This is the conclusion to which I came, after a fair deal of research.
The GTXP is half the cost of the Audigy Platinum and offered everything exceptiong ASIO drivers, and firewire.
This makes the GTXP a far better value.
However, if you have the ~$200 to spend on an Audigy platinum, I highly recommend you look at the Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96 which is the same cost, offers all the analog and digital audio in/out connections of the Audigy Platinum, has ASIO drivers, and unlike the Audigy, is a *true* 24bit 96KHz card, and offers far, far superior digital conversion quality.
The Terratec (
www.terratec.com) card is by far superior to the Audigy platinum/eX/extigy at the same cost range.
The GTXP is a terrific alternative at half the cost however, and very well-made, and well-thought out, though it does lack on-card jacks for even the simplest things like headphones or 2-speaker sound.
With the GTXP, it's brakout box, or nothing, which is bad for LAN gamers.
peace