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X-Fi fatality

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What resolution do you play at?
Do you run with as much AA as possible?

At higher res and image quality, you'll almost always be video card bound. With my SLI 7900GTs, I don't always get the frame rate I want (at 1920x1200, High Quality). However, I've noticed that overclocking my CPU (Opteron 165) did little to nothing in improving those speeds.

The next generation games will make my system even more video card bound. For this reason, improving transfers between RAM and sound card doesn't seem like an area that is slowing my system down. Athlons aren't starved for memory bandwidth, nor are video cards starved for bus bandwidth (consider the switch to DD2 for AM2 and the lack of improvement given by link overdrive in nForce5).

I would love to see a comparison with and without X-RAM at my resolution and system config, but I haven't seen any. I've seen some graphs that show framerate improvements with the X-RAM but they aren't accompanied by any description of the test system or test conditions and I expect they used a CPU bottlenecked system to produce those results.
 
Originally posted by: HardWarrior
:laugh: So I guess you don't think the X-RAM things is worth the extra cash, huh?
Click to expand...



I have the X-FI Elite Pro which as the X-RAM, and I'll tell you that it makes zero difference.


Whether or not you hear a difference between your Audigy 2 or not depends on your speakers, and you. Some people just can't hear nuances like others.

If you listen to MP3s, you'll like the 24 bit cystalizer. I don't use it on CDs, but mp3s I actually like it.
 
Originally posted by: alpha88
What resolution do you play at?
Do you run with as much AA as possible?

At higher res and image quality, you'll almost always be video card bound. With my SLI 7900GTs, I don't always get the frame rate I want (at 1920x1200, High Quality). However, I've noticed that overclocking my CPU (Opteron 165) did little to nothing in improving those speeds.

The next generation games will make my system even more video card bound. For this reason, improving transfers between RAM and sound card doesn't seem like an area that is slowing my system down. Athlons aren't starved for memory bandwidth, nor are video cards starved for bus bandwidth (consider the switch to DD2 for AM2 and the lack of improvement given by link overdrive in nForce5).

I would love to see a comparison with and without X-RAM at my resolution and system config, but I haven't seen any. I've seen some graphs that show framerate improvements with the X-RAM but they aren't accompanied by any description of the test system or test conditions and I expect they used a CPU bottlenecked system to produce those results.
Click to expand...

1600x1200, and as much AA as possible. I got the EM, BTW. When I saw the difference in price, $110 versus $279, I just couldn't justify so much more for so little immediate gain.

Piano Man: I'll know for sure in about 30-minutes whether there's a difference in fidelity. 😉

 
I'm suprised at the flame level you're getting HW. Seems that happens when you venture out of your normal forum 😉

Anyway.

I wouldn't reccomend the Fatal1ty.. at the most, the gain would be 1%. IF any dev's utilized it. Which almost none do... Good to know you didn't go with it.

Also, you can't talk about sound quality and listen to MP3s... start using FLAC 😉

Invest in a decent pair of headphones [650's or A900s...] and start using uncompressed/lossless music, and hear the difference. It's stunning.

--Trevor
 
Originally posted by: TrevorRC
I'm suprised at the flame level you're getting HW. Seems that happens when you venture out of your normal forum 😉
Click to expand...

Frankly, I don't get it either, but oh well. 😀

I wouldn't reccomend the Fatal1ty.. at the most, the gain would be 1%. IF any dev's utilized it. Which almost none do... Good to know you didn't go with it.
Click to expand...

Standing there lookinag at the Fatality box, not to mention price, I started to feel like I was being hyped into a $169 stupidity premium.

Also, you can't talk about sound quality and listen to MP3s... start using FLAC 😉
Click to expand...

FLAC? Please explain.

Invest in a decent pair of headphones [650's or A900s...] and start using uncompressed/lossless music, and hear the difference. It's stunning.
Click to expand...

I can't stand headphones. Not that I'm knocking anyone else for using them, but they make me too paranoid to actually enjoy what I'm doing.

For anyone who's interested; after the usual song and dance with creative's bloated drivers, I'm pleased to report that there is a noticable difference.
 
If anyone's interested; I've had a chance to tune both the drivers and my speakers. As $110 upgrades go, this was a very good choice. I got both of the things I wanted, markedly better fidelity and what appears to be a better performance curve, even with all ingame audio enhancements turned on. Thank you all for your suggestions and thoughts.
 
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