Confused about Creative X-FI Cards...

[Jie]

Ok so I just built a new system and am already missing my old Audigy 2 ZS. The onboard Audio just doesn't work for me. I've read some good reviews about the X-FI series, but need some help deciding on a card. Mostly used for gaming with about 20% music use.

I'm also very confused about the full X-FI cards vs. the slim versions...is there a difference in quality?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Jie]

Anyone ?

Thinking of purchasing tomorrow so any help would be appreciated!

 

[locky28]

Hehe, I love my Audigy 2 ZS aswell, I wen't a week with onboard as I was getting my old box ready to sell and the difference in sound quality was really depressing, EAX supporting games have no where near the immersion without a good sound card .

As far as I'm aware theres no huge difference in the X-FI series, best bet's probably to go for the extreme music which I think is the cheapest and you should be good.

 

[runswindows95]

The higher end cards have 64MB of what's known as X-RAM: audio memory dedicated to higher gaming audio quality

 

[Jie]

So does this have 64mb of XRam?? Sorry really confused on these slimemr versions lol...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006

 

[Jie]

NVM answered my own question sorry...I see that the X-FI Xtreme Gamer Fatality has the 64mb of X-Ram.

Guess that's what I'm getting!

 

[dsidious]

Go with the cheapest X-Fi. I have done a lot of research on this and decided the additional features in the more expensive models are totally useless to me. They are good for musicians, for example. Some of those features may get you up to 5 fps more in a (very small) number of games. That was about it, really nothing tempting.

 

[Putter]

Go with the cheapest one that isn't Xtremeaudio. That's garbage. The Xtremegamer one (second cheapest), is probably the best bet.

 

[darkguset]

The higher end cards have 64MB of what's known as X-RAM: audio memory dedicated to higher gaming audio quality

X-RAM does not provide better audio quality. It provides better framerates in a few (really demanding) games.

 

[weskurtz81]

Just go with the extreme music or whatever the damn thing is called, chances are you will not notice a difference between any of them, unless you are a cyborg. I have the least expensive version and it works just fine for games and such.

wes

 

[halcyon]

NVM answered my own question sorry...I see that the X-FI Xtreme Gamer Fatality has the 64mb of X-Ram.

Guess that's what I'm getting!

I'd recommend against wasting the extra money on the Fatal1ty. Even in games where X-RAM is supported I don't think the possible 1-2fps would be worth the expenditure over an X-Fi Xtreme Gamer. You'd see better performance putting that extra money into system RAM, IMO, while getting the same audio quality.