Creative Reveals Multi-Core Sound Processor

Have a feeling we'll be seeing these in Gigabyte's next version of their G1-Killer boards.

Anyway, its cool, but not really necessary if you ask me.

Meh...Does this really affect your average gamer? I'm running a Klipsh 2.1 (awesome) on standard Intel MoBo driver...

likely will require bloated software that will take years to stabilize. . .

I agree with erichoyt. Didn't MS remove hardware acceleration for audio since Vista (I still have not figured out why they did that)? Also the MSRP for discrete audio cards is way too high for what they are worth IMO.

QFT, I'm sure it'll be plagued by crappy drivers.

Not necessary, but it's nice to have. Believe me, there is a difference between the onboard with good enough sound compared to something like this. Try one before commenting, you'll need some decent speakers to go along with it too. Besides, even though I don't have a soundcard like this, I have some decent headphones that make gaming easier as I can tell which direction someone is coming from. With a 5.1 setup and a card like this you would be blown away.

Yes, a dedicated soundcard does affect your average gamer. Since you're running decent speakers you're killing them driving them off the horrible realtek or w/e onboard soundcard.

@erichoyt,

from my experience those sound cards do make the sound better, and with good speakers like klipsh you will notice the difference right away. i dont know the science behind it but for some unknown reason they sound better.

oh, great, an even more expensive way to make your system crash. I'm certainly not buying it.

I gave CL a slight chance to screw me over and crash my system when I bought a motherboard with "X-Fi MB2" sound, which turned out to be Creative software on a Realtek sound chip. Lo and behold, they did not disappoint, and it crashed my system every day. I uninstall the CL software and it works just fine. I got the same thing out of the last 2 sound cards I bought from them (the last one being over 5 years ago) and they certainly slacked in the support area.

I hope this card flops and finally puts that stupid company under.

Yes they removed Acceleration from their DirectX API, but they did not remove the ability to use Hardware acceleration through API's like OpenAL it is still possible to access the hardware through code in Windows Vista and 7. It is just that Microsoft removed the well known legacy way of doing so through DirectSound3d that alot of old and still played games use and even some recent (last 3 years) games.

I have been a big creative fan for many years. Man their drivers are awful though. You have to be very careful to get a clean install or just forget using it.

While the early X-Fi drivers blew chunks, I cant say I've had a single crash due to the XFi in a looong time. You could also blame the complete redesign of the driver architecture for Vista as well in those early problems.

And yeah, you can definitely hear a difference in sound quality between onboard and standalone cards like X-Fi even just listening to mp3s.

I recently used my old P4 2.4 running Win XP and a modest CL Live 5.1 soundcard and it sounded a lot better than my current system, it seemed like I had forgotten how good music could be. Using an analog amplifier with a pair of BOSE speakers the difference was overwhelming. Just my experience on the matter.

Still the approach of CL in embeddable chips is a good marketing idea but it was sad to see 3 hype words in one sentence "core", "3D" and "multi-core". Are they so desperate nowadays?

The only thing that I didn't like from CL was that they somehow "throttled" the capabilities of old hardware via drivers...

completely unnecessary. anything to make huge profits.

Just don't do any "SE", "LE" crappy cards, PLEASE Creative, PLEASE.

It has been a long time since anything new to the table, Creative, was about time. Kudos for the new design; let's see how it compares to the current X-FI I currently own.

Cheers!

Wish Creative would make E-MU 1212M style Multi-Core Sound Processor for the DAW market.

Finally something cool sounding that is not related to tablets or smartphones. Would be great on an HTPC.

Wish http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/ jumps right in to support it, so we don´t need creative´s buggy drivers

I find it so cute that Creative is trying to keep soundcards relevant.

would love to see a double blind study on sound quality upgrading from a good, but 4 year old sound card to this new sound card, using the same speakers. I really doubt anyone could tell a difference. I doubt most people could even tell the difference using a ten year old sound card and the same speakers.

I'm sure when people buy an expensive sound card, they will believe they can hear a difference between that and their older sound card, but I kind of doubt it unless their speakers changed too.

Well, everyone else is doing the multicore thing. Why not audio cards I guess....

Sound card only makes a difference....if the drivers are stable.. Which isn't exactly something Creative has ever been known for...

there still better than the el cheapo sound chips that are on evey mobo. my HT omega striker can whip any onbord sound chip

Agree. A good idea for budget mobo or small form factor.

But 102dB DAC is hardly HiFi, especially when you add in the error from the headphone amplifier.
I was hoping Creative would improve on the sound quality, since they've been lagging behind for a while now.

Hmmm.... don't see the point of all these "pristine" digital audio quality specs from audio cards when all the plugin companies are selling tape emulators to make your stuff sound analog and warm again.

If you have $500 then go out and buy some nice speakers and this sound card- personally though I would rather have like a GTX 580 or something I can notice immediately- sound for headphones is good enough for me using standard motherboard sound.

it all depends on hoe old the person is and how good their ears are. some people can hear it, some people cant. its like if glasses never existed, and no one knew about them, some people would see the world fuzzy while others see the word crystal clear. there is a way to objectively test eyesight though, their just isn't for sound... aside from the can you hear this tone tests, but thats more can you hear it, and not how you hear it. it would b like turning lights of various powers on, and asking if you can see it, but not being able to ask is it in focus.




trust me, going from intergrated to a decent sound card gives you a change, though i dont know if a 5 year old one or this one would be much different... as i cant imagine what this one would sound like.




there are genuine needs for multi core, but the needs would only come if you can hear the difference between the best and the second best

Its for onboard audio, you dont have to buy a sound card, it will be on your new motherboard "We designed a sound and voice processor that will enable our OEM partners to deliver the highest quality Sound Blaster audio ever available for a motherboard "

This new sound processor should prove to be useful for gamers who appreciate good quality sound systems.
I hope to see these processors in HTPCs.

oh great another board to not function properly when you have more than 4gb of ram in your system. Then spending hours emailing and calling tech support people who have their heads up their posteriors and end up sending the ticket up the chain to even more inept people who ignore it for 6 months.