X-Fi and the Elite Pro: SoundBlaster's Return to Greatness
by Derek Wilson on August 30, 2005 11:59 AM EST- Posted in
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Performance and Quality: Game Tests