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A few questions about the Xtreme Audio... *Update: this card truly IS rubbish*

post #1 of 9
1/22/10 at 11:35pm
Thread Starter 
...And before you all just reply with "it's rubbish", please hear out my questions. I know full well that the Xtreme Audio is actually a rebranded Audigy, and not a true X-Fi card. However, it may fit my needs still, so I was wondering if anyone has the answers to these questions and any comments to make on it otherwise. Thanks.

First of all, I see the specs say "SPDIF: up to 24-bit/96kHz", but can it actually output bit perfect digital like the real X-Fi cards? One of the reasons I'd like to upgrade from on board sound is for the potential to have 24-bit/96kHz audio, even though I may only have limited use for it.

Secondly, I couldn't care less about the analogue output. I'll be using it pretty much exclusively on a digital out basis. As for gaming, I may use CMSS-3D and EAX occasionally for games, but for the most part I'll just be looking to use the card as a system to output 24-bit/96kHz digital.

Finally, I know the card isn't popular around here, but does anyone happen to have it running on Vista? I have encountered some older reviews (mostly from 2008) that comment on poor Vista drivers, but most newer reviews comment on it working fine on Windows 7, and I remember the software for the Xtreme Music progressively got better for Vista as time went on. (I'll be using this on Vista, by the way, so I don't know if the Windows 7 comments will actually follow).

Thanks for any response, and any additional comments you may think are relevant.
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post #2 of 9
1/23/10 at 12:58am
You should be still be able to do bit perfect, but I can't say for sure because I never owned a Xtreme Audio. If you are going to run Windows 7, get WASAPI with foobar2000 and see what happens. For reference, my Xtremegamer is running great in Windows 7.

Xtreme Audio is pretty much a "Live!", so it's going to take up your cpu cycles instead of using X-Ram when gaming, which other X-Fi has. Kinda defeats the reason why to get a Creative.
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post #3 of 9
1/23/10 at 10:08am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the comments. I'll actually be running it with Windows Vista, but it would seem that Windows 7 is somewhat similar. I don't want to assume full functionality on either when I don't actually know exactly how differently they run, but reading through more reviews of X-Fi cards in general it seems that they're a lot better with Vista these days.

Anyhow, thanks for the heads up on the loading. I think my system will do okay with it. I suppose the EAX effects etc. could add even more load if I decide to run them, but as for games without, I've been coping with onboard sound so far.

A full X-Fi card is appealing, but the main problem is the price; the next model up that appears to have PCI-E is the Titanium, which is around twice as expensive as the Xtreme Audio. I don't think I can put down £75+ for a card I'll be using primarily for some high resolution digital out and perhaps the occasional game effects, not to mention as far as I'm aware, I will have to buy an optical cable for either of these cards (I chose coaxial back when I had the Xtreme Music, but a lot of the lower priced gaming cards appear only to do optical now).
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post #4 of 9
1/23/10 at 10:13am
I would highly suggest going for the Azuntech Forte. Its a really nice card+plus better driver support.
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post #5 of 9
1/23/10 at 10:31am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Superfrag View Post
I would highly suggest going for the Azuntech Forte. Its a really nice card+plus better driver support.
£150 is way more than I'm going to spend.

Anyhow I have just found a review from late 2009 that suggests they couldn't even get the card to be recognised on Vista or 7. It seems as if these things like to work for some, but not for others.

I've had a look around and the only other card I'd spend on so far is the Asus Xonar DX. I know there are a few around here that rave on about Dolby Headphone, and I suppose it could be worth trying, but I've heard mixed stories about the Asus cards on the basis of gaming, and I know they have to emulate EAX (though again, not so much of an issue for me as I'm unlikely to use it much, if at all). Unless there are any other problems it's a possibility, though again, I don't know whether it can do things bit perfect. There's no point in having 24/96 if the card is resampling anyway.
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post #6 of 9
1/27/10 at 4:54pm
Thread Starter 
I got ripped off by Creative. The card doesn't even do 24/96 digital out as Creative specified (my 740C shows it as 20-bit maximum). Worse still, as I decided to read their troubleshooting guides online to see if I could get 24/96 working, I stumbled across an ASIO guide. Guess what? The Xtreme Audio is listed as about the only card that doesn't support ASIO. What a complete rip off. Now I lose two lots of shipping if I want to send it back... it'll probably cost me almost a third of the price of the card (though I did buy a case fan in the same order). I guess I should mouth off at Creative (i.e. a formal complaint).

One good thing did come out of it though; EAX and CMSS-3D are even worse than I remembered. Why anyone would want to use those muffled, distorted effects whilst gaming I don't know.

So to conclude, this card isn't just rubbish; it's complete rubbish. Unless you really have to have CMSS-3D and EAX but are on a low budget, this card is useless. In fact, they should rename it to "X-Fi Pointless Audio".
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post #7 of 9
1/27/10 at 5:38pm
If you're looking for a full-featured reasonably-priced alternative to X-fi-based cards, try those using the C-Media CMI8768 or CMI8788 chipsets. The Auzentech Xraider 7.1, for instance, can be found online for about 50$USD.
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post #8 of 9
1/27/10 at 7:10pm
Thread Starter 
Unfortunately, the Xraider looks to be PCI; one of the problems I've been having is the amount of lower end cards that aren't available as PCI-E. However, as I have determined I couldn't care less for gaming effects anymore, my options may be wider. Even if it's a card that cannot support any form of gaming, I can switch to onboard for that.

Anyhow, I've calmed down a bit after this outing. I suppose I should have looked more carefully for details about the ASIO stuff before buying, but it wasn't readily labelled (why would I check support and trouble shooting for a card I haven't purchased yet?), and Google searches before turn up nothing to specifically say it could or couldn't, so I assumed it would be able to considering the majority of other Creative cards can output bit perfect digital. I guess there are that few people that actually buy this card. That still does not cover the issue that they specified the card as being able to output 24/96 digital, when in fact it seems it can't even manage that with up-sampled data.
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post #9 of 9
1/28/10 at 1:06pm
It's good that you've calm down, though I understand the initial frustration. With enough patient searching you'll be able to configure a low-latency bypass for the digital out. Why Creative makes it so difficult to do so, I have no idea.

Don't worry too much about 24/96 - most of the overhead is used for noise shaping and with the paucity of true high-rez sources, 16/44 is the best you're gonna get in most cases anyway.
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