how about you?
try putting you card in a differanct PCI slot and see if it works.(also have you got your onboard sound disabled?)
 
spinna said:
yeah works fine.
i used a program called driver cleaner to get rid of my old Audigy 2 ZS drivers ,how about you?
try putting you card in a differanct PCI slot and see if it works.(also have you got your onboard sound disabled?)
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Aye I used driver cleaner, tried different PCI Slots, onboard sound was already disabled, I even tried resetting the bios, I think I'll go for an RMA I'm 100% certain its the card.
 
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