Creative X-FI Xtreme Fidelity Accelerates PC Games by 17%

imported_humey · Jul 11, 2005

Ok its a soundcard but story is related to gamming and so GPU's, i already knew Creative cards help gamming compaired to onboard anf other pci card makers.

" Creative Technology Ltd., a worldwide leader in digital entertainment solutions for PC users and the creator of Sound Blaster, announced that early testing of the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor revealed that it delivers a 17 percent frame rate increase in this summer?s hottest PC games.

Creative?s internal tests were performed using the PC games Battlefield 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004, on a Pentium IV 3.4GHz PC with an ABIT AA8XE motherboard, Nvidia 6600 GT 128MB graphics card, and 1GB of RAM. To perform the test, Creative switched between the ABIT motherboard?s HD audio solution, and a Sound Blaster sound card with the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor. Creative used Fraps to benchmark the results in Battlefield 2, and used the internal benchmarking tool of Unreal Tournament 2004."

http://www.hardwarezone.com/news/view.php?id=1946&cid=2

The 17% could tip the balance for peeps that struggle to play games i read on here msot days, with on border of laggy at decent modern settings even if HDR is on.

dug777 · Jul 11, 2005

i'll believe that when i see it on AT/Toms

sweet if it's true tho...

imported_Noob · Jul 11, 2005

What does this mean for people who already have Audigy 2's? Is it worth the upgrade?

imported_humey · Jul 11, 2005

No, read it again, you will see thats compairing to that certain make of mobo with its onboard sound, you already will have a gain over it with your card (audigy 2) but not 17%, i said before i knew Creative have this benifit since my old live 5.1 card as the soundcards use DX not just your GPU, i know part of reason is possibly the Creative cards take less CPU use but its also to do with DX hardware acceleration on sound side.

biostud · Jul 11, 2005

maybe they release it with realtime DD encoding next year.

TheUnk · Jul 11, 2005

It's just because they are using the OpenAL drivers - which Audigy 2 can use. They have a beta driver download available on their website.

imported_humey · Jul 11, 2005

Has nothing to do with it, that card is new and the beta driver dont do jack for direct 3d games, how many new games are opengl outside doom3 + add on.

The hardware is simply better than other cards and onboard, they didnt have beta open gl drivers when i ran my live 5.1 / audigy 2 / only now on Zs but i use modded audigy 4 pro drivers/apps.

hans030390 · Jul 11, 2005

so would i see any framerate increase with the value version of the audigy 2? if so, about how much?

remagavon · Jul 11, 2005

Anybody know if this is going to be pci AND Pci-e, or just pci-e?

TheUnk · Jul 11, 2005

Originally posted by: humey
Has nothing to do with it, that card is new and the beta driver dont do jack for direct 3d games, how many new games are opengl outside doom3 + add on.

The hardware is simply better than other cards and onboard, they didnt have beta open gl drivers when i ran my live 5.1 / audigy 2 / only now on Zs but i use modded audigy 4 pro drivers/apps.

uhh it's not openGL it's openAL..

kylebisme · Jul 11, 2005

Heh, yeah and both BF2 and UT2004 use OpenAL.

Lonyo · Jul 11, 2005

Originally posted by: dug777
i'll believe that when i see it on AT/Toms

sweet if it's true tho...

See it on AT:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2465&p=27

Not exactly the same, but onboard sucks up CPU cycles, X-Fi is hardware, so that load is gonna go right away, meaning more CPU power for games, which could account for some of the improvements.
Then also remember Creative will have found worst case scenarios to get those numbers, and it looks feasible we'll see a boost from onboard to X-Fi, but it would be the same from onboard -> anything.

MDE · Jul 11, 2005

Originally posted by: Lonyo

Originally posted by: dug777
i'll believe that when i see it on AT/Toms

sweet if it's true tho...

Click to expand...

See it on AT:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2465&p=27

Not exactly the same, but onboard sucks up CPU cycles, X-Fi is hardware, so that load is gonna go right away, meaning more CPU power for games, which could account for some of the improvements.
Then also remember Creative will have found worst case scenarios to get those numbers, and it looks feasible we'll see a boost from onboard to X-Fi, but it would be the same from onboard -> anything.

Yep, I'm curious as to what the difference between the X-Fi and Audigy2.

otispunkmeyer · Jul 11, 2005

i will buy a X-Fi if the price is right

im an audio loving guy and loves me music n films

Concillian · Jul 11, 2005

I'd like to know what video settings they used when they achieved this incredible frame rate differences.

