Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer vs Audio

Solution
Depending on the price , You can get the PCI-E based X-fi Titanium("Real X-FI") card that has hardware openAL and all that other good stuff.

With PCI going away in a hurry, it may be an option.

With Windows no longer using much if any hardware acceleration(OpenAL is on 3rd party software/plugins). It gets harder and harder to recommend a sound card based on its hardware acceleration level.

Asus has good cards, but I wanted some of the features that are still present in X-fi(OpenAL in hardware CMSS-3D) with the right audio plugins on software.

With a non hardware accelerated plugin, most of this is now done in software and does not sound that good to be honest(too much center channel for music, kind of ruins the stereo image when the...
Both are obsolete by todays standards (The ASUS Xonar DG(X) and ASUS Xonar DX take over the sub-$100 market segment).

Of the two, the ExtremeGamer is significantly better. The ExtremeAudio isn't even a proper X-fi; just a re-branded Audigy 2. Horrid driver support as a result.

Again though, I don't recommend either.
 
Depending on the price , You can get the PCI-E based X-fi Titanium("Real X-FI") card that has hardware openAL and all that other good stuff.

With PCI going away in a hurry, it may be an option.

With Windows no longer using much if any hardware acceleration(OpenAL is on 3rd party software/plugins). It gets harder and harder to recommend a sound card based on its hardware acceleration level.

Asus has good cards, but I wanted some of the features that are still present in X-fi(OpenAL in hardware CMSS-3D) with the right audio plugins on software.

With a non hardware accelerated plugin, most of this is now done in software and does not sound that good to be honest(too much center channel for music, kind of ruins the stereo image when the singer has parts of their voice moving from center it sides when it is not recorded that way. Happens because certain frequencies get into the center channel more often then needed.). Ideally, I want NO center used with music, but do not mind the rear speakers being just a copy of the fronts(for 2 channel sources).

Sound is so personal it is hard to find one solution for all listeners.
 
Solution
Those are both garbage sound cards.

If you're just listening to mp3s and playing games then you don't really need anything more than onboard or a low end sound card like this: http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Channel-Sound-Card-XONAR_DG/dp/B0045JHJSS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350495970&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+sound+card

Do you have surround sound, good headphones, listen to "loseless" music? You don't need a sound card for listening to mp3s or music off YouTube, and game audio isn't very high quality either.

 

ilyas429

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yes i have fenda f6000 native 5.1 home theater system on board i have Realtek ALC888 i am happy with that but i was thinking may be external card give me more pleasure than internal...
 
 

mightymaxio

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I bought a X-FI titanium HD for 20$ from newegg last year nothing can beat the internal audio DAC from that card not even the newer Recon3D sound cards or the Xonar. It has a 122db SNR which is the best on the market atm.