Creative X-Fi Fatality PCI-E Sound Card

[AznAnarchy99]

I was walking around the store today when I saw the card on sale for just 100 bucks. I went over to one of their demo computers and checked on Newegg and they had it for $140.

I dont know if its every Best Buy but worth a shot.

Edit. Nvm it is every Best Buy

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ol...&cp=1&id=1215819593081

 

[brblx]

can't see paying that much for a plain x-fi card. for that money it should have the 5 1/4 bay add-on.

 

[postmortemIA]

Creative has given up on EAX and probably on development of sound cards, there's no much point for paying so much for XFi today.

 

[shingletingle]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
Creative has given up on EAX and probably on development of sound cards, there's no much point for paying so much for XFi today.

I don't know where you got that idea since this is a new card and has only been out for a few months or so.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: shingletingle

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
Creative has given up on EAX and probably on development of sound cards, there's no much point for paying so much for XFi today.

I don't know where you got that idea since this is a new card and has only been out for a few months or so.

it uses chip old over 3.5 yrs, there's nothing new about it beside interface

"The X-Fi (for "Extreme Fidelity") was released in August 2005 and comes in XtremeMusic, Platinum, Fatal1ty FPS, XtremeGamer and Elite Pro configurations."

news flash: games are no longer coming out with EAX support.

Don't get me wrong, I Have X-Fi, it made sense 2 yrs ago but it is getting more pointless to buy it each day.

Creative is struggling financially, they are focusing on consumer electronics in order to survive.

 

[jinduy]

worth it if u currently use an onboard sound card and want to improve overall performance by 0.01%

 

[arcenite]

Tell you what. My X-Fi XtremeMusic died on me a few months ago. When I hooked up my speakers to the onboard sound of my Foxconn Blackops (ALC885), it sounded absolutely the same.

 

[Kalessian]

So what's replacing EAX? OpenAL EFX, right? Can any card run EFX?

 

[brblx]

Originally posted by: arcenite
Tell you what. My X-Fi XtremeMusic died on me a few months ago. When I hooked up my speakers to the onboard sound of my Foxconn Blackops (ALC885), it sounded absolutely the same.

you'd hear the difference with a decent pair of headphones. assuming your xfi didn't have the crackling sound issues, in which case it may have actually been worse...

if someone wants a dedicated card, my recommendation would be for an old audigy which will be less than half the price of this card and probably sound better. it also won't have cheap plastic connects on the back.

 

[arcenite]

Originally posted by: brblx

Originally posted by: arcenite
Tell you what. My X-Fi XtremeMusic died on me a few months ago. When I hooked up my speakers to the onboard sound of my Foxconn Blackops (ALC885), it sounded absolutely the same.

you'd hear the difference with a decent pair of headphones. assuming your xfi didn't have the crackling sound issues, in which case it may have actually been worse...

if someone wants a dedicated card, my recommendation would be for an old audigy which will be less than half the price of this card and probably sound better. it also won't have cheap plastic connects on the back.

You're correct that I generally do not use headphones, but I do have Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultras. Games sound as fantastic now as they did with my X-Fi.

 

[Insomniator]

I wouldn't get one of these, Creative sound cards are god awful. I have an X-fi that barely works in Vista and before that an Audigy 2 that barely worked in XP. Their drivers make ATI's old drivers look awesome in comparison.

Crackling sound... games not recognizing the hardware... hissing... you name it...

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: Kalessian
So what's replacing EAX? OpenAL EFX, right? Can any card run EFX?

Nothing.
EAX is built into directSound now.

OpenAL also support EAX as well.

The problem was that MS pulled the rug out from under Creative, so they can't handle sound the way they onced did. DRM shows its ugly face yet again. :roll: That is why they had to emulate sound on vista...

It doesn't make much sense to get external cards these days, unless, your a pro, and you need pro type cards (which the X-FI isn't)

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: arcenite

Originally posted by: brblx

Originally posted by: arcenite
Tell you what. My X-Fi XtremeMusic died on me a few months ago. When I hooked up my speakers to the onboard sound of my Foxconn Blackops (ALC885), it sounded absolutely the same.

you'd hear the difference with a decent pair of headphones. assuming your xfi didn't have the crackling sound issues, in which case it may have actually been worse...

if someone wants a dedicated card, my recommendation would be for an old audigy which will be less than half the price of this card and probably sound better. it also won't have cheap plastic connects on the back.

You're correct that I generally do not use headphones, but I do have Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultras. Games sound as fantastic now as they did with my X-Fi.

the ones that use EAX sound usually better than anything else, however like i said in my other post, there aren't many EAX supporting games left and none are coming.

 

[trelin]

Well, there is one strong reason to use an X-Fi (and only one, imo)... positional 3D with headphones. Note that I'm NOT referring to EAX, but to CMMS-3D for headphones which works with non-EAX games like the HL2 and CounterStrike.

For everything except gaming I use onboard sound with digital out, no worries about poor DAC's or amps, sound is as flawless as my receiver can produce. However, IF (and it's a frustratingly big if at times) you can get CMMS-3D working properly with headphones it destroys everything else I've tried (barring Aureal 2.0 with an A3D2 game, imho). It's sad how many people are likely to miss this effect because much of the time you're not getting what you think you are. Just turning it on often isn't enough (for example with Source games, which requires some rather unintuitive fiddling, leaving a huge number of people with a big fat "Meh.")

At first I was thoroughly upset with all the people that had recommended it, but I try to be patient and kept at it. It's bizarre once you finally get it working PROPERLY and you go in game and have that ".... oooOOOOOHHHH" moment.


That said, to me it's still not worth $100. Only got mine because it was dirt cheap used (personally I refuse to buy anything new from Creative Labs after what they did to Aureal.)