I'm willing to bet it's at like 640x480 or something nobody will ever run. If you have a decent video card and run in a normal resolution, I highly doubt you will see a difference anywhere near this in frame rates. Few people actually run a game like BF2 with video options that give you a CPU limited situation anyway do they?

berkut7 · Jul 11, 2005

This is from Wikipedia, I am not sure where they got this info but seems impressive.

"Creative's next generation sound card will be called the X-FI. Little is currently known about the X-FI, but it is said to be based on PCI Express x1, and have 10,340 MIPS of processing power (for reference, a 3.6 GHz Pentium IV has 10,224 MIPS). This is 24 times more power than offered by the Audigy. The 130 nm core operates at 400 Megahertz. With the X-FI's "Active Modal Architecture" (AMA), the user may choose three optimization modes: games, leisure, and creation. The X-FI will provide a function, called the "24 bit Crystalizer," to convert traditional audio sources into high-definition multi-channel audio. X-FI will also bring about 24 bit 3D MIDI. For more information, see Creative's website.

sound card overclocking

imported_humey · Jul 11, 2005

A big difference its far better than a ZS.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1813855,00.asp

And to the openGl or openAL, i know for a fact the beta driver is for openAL, i just had a typo above, i ran this driver long ago and it fixed sound in doom3 add on, for surround.

otispunkmeyer · Jul 11, 2005

Originally posted by: berkut7
This is from Wikipedia, I am not sure where they got this info but seems impressive.

"Creative's next generation sound card will be called the X-FI. Little is currently known about the X-FI, but it is said to be based on PCI Express x1, and have 10,340 MIPS of processing power (for reference, a 3.6 GHz Pentium IV has 10,224 MIPS). This is 24 times more power than offered by the Audigy. The 130 nm core operates at 400 Megahertz. With the X-FI's "Active Modal Architecture" (AMA), the user may choose three optimization modes: games, leisure, and creation. The X-FI will provide a function, called the "24 bit Crystalizer," to convert traditional audio sources into high-definition multi-channel audio. X-FI will also bring about 24 bit 3D MIDI. For more information, see Creative's website.

Click to expand...

sound card overclocking

dont start!

Ackmed · Jul 11, 2005

I find it highly unlikely. You can turn the sounds off, and not get a 17% jump in frames.

Thinking this card will make HDR playable for someone, when it isnt now, is pretty funny though. Thanks for the laugh.

BroadbandGamer · Jul 11, 2005

When are these cards going to be out?

imported_humey · Jul 11, 2005

There is always a sceptic, ofcoarse you will get a gain from having a soundcard installed to not having one full stop as soundcards use resources, they aint claiming its 17% on that aspect if you read the review.

They are claiming it gets a 17% gain over the mobo's onbaord sound in that review, it could be more or less % for a different mobo and onboard sound.

I dont need this new card to tell me this i knew 4.5 years ago on my live 5.1 i was running a advantage over onboard sound or other pci soundcards makes.

Statzere · Jul 11, 2005

I wish Creative would build a product that works correctly. I currently have an Audigy 2 ZS that is almost useless to me because the microphone port on it doesn't work in games, or any other program for that matter. There are currently hundreds if not thousands of unanswered threads on Creative's support forums about the issue, but not a fix or even an explanation anywhere in sight.

I dont know what it is about Creative products, but they always seem to have way more bugs in them than there should be. Just give us something that works!!!

Lonyo · Jul 11, 2005

Originally posted by: Statzere
I wish Creative would build a product that works correctly. I currently have an Audigy 2 ZS that is almost useless to me because the microphone port on it doesn't work in games, or any other program for that matter. There are currently hundreds if not thousands of unanswered threads on Creative's support forums about the issue, but not a fix or even an explanation anywhere in sight.

I dont know what it is about Creative products, but they always seem to have way more bugs in them than there should be. Just give us something that works!!!

I use my onboard Realtek on nForce 2 (no SS) because it's easier to get the 5.1 working, the mic working, and to switch from 5.1 to 2 speaker when I use headphones.
The onboard is much much nicer to use and work with than the Audigy (original) that I did have.

Creative X-FI Xtreme Fidelity Accelerates PC Games by 17%

Senior member

Lifer

Senior member

Senior member

Lifer

Golden Member

Senior member

Diamond Member

Platinum Member

Golden Member

Diamond Member

Lifer

Lifer

Lifer

Diamond Member

Member

Senior member

Lifer

Diamond Member

Senior member

Senior member

Member

Lifer