What would I miss in games, if I don't get X-Fi?

grafixmonkey

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Hi all,

Creative's site isn't too clear on what exactly X-Fi is / does. (big surprise, expected better from Creative... :whistle: )

The cards I'm most attracted to are from Asus and do not sport X-Fi. My big question is what would I be missing in games without the X-Fi thing? Is that tech a "big deal" like EAX 2.0 was, back in the day?

For example I once could explain precisely the difference in positional audio tech between an Audigy 1 and an Audigy 2... But Creative's site would have me believe all X-Fi does is fill in the highs to make audio sound less compressed?
 
Solution
You probably wont miss X-Fi very much.. EAX is not too significant these days.. X-Ram has more advantages compared to EAX but its available with higher priced cards.. If we leave there both parameters out of the equation and compare them to the other available alternatives then the Asus cards will get general recommendation as the creative line of cards reportedly have more trouble with their drivers with windows post vista.. If you still want to get an X-Fi chip based card then its better to look into other manufacturer offerings like Auzentech..

grafixmonkey

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Never mind, after some reading I've decided that in the unlikely scenario that X-Fi gives me something in games that I'll notice vs. Asus' emulated technology, I would really much rather do my part to make sure that Creative's IP loses some installed user base.

Just read some old news about how they threatened a community member who was actually fixing their broken drivers, without whom their products wouldn't have worked. Brought back memories of Aureal and how Creative systematically assassinates competition and stagnates the market. Remembered how disappointed I was when I looked for a replacement for my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and found that Creative had reduced the inputs on all the cards since then...

I don't care if competitors' cards lose some features (even though they probably don't) I just remembered why I don't want to support that horrible company.
 
You probably wont miss X-Fi very much.. EAX is not too significant these days.. X-Ram has more advantages compared to EAX but its available with higher priced cards.. If we leave there both parameters out of the equation and compare them to the other available alternatives then the Asus cards will get general recommendation as the creative line of cards reportedly have more trouble with their drivers with windows post vista.. If you still want to get an X-Fi chip based card then its better to look into other manufacturer offerings like Auzentech..
 
Solution

grafixmonkey

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Generally they can give a lot of improvement over many of the built-in sound solutions, but the market is in kind of a bad state right now (for which I blame Creative)

Sound clarity and noise floor will improve, number of simultaneous voices will improve. If you notice sounds disappearing when new sounds play, you need a new sound card. (I get that in games on my laptop a lot.)
 

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