So I'm a hardcore gamer, but love my music, trying to find a card for the best of both worlds... I've narrowed my choices down to Asus Xonar DX HT Omega 7.1 Possibly a creative labs SB x-fi titanium Now I've been against creative since the whole lack of vista support with previous cards, but my neighbour / friend bought it, and highly recommends it since it has EAX 5.0 which is great directional sound and is supported by source games... Is it really worth the extra over the other 2 cards? (i play css, cod4, tf2, l4d, wc3, d2 mainly) I've heard nothing bad about the asus and Omega, though I've heard a lot more buzz about the xonar... Along with these, I have some decent 5.1 logitech speakers, so I love my music. Plan to purchase a steelseries h4 or siberia headset also, so I have decent peripherals and speakers for that sound card to power. What would you recommend of the 3, and why?
Just arrived. Movies sound awesome. Music sounds good too, but from a quick listen I'm impressed so far. Off to play some counter strike source, and I'll get back to you.
X-fi cards are the way forward! The lack of vista support is not longer an issue ( I believe), I had trouble in the early days with a x-fi music edition with not being able to alter the base once I installed vista. The problem is no more however and they seem to have fixed the problem, all in all great cards.
I think x-fi work fine in vista now, but i dont trust creative anymore, i took my audigy 4 out of my pc as the onboard is better because of there bad drivers.
Could someone tell me HOW actually dy X-Fi's "Sound better" or "work better" for games? Are there some propietary stuff involved or..? I've used on-board audio ever since having a digital output and never figured why I'd use anything else..
^ It's only really any better in games that utilise Creative's EAX 5/HD and CMSS 3D for headphone users.
So then the creative is the way to go as I play a lot of fps games with a headset? Logically the directional audio for a headset seems like a huge plus, but how is it for music also? The xonar does support the EAX, just not the new version (5 I believe) Is the creative worth the extra 15 dollars over the xonar? I think I've ruled out the omega, its a solid card, but I've been recommended towards xonar and x-fi.
Well actually the Xonar doesn't support EAX, it emulates it to unlock certain voice tracks that are normally hidden behind Creative's x-fi cards, although it supposedly performs quite admirably. But it's swings and roundabouts. Audio is very subjective, and bit has an article somewhere about exactly that. By the numbers the x-fi has better gaming performance, and the xonar has better music performance, but you would have to sit and listen to them both to make a decision. I personally chose the x-fi because I game with headphones, and my music is played through an M-Audio card using ASIO. I did play some tracks through the x-fi, but IMO it sounded quite doctored and synthetic.
Unfortunately I don't have the opportunity to listen to the xonar, though I can listen to the x-fi... I think the x-fi seems more attuned to my needs since I mainly game with a headset, and It's definitely better than my creative audigy that I'm using at the moment... Now to see what price my little parts store can do for it and my headset. Thanks a lot guys
I've had an X-Fi for years and I've always thought its wonderful, especially with games that make use of some of its unique features. The lightning gun in Quake 4 for example snarls and crackles whilst your just running around with it and when you fire it you are really glad that you're the one that's firing it. I love the CMSS feature as I have to use headphones when gaming as my wife objects to the "racket" from my speakers. The CMSS does a very good job of creating the illusion of 3D audio. The Asus Sonar does get great reviews but I'm happy enough with X-Fi and it covers all of my needs.
The ASUS cards and also most other C-Media or VIA Envy based cards received a heavy beating in a recent test in the German c't magazin, issue 3/09. Even the Auzentech cards flopped. Interestingly, the SB Titanium was the best alround card. One of the ASUS cards, the Essence I believe, had better analogue output, while the ASUS HDAV 1.3 had better digital output. But again, the SB Titanium ruled the roost and was the cheapest card to boot. I know a lot of bad things have been said about Creative and their driver support, and I certainly agree, but there's no denying that they have some good hardware.
"Sounds better"? How longs a piece of string? If onboard sound works for you - why not just save £50/£100?
Well there is a definitive difference between speakers and headset, so I already want / benefit from getting a new headset, and when I make my speakers louder, they begin to crackle, and I know it's the soundcard becuase it never did it with onboard... The creative seems like the bet choice
