My X-Fi gaming review

[Borgod]

Well I finally got around to biting the bullet and grabbing an X-Fi XtremeMusic (cheers MR CHILLED). Installed it in about 10 seconds, had the software up and running a few minutes later. No dramas at all, excellent.

Now I have a pretty decent pair of headphones, Audio Technica A900's that are worth $300 so I had very high expectations of what I was going to hear, over my onboard Soundstorm stereo which has (had) a good reputation of being perhaps one of the best onboard sound options available.

After I installed it I selected 'Gaming Mode' and went straight into BF2.
I found options, selected 'X-Fi' and changed quality to 'Ultra High'
Previous to this I had it on 'medium' using 'hardware' as my audio source. This gave good results but I wanted more.

Went straight into a Wake Island map and immediately heard a BIG difference. I could hear everything around me with such clarity that something sounded closer than they appeared. My footsteps sounded so real that I could picture my feet moving when I was running. All weapons sound alot more 'punchier' and when I fire my DAO it certainly feels like Im firing a cannon. Even the Eryx has a nice thunder to it when it launches. On the flipside, when you hear Artillery landing around you it makes you want to get out of there 3 times faster than before, it really sounds devastating.

The quality of the sounds are amazing, the comms sound more authentic with a little bit of radio noise in the background that I didnt notice so much before, and sniper rifles sound like they're a good distance away with the large echo.

I went into Karkand and it was the worst server for c4 chucking Ive ever been in, but the sound the c4 makes as it explodes is also more devastating. You could really hear the massive splash damage it creates.

Im quite surprised as just how much quality sound has added to my gaming experience so far... it makes me visualise things I cant see. My running, knowing the location of my squad mates without seeing them, hearing the speed and direction of incoming jeeps and tanks over the hill that I cant see, snipers firing at me and only hearing the buzzing of the bullets fly by and getting a feeling of how big an event is by its sound makes me more aware of a situation before I dive into it.

Onto the negatives however.
I have an AMD XP-M 2500+ running at 2500Mhz, 1gig of Corsair memory 2-2-2-11 timings and a newly installed X800 vid card. In BF2 my video settings are ALL at medium with x4 AA and with that before installing the x-fi card I usually had a dip to around 45FPS in the middle of the action but usually 60-80FPS in non-action. Smooth enough for me.

At Ultra-High Audio settings with the x-fi my FPS dropped to pretty much unplayable level of 20FPS at times. I was quite dissapointed with this as I had expected it to totally take over the audio processing and have very little CPU usage, perhaps unrealistic expectations, but in any case in Ultra-High settings (EAX 5.0 HD) it still definitely chews CPU power without a doubt. This was on Wake which is perhaps one of the most demanding of the maps with its massive graphic and audio environmental requirements but when it came to a close fight around the airfield in a 64player server I had decided that some tweaking needed to be done.

To make sure I wasnt dreaming I went into the Karkand server and saw pretty much the same thing, except my FPS were in the high 20's low 30's at the worse times. Still unplayable for me. I was still amazed at how much I could hear so I persisted with the low frame rates for about another hour until I had enough, and changed my settings. This time I changed it to just 'High' and the framerates jumped to the high 40's in the same Karkand server. Much better. This is pretty much what I had before on Medium and the quality in sound was still SO much better than before. To be honest I didnt get to use 'High' long enough to really tell the difference between it and 'Ultra High' but tonight I'll jump into a Wake server and see if the FPS can stay at a more suitable level and if the audio quality is still up to par with the 'Ultra-High' setting.

In conclusion, I am extremely happy with my x-fi. I only played with it for about 2 hours so Im far from fully experiencing it but from what Ive heard so far I am extremely impressed. MP3's sound SO much better, the crystalliser really makes every instrument in the song be heard to the correct level as its definitely noticeable as I turn the cystalliser on and off during play.

For $200 I was skeptical if it was money worth spending but decided I would never know unless I got one, and Im glad I did. I have never ever heard an audigy before so I cant compare it to that, but compared to an 'old' nforce2 system with onboard sound its a massive step up in sound quality, albeit with a negotiation in sound/video settings in games.

I wonder if the 'Fatal1ty' variant of the x-fi would of helped the FPS with the extra 64mb 'X-Ram' in it, but the skeptic in me tells me that I doubt it. At the price tag of it I'm really not interested in finding out either.

Holy shit, Ive typed too much. Hope this has been helpful for some of the fence sitters out there.

Cheers.

[corefreak]

how much is this ver?

edit

oh 200

[Locito]

the XFi RAM would of made the difference. As it takes the load of your motherboard ram.

But Yeh its a shame to see so man people spend $1000+ on graphics but don't want to spend $150 on a decent soundcard and settle for onboard sound, and where the 60% of the gaming experience comes from good sound.


Cheers for the write up

[SnooP-WiggleS]

and more to the point people using $20 sets of speakers, or even $70 sets of speakers with expensive graphics. to me nothing short of $100+ on headphones or $300+ on speakers does the music / games justice

[shadowman]

I totally confide with you in regards to the weapons feeling 'punchier'. I use special forces often, and the gun with that when I had onboard sound was soft, almost cap-gun-ish. After using an Audigy 2, the guns certainly sound better, and as if they pack more punch. I can also notice the individual shell 'tings' as I'm firing, and this is just an Audigy 2. My next upgrade will definitely be an X-fi*.


*Pending that creative make some better drivers.

[wahoo84]

I'd really like to know the difference between an x-fi and a audigy 2 zs.. considering I can pickup a x-fi for around $200 when the audigy 2zs is around $150.. i think $50 extra should be worth it

[Borgod]

Update:

Well I went to the creative website lastnight and download the latest drivers (18 Nov) and installed them. While I was there I also installed the latest Omega Drivers for my X800.

That 20FPS slow-down I was talking about on Ultra-High settings in Wake. Well that is now a distant dream.

I'm now getting a very consistant 40-50 FPS and my gaming has never been better.

I was on Sharqi Peninsula map in BF2 at the middle flag and there was a swarm of my team mates trying to cap it, as US. I heard in the distance the faint launching of their artillery from their main so I got the hell out of there. Sure enough it came raining down death from above and I was so happy that I could hear it before it got near me.

I made MINOR video card adjustments such as texture filtering to low and something to Bilinear (not trilinear) and havent overclocked my vid card at all and Im getting what seems a 200% performance increase with the new sound & vid drivers.

Nice one Creative & Omega!

[orbisfactor]

u do realise that soundstorm uses the cpu about the same as an audigy/audigy2? so i would've saved the money and stuck with the soundstorm. u also heard things better with the x-fi coz of the newer eax support

[Borgod]

Did you even read my review?

[Thalyn]

Originally Posted by wahoo84

I'd really like to know the difference between an x-fi and a audigy 2 zs.. considering I can pickup a x-fi for around $200 when the audigy 2zs is around $150.. i think $50 extra should be worth it

Pretty much every major hardware review of the X-Fi lists, in some form or another, the differences between the ZS and X-Fi. A basic rundown would be as follows:

Support for SRAM (64mb on Fatal1ty and Elite variants)
About 24x the processing power of the ZS
Full 192KHz/24-bit internal processing (the ZS had to use 48KHz/16-bit for EAX effects)
Improved DAC/ADC circuitry
Improved SNR characteristics
Support for EAX 5, MacroFX, and something else I can't remember the name for

Cheers for the hands-on opinions, Borgod. Shame not everyone actually bothered to read it, but it's definately good input for those of us that have.

-Jon

[anthonyl]

Please help.

Since installing my X-Fi Music..no cd's start up anymore.
Im trying to play BF2..I click on the icon and the splash screen comes up but thats all that happens. What have I done..it played OK this morning.

Come to mention it..no cd's run except for music cd's.

UPDATE:

Well I re-installed BF2 and it runs now..BUT..when I go to the audio options in the game and select X-Fi and click on apply..the game quits to desktop everytime.

[shadowman]

Originally Posted by anthonyl

Well I re-installed BF2 and it runs now..BUT..when I go to the audio options in the game and select X-Fi and click on apply..the game quits to desktop everytime.

Welcome to creative and BF2. I loaded the KX project drivers for my Audigy 2 and had to reinstall BF2, yet every other game worked fine. Check your drivers are updated and possibly use a different pci slot.

[anthonyl]

I cant install the drivers that came on the CD so I downloaded the latest drivers from the Creative site and installed them manually. I hear sound from the card so it is working.

I dont seem to have the fancy menu options for the X-Fi but I suppose they come on the CD.

I get sound in BF2 but when I click on the X-Fi option and click apply....CTD.

[fuller2002]

Wow, nice write up mate.

I think i might spend the $200 and grab myself one, atm im using onboard sound on my ASUS A8N-SLI Premium with 5.1 Logitech 530's i think. They sound great, and couldnt imagine the sound quality with a new card and hopfully ill get an increase in FPS by using a sound card ?

Once again thanks for the write up bud.

[YoSiMeTe_SaM]

I have heard nothing but good things regarding these souncards.
I can buy these wholesale,but unsure of the $$$$ that it costs for the latest hardware
Sif i will be paying wat they are asking


Will be waiting to the new year and getting the platnium version

I am looking forward to hearing the sound As for a drop in fps i dun think i will have an issue there.
I have also heard that these cards have an issue with AMD systems No i hope not.


Cheers Sammy