Audigy 1 ----> X-fi music

Makaveli

Diamond Member
Feb 8, 2002
4,885
1,448
136
i'm thinking of updating my audigy 1 to a X-fi music edition. Would like to know if there are any driver issues with any current games.


Currently playing NFS MW, BF2. CS S as my main games.

Also what improvements if any did u notice once going to this new series of cards from creative.

 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
22,025
869
126
Make sure you completely remove any drivers, software anything related to the Audigy card. If you get the X-fi, download the latest drivers from the web as the drivers that come with the card will usually suck (Creative is famous for this). I play the latest games and havent had any issues related to my x-fi card. I went from an Audigy 2 ZS to the X-fi Extreme, and while the sound and CMSS are really neat, the software, IMO, was way better on the old Audigy 2 ZS. The sound creation software that comes with the X-fi just plain sucks. The digital delay, which I used all the time on previous cards is horrible in the X-fi iteration. but overall its a good card with lousy software. Nothing that creative labs hasnt done before. Maybe next year they will have an update on the software.
 

Ghouler

Senior member
Sep 9, 2005
442
0
0
There is couple of other threads with opinions from people using X-Fi, have a look at them:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1775279&enterthread=y
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=163703
http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=91600

There is one thing to remember about X-Fi that differs a lot from Audigy range:
GAMING MODE. You have to switch your card into this mode when you are starting PC with X-Fi for the first time. Default setting is the ENTERTAINMENT MODE which is not optimised for gaming.
Once you set card to GAMING mode you should not have problems with games... Currently playing Quake 4 on not so up-to-date machine
(only 512 RAM and Geforce 5900) and have no complaints so far.
 

Skott

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2005
5,730
1
76
Kinda curious about this statement

"GAMING MODE. You have to switch your card into this mode when you are starting PC with X-Fi for the first time. Default setting is the ENTERTAINMENT MODE which is not optimised for gaming.
Once you set card to GAMING mode you should not have problems with games..."

What happens if you dont start it up in gaming mode the first time? I would think the two modes can be switched back and forth on the fly when needed. I mean what happens if the PC is built for you and the company sets it to its default settings and then sends it to you. They usually start the pc up and test it before boxing it up and shipping.
 

Ghouler

Senior member
Sep 9, 2005
442
0
0
absolutely so. You can switch from mode to mode anytime. But some ppl are not aware these settings exist at all, they never bother to configure x-Fi, just fire up the game and... it sucks cus X-Fi is by default in the entertainment mode. Once you switch it to gaming mode it stays in this mode until you come back and manually change it.
A good thing about modes is that they preserve settings separately.
 

BDawg

Lifer
Oct 31, 2000
11,631
2
0
When you install the drivers / software, you can choose what mode the card start in for the first time.

As said, once you change it, it stays in the new mode until you change it again.

I'd like a tray icon for changing modes or a hotkey.