Wow! Creative's new Audio Processor: X-Fi!!!!
- Thread starter StormRider
- Start date
I'm pretty sure this chip will power everything from affordable basic soundcards to high-end soundcards.
I like Creative Labs -- they are the only company that is developing sound accelerators. I can't stand the current trend of using the host CPU for sound processing. The only thing I hate about Creative Labs is their driver policy. They are the only company I know of that requires you to have the original driver CD in order to update drivers. It's a pain in the butt! And their drivers are the most confusing of any company I have encountered. It's difficult to know which drivers you need.
I like Creative Labs -- they are the only company that is developing sound accelerators. I can't stand the current trend of using the host CPU for sound processing. The only thing I hate about Creative Labs is their driver policy. They are the only company I know of that requires you to have the original driver CD in order to update drivers. It's a pain in the butt! And their drivers are the most confusing of any company I have encountered. It's difficult to know which drivers you need.
I dislike Create Labs because years after SoundStorm they still have not delivered real-time dolby digital encoding of game audio. Stringing 6 analog cables instead of 1 digital cable to a receiver is annoying.
I was never a big fan of dolby digital encoding because that would require me to have a dolby digital decoder receiver in my computer room. I just don't have the space for that in my computer room. If I was making a HTPC, then that feature would be more important to me.
Looks interesting. I hope Creative gets it right, because this likely will be the last jump forward in PC audio technology we will ever see. If this turns out as good as it potentially can be, everyone else in the consumer add-in card market might as well give up, except for the bargain basement $20 card makers.
Should also be noted, that this basically renders the "Zenith" rumor complete BS. Not only will this not be available in March (estimated Fall of 2005), let alone even announced by March, but it's not PCI-E either.
Should also be noted, that this basically renders the "Zenith" rumor complete BS. Not only will this not be available in March (estimated Fall of 2005), let alone even announced by March, but it's not PCI-E either.
i wonder if itll need a heatsink....i think my Audig 2 is fairly hot
actually on second thoughts
51million trannies and 400Mhz core clock.....just might need a HSF, thats an 11x increase on the transistors...from 4.6million to 51million
and the good news...its not a PCI-e only part
actually on second thoughts
51million trannies and 400Mhz core clock.....just might need a HSF, thats an 11x increase on the transistors...from 4.6million to 51million
and the good news...its not a PCI-e only part
Unlikely. Current Creative cards have no cooling at all. A simple heatsink without a fan will probably be plenty.
They're the only company developing sound accelerators because they squashed most of the competition.
ViRGE
Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
- Oct 9, 1999
- 31,516
- 167
- 106
As as gamer, I'm not the least bit impressed. All the theoretical power of this thing seems to be dedicated to resampling, I want to know what they're going to do with reverb, reflections, and other game-centric technologies that were promised once ago(RIP Aureal) and have yet to materialize. I don't need "Active Premium Audio", I need better 3D sound in games.
I dislike Creative Labs because of its monopolistic business practices.
It is the micro$oft of PC audio. It no longer produce quality products.
It is the micro$oft of PC audio. It no longer produce quality products.
Elcs
Diamond Member
- Apr 27, 2002
- 6,278
- 6
- 81
Im far too attached to my Soundstorm to move on.
Creative is going to have to do something unmissable to make me buy one of their cards. Either that or onboard sound on the likes of the NForce 4/5 range, when i plan to upgrade, are just so crap I have to buy an alternative.
Creative is going to have to do something unmissable to make me buy one of their cards. Either that or onboard sound on the likes of the NForce 4/5 range, when i plan to upgrade, are just so crap I have to buy an alternative.
ehh, its made by e-mu. it will be so-so. i do hope creative puts out an excellent soundcard with a more affordable price tag similar to the chaintech envy24 card.
here are some real soundcards on the other side of the spectrum.
RME Hammerfall
and here's my soundcard =P
motu 828 mkII
here are some real soundcards on the other side of the spectrum.
