X-FI 64MB worth it over non 64MB? $30 dollar difference...

[amdhunter]

I have been ultra-super-duper happy with my Audigy soundcard until I upgraded to Vista. Even since installing Vista, my Audigy has god-awful sound whenever CPU intensive tasks are on. Sounds like popping noises, especially with high frequencies. (For Example, an S sound would sound like a scratch.)

I've clean installed Vista a few times, but still it's annoying as hell. I cannot stand on-board sound, since I got used to using the bass/treble to brighten up the sound a bit. On-board sounds dull.

I am heading to CompUSA today to get one of the X-FI cards, and they have the 64MB version available. Is there any real difference in framerates or anything like that?

Also, I've browsed the Creative forums, and I see that tons of people are still having issues with the X-Fi...anyone here have the same prob?

Any alternatives to these cards?

 

[Ghouler]

Using X-Fi with 64MB RAM and having no issues. This extra RAM is worth its price only in a few games - most games do not use it. So if you play shooters such as BF2 and Quake 4 the version with XRAM there is certainly some advantage, otherwise there isn't any.
New drivers for X-Fi were released recently and were confirmed to have fixed the issues, so X-Fi seems to be a safe buy now http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1238103

 

[Ika]

Using an X-Fi XtremeMusic with Vista x64 just fine. At least, I think it's working. I haven't had any problems with it. Not sure if EAX works, though...

 

[razor2025]

Isn't X-Fi in Vista completely worthless? I thought Vista run its own audio stack and thus all the EAX optimization are worthless.

 

[Narse]

Originally posted by: razor2025
Isn't X-Fi in Vista completely worthless? I thought Vista run its own audio stack and thus all the EAX optimization are worthless.

Most new games use OpenAL witch is not hindered by the change in Vista's audio stack.

 

[Ghouler]

That's right. Hardware accelerated audio works well under Vista. Vista's DX10 is not compatible with DX9 but this does not affect audio performance of the Sound Blaster cards such as Audigy or X-Fi because they are fine with OpenAL. For DX9 games in Vista there is ALchemy

 

[Goldfish4209]

It doesn't seem like many games take advantage of that X-RAM, and a lower end x-fi card woulb probably be a better value. Unless all you do is play games that take advantage of the extra RAM, it's probably not worth it.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Narse

Originally posted by: razor2025
Isn't X-Fi in Vista completely worthless? I thought Vista run its own audio stack and thus all the EAX optimization are worthless.

Most new games use OpenAL witch is not hindered by the change in Vista's audio stack.

my guess is many games will move away from supporting creative at all. let alone anything that requires use of extra on board memory. they were hardly using it before, now with vista its pretty dead.

 

[jzodda]

The Xfi and Vista, especially Vista64 worked terrible together. For months I ran with onboard sound. Finally the Nov 5th drivers have the card finally working right, at least for me. No more static or pops or BSODs. Having said that I will never forget the shit I went through with this card and when I am done with it I am going to use it for target practice.