Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum worth intalling even today?

[GreenLantern]

I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum in the closet.

I am planning to buy a modest pc for gaming, (prob ati 5770)

Aside from the panel and remote am I gaining anything compared to integrated audio of today?

It's 5 yrs old but still sold at Amazon and the Fatal1ty of the same vintage is still sold at ncix and other tech sites.

I'd really appreciate feedback or even advice on where to post this question.

thanks

 

[Sp12]

I still use my PCI X-fi (and it's the cheapest version with an X-fi chip). I have a board with a modern, high-end ALC audio chip, and I can definitely tell a difference with the analogue outputs.

If you use digital/optical, you probably won't be able to tell. The X-fi does have some features/processing power over onboard regardless.

 

[ViRGE]

I concur with SP12; it's still better than on-board audio.

 

[GreenLantern]

Thanks Sp12

I will be using analogue connections. When you say it's better is that music, gaming, 3D rendering or all around.

Just if you play games, music or both.

thanks

 

[lxskllr]

The front panel is pretty handy. I'm not sure it's worth buying an xfi, but if you already have it, it's certainly worth using.

 

[Sp12]

Thanks Sp12

I will be using analogue connections. When you say it's better is that music, gaming, 3D rendering or all around.

Just if you play games, music or both.

thanks

The analogue connections have a lot less static than the onboard (better SNR), which makes them better for music/games just for that. The ALchemy software is nice with older games so I can get EAX hardware acceleration. I got about a half percent performance boost in all games because the CPU didn't have to do sound processing. I use the other features sparingly, but there are certainly a lot more of them than my onboard. I've had no driver issues with Win7 pro X64.

3D rendering, probably. One of the nicer features it has is the ability to split dual channel sound (older games, most MP3s) out to my 5.1 setup.

 

[GreenLantern]

Thanks everyone, good to know it's not just a junk card.

Sp12 said:
"I got about a half percent performance boost in all games"

Is that a typo, sarcasm or simply true? How can you detect 0.5% difference?

Also, do I find the Win 7 drivers at Creative's site?

 

[Sp12]

Thanks everyone, good to know it's not just a junk card.

Sp12 said:
"I got about a half percent performance boost in all games"

Is that a typo, sarcasm or simply true? How can you detect 0.5% difference?

Also, do I find the Win 7 drivers at Creative's site?

A bit of the second two. I'm serious in that I got about 1 FPS more in just about every game I tested (TF2, WC3, SC2). The point is, however, that it's not a big deal at all in terms of performance.

I just let windows update autorecognize it, it then gave me an optional update to install which then downloaded the drivers/software.

 

[xenolith]

Thread resurrection...

I have an old XFi Platinum collecting dust in my closet too, and I was going to ask this very same question here. I threw the card aside and forgot about it during the Vista/Creative/daniel_k driver wars.

I have a Windows 7 system now and I've noticed Creative has been releasing regular updated drivers lately (well, regular for Creative anyway.) Hopefully they have at least most things fixed by now...

If memory serves me, with the introduction of Vista, didn't the OS automatically disable sound hardware acceleration? So things like EAX, CMSS-3D, and Crystalizer are now handled all in software, even when a discrete XFi sound card and its drivers are installed, right? Is that true for Windows 7 too?

Also, I like using high quality headphones while gaming and listening to music (mostly because my neighbor downstairs complains a lot about noise.) Will I notice any improvement with my XFi card over the integrated Realtek ALC?

 

[ViRGE]

Thread resurrection...

I have an old XFi Platinum collecting dust in my closet too, and I was going to ask this very same question here. I threw the card aside and forgot about it during the Vista/Creative/daniel_k driver wars.

I have a Windows 7 system now and I've noticed Creative has been releasing regular updated drivers lately (well, regular for Creative anyway.) Hopefully they have at least most things fixed by now...

If memory serves me, with the introduction of Vista, didn't the OS automatically disable sound hardware acceleration? So things like EAX, CMSS-3D, and Crystalizer are now handled all in software, even when a discrete XFi sound card and its drivers are installed, right? Is that true for Windows 7 too?

Yes, it's true. The Vista audio stack basically tries to do all audio processing in software (including mixing), leaving only the final ADC/DAC steps of audio processing to the audio hardware. However the audio stack also allows what amounts to audio plugins for additional effects (this being the preferred way to extend the audio stack rather than in hardware), so the X-Fi drivers install a plugin that replicates all the major audio features (CMSS, Crystalizer, etc) in software. So even with the new audio stack, you still get all of those features in all programs.

Note that this only applies to programs using WaveOut, DirectSound, and other MS audio APIs. OpenAL (and by extension, Creative's DS3D->OpenAL wrapper Alchemy) and ASIO still have direct hardware access and can use the full features of the card, doing all processing in hardware and supporting things that expect/require direct hardware access like EAX.

Also, I like using high quality headphones while gaming and listening to music (mostly because my neighbor downstairs complains a lot about noise.) Will I notice any improvement with my XFi card over the integrated Realtek ALC?

In my opinion, yes. The audio hardware even on an XtremeMusic is much cleaner than on an ALC, and with headphones it's very easy to pick up on hissing and other noise on said ALC. Plus the lack of a spatialization effect when using headphones on an ALC drives me nuts.