Thinking of upgrading to x-fi xtreme gamer from onboard but it's a expensive sound card and wanna get advice questions are
do i actully get higher fps or is it just marketing?
do i get noticable better sound with good surround sound speakers?
can you really hear the difference in 5.1 vs 7.1 speakers?
running e6600 and 8800 gtx 2gb ram

Answers to your questions
yes,no
yes
I have 5.1 so I couldn't tell you about 7.1

I have the Fatal1ty FPS with the front panel and Klipsch Pro-Media Ultra 5.1 speakers. My old system had a Audigy 2 and I considered using it in my new build and I'm glad I decided not to. I thought my speakers couldn't sound better and my games couldn't sound better and then I heard the Fatal1ty. If you have good speakers it would be a shame not to have a quality sound card, on the other hand if you don't have great speakers your wasting your money.