RME Hammerfall
and here's my soundcard =P
motu 828 mkII
MOTU card... very nice. I wish i had the cash for the mkII. RME is also excellent and would squash creative for many applications. Arguably the best soundcard for many application are those made by lynx...
sound blasters do well because of their gaming features.
sound blasters do well because of their gaming features.
Well, their resampling algorithms were very much critisized so I'm not surprised they put in a lot of effort to address those concerns. The resampling never bothered me that much since I'm not a musician and the artifacts introduced by MP3 compression is probably far much severe in my opinion. It never made sense to me that there are people who are perfectly happy with listening to MP3's but take Creative Labs to task for their resampling algorithms.
I'm also more interested in the gaming aspects of a sound card and I think this new chip has promise. It has a lot of DSP horsepower that could be use for reverb, reflections, filtering etc. Actually the old EMU10K was pretty good for that. But this is even more powerful.
I'm not sure how well suited the new DSP is for something like audio ray-tracing which the Aureal algorithms used.
Same here...if even this new product/chip still doesn't support DD encoding, then it doesn't interest me much.
Edit:
Exactly...if they could do this in 2002, why not in 2005?? In any case, it's one of the major reasons I've taken so long to upgrade from my nForce2 platform.
M-Audio? Newcomers?? Only if you don't count the entire professional audio lineup! :|
But all people need sound card for is GAMES, right Creative? Phah.
I've disliked them ever since the Creative Labs MIDI contest to introduce the SB Live, where my entry was lost after confirmed received and some utterly ridiculous "Bloodwar" won the ~$15000 cash prize. (Gold coins, actually.)
They were referring to the mainstream, consumer market. In this regard, M-Audio is indeed a newcomer compared to Creative. In any case, it's irrelevant. M-Audio was bought out last year and is essentially just a pet subsidiary of Avid. Pray that they sell enough sound cards to remain somewhat profitable or Avid will just drop the whole enterprise altogether.
The specs look nice. While most of the computational budget goes into the resampling engine, almost every other single unit has at least as much theoretical performance as the entire EMU10K series, which is good. Of course, this is all theory, and it also needs to have the right software written for it before you can take advantage of any of that. 400MHz and 51M transistors is probably not going to be too cool either. I'd expect at least a good sized heatsink.
ViRGE
Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
- Oct 9, 1999
- 31,516
- 167
- 106
Exactly, ray-tracing and other precision-oriented computational methods have been the future for half a decade now, and all CL has done is drag their feet and give us YARF(Yet Another Reverb Filter), never mind the improvements they could make to their HRTF's. CL is the only serious competitor left in the game space, and I'm not amused that they're taking gaming so lightly.
Whoa.... I hang around pro audio forums too.... I never heard this yet! It's not on the M-Audio site either! Instead, they're making a big happy noise about their new 64-bit driver support and new cards....
Audiophiles don't have time to discuss real information. They're too busy arguing over important issues like which electron travel direction through a power cord yields the best audio, or what elemental composition for the rock they put on top of their subwoofer sounds the best.
Avid to Acquire M-Audio
For those of you who make a living bashing Creative Labs, you better hope they deliver the goods this time, because if they don't, you better not be holding your breath waiting for someone else to enter the market. If you can't get it from Creative this time, you're unlikely to be getting it from anyone else either. The audio quality will clearly be high enough for all but the most golden of ears making it a non-issue, it's the feature list that will determine how successful this launch will be.
Avid to Acquire M-Audio
For those of you who make a living bashing Creative Labs, you better hope they deliver the goods this time, because if they don't, you better not be holding your breath waiting for someone else to enter the market. If you can't get it from Creative this time, you're unlikely to be getting it from anyone else either. The audio quality will clearly be high enough for all but the most golden of ears making it a non-issue, it's the feature list that will determine how successful this launch will be.
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