CREATIVE Sound Blaster 7.1 X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card

Whats so good about it? Will I really notice that much difference in games like CoD2 and UT2004?
 
Yes, especially in CoD2. If you have proper speakers, of course.
The audio output is a way higher quality, and it supports EAX (echo simulation) which is really nice and a lot of games support it.
 
yes i have those speakers also. they will do great. also on onboard eax there is a huge difference believe me. i went from onboard ac97 which had eax 2 also and the eax is of much higher quality on a sound card.
 
I'm afraid the Xtreme Audio doesn't even have a proper sound processor. I'm surprised it's in the X-Fi series, it's more comparable to the Audigy series. Google some more info, I heard it's not a good choice.

I'd say have a look at Xtreme Music.

It depends what you want to do with it of course, but don't expect a "proper" X-Fi card.
 
What the spast? Unfocused is right. What the hell is that thing? You want an eXtreme Music.

Still it would be a bunch better than the onboard chip.
 
I was wondering why the price was so cheap. Im gonna go for the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music. Even though its twice the price, I've heard the performance is out of this world! Reading some reviews, one user said he got an increase of 20fps in games using this card (too good to be true I think). I still think ?60 is alot for a sound card though.

Has anyone got this card? Whats it like? Have you seen similar performance gains?
 
I have an Xtreme music. The sound quality is top notch. You don't see performance gains per se, more that you see performance loss when you using onboard sound as it requires a degree of cpu time which could otherwise be used for feeding the graphics card with information or calculating physics etc. What happens when you put in an independent sound card is that the card removes the load from the cpu and performs the audio processing itself, freeing up the cpu to devote all of its time to other tasks.
 
In Battlefield 2142 I think that the performance on Medium sound quality with an onboard chip, equals the performance on Ultra High with my Xtreme Music. When I set it back to Medium I felt a slight performance increase.
 
Well Ive gonea bought an X-Fi Music Extreme,should be here next week. Need to grab a copy of Battlefield 2 now, everyones saying the sound is the best in that
 
Got my X-Fi extrem music but its not working :-(

I need some help. I have disable the onbaord Raletek AC97. I first put the card into my PC and booted up.

Windows said it found the card and was asking fro the drivers. I cancelled that and installed the latest downloaded drivers from Creatives website.

In DEVICE MANAGER everything looks fine. However thers no Audio at all! Ive put all the connectors of my 5.1 in colour coordinated (even tried all other combos)

Im stumped, could it be a faulty card?

PLEASE HELP :(
 
Did you get the retail version ? i.e. did it come with a driver cd ? I know you downloaded the latest drivers from the creative site, but it did come with a cd then it might be worth uninstalling the drivers, rebooting and installing the drivers and software that came on the cd, just to be on the safe side and to check that the card is fine. It is also possible that you didn't download the right thing, the creative website isn't all that clear (compared to nvidia etc.) and has many download options for drivers, software etc, and it's possible that you may have downloaded some software but not the drivers (no offense, i'm not accusing you of being stupid, just an idea !!). Also, have you tried just plugging in a set of headphones to check the sound, rather than go straight for the 5.1 ?

edit: you also say you disabled the onboard sound, did you also remove the drivers for that as well ?
 
3ssence said:
Did you get the retail version ? i.e. did it come with a driver cd ? I know you downloaded the latest drivers from the creative site, but it did come with a cd then it might be worth uninstalling the drivers, rebooting and installing the drivers and software that came on the cd, just to be on the safe side and to check that the card is fine. It is also possible that you didn't download the right thing, the creative website isn't all that clear (compared to nvidia etc.) and has many download options for drivers, software etc, and it's possible that you may have downloaded some software but not the drivers (no offense, i'm not accusing you of being stupid, just an idea !!). Also, have you tried just plugging in a set of headphones to check the sound, rather than go straight for the 5.1 ?

edit: you also say you disabled the onboard sound, did you also remove the drivers for that as well ?
Click to expand...

I didnt uninstall the onboard audio drivers. ill try that. BUT im not keeping my hopes up.

Its an OEM version and the CD that came with it had the exact same icon as the one I downloaded. I'll uninstall all the drivers for the x-fi and Raeltek AC97.

Ill install the CD drivers and then put the card back in and see what happens. Ive tried using headphones and still I get nothing. Using that Asus Sound Sensor checking thing fails to find my 5.1 speakers when using the x-fi card. Im pretty sure its faulty

Can I ask what version of the BIOS you ahve and the nVidia chipset drivers? I might try updating these
 
try disabiling and unistall the ac97 sound in device manager so it wont show up again in windows. also check in your bios if the onboard audio is turned off.
 
Personally i get the same sound from my laptop as i do from my PC at home, and my PC at home has a ?15 Creative Audigy soundcard in it.

I just plug into the microphone port on my Laptop and voila, bass and everything on my 50 quid Creative speakers and sub.

Only reason i see to get a soundcard would be to take pressure off your CPU when playing games to increase performance and decrease loading times???
 
elrasho said:
I didnt uninstall the onboard audio drivers. ill try that. BUT im not keeping my hopes up.

Its an OEM version and the CD that came with it had the exact same icon as the one I downloaded. I'll uninstall all the drivers for the x-fi and Raeltek AC97.

Ill install the CD drivers and then put the card back in and see what happens. Ive tried using headphones and still I get nothing. Using that Asus Sound Sensor checking thing fails to find my 5.1 speakers when using the x-fi card. Im pretty sure its faulty

Can I ask what version of the BIOS you ahve and the nVidia chipset drivers? I might try updating these
Click to expand...

Let us know whether uninstalling the drivers for the onboard sound and x-fi, and then installing the drivers that come with the cd works.

:)
 
Ill try that and keep u posted. I finish it work in a few hours.

Apparently if u go to Start > All programs > Creative > and open the Creatid Mod thing, theres an option there for Headphone. If u uncheck the two boxes u shud get sound out the speakers.

Im not getting any erros at all using the card, the only problem I have is that NO SOUND is coming out from speakers/headphones

Im not sure if this works. Can someone please have a look for me as Im at work and dont have the application here

Also, beofore I install the drivers Im gonna put the card in. When windows detects it shall I follow them onscreen instructions )where u choose where the driver is located) OR shall I cancel that and double click on the driver icon?
 
I only have the SE version of the Asus A8N-SLI of so the highest BIOS is 0502. So I flashed the BIOS and updated the nforce driver to the latest ones. Then in the Creative Console I unchecked the 2 boxes under Headphones and.........

I HAVE SOUND!!

Gonna get BF2 up and running now see what all the hype was about, it better be good!
 
Awesome, good news, hope it's all working fine and BF2 is up to expectations

:)

Now to try it with the surround sound !!
 
3ssence said:
Awesome, good news, hope it's all working fine and BF2 is up to expectations

:)

Now to try it with the surround sound !!
Click to expand...

Ive got 5.1 sourround sound speakers. It sounds really good, the back speakers are actually doing some work now!!
 
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