is it worth buying an x fi card to save on cpu strain

when running game is it worth buying a good sound care like creative x fi etreme music (i can afford fatality|) to take some of the load of my cpu. and does anyone know how good they some?

not for the soul reason of gaining fps because you'll gain like 2. But for sound definitly. I'm getting the new auzentech x-plosion with z-5500 speakers. These are good for digital speakers, but don't gave a you as much of a cpu bonus as x-fi. Depends on your speakers and how important 2 fps are to you

ps i wouldn't get fatality, seems like a wast to me, but since your spending 500-700 on graphics, anoither 100 shouldn't matter 8)

I think you'll find the FPS advantage of an X-Fi is more than 0.2

But yeah, to buy one solely for FPS gain is pointless... but as an all-rounder with good sound quality, versatility and gaming surround support its a good card.

Yep. the speed advantage is guite minimal, but sound guality is very important to me. I personally have X-Fi Elite Pro with external sound box for better sound guality...
In anyway i have computer hooked with stereo system with Gelelec studio speakers so the audio source really matter.
If you use standard blastic PC-spekers you don't know the difference...

My gaming experience is way better both in fluidity and sound quality since the changover from onboard sound to the X-Fi (7.1 speakers also make it even better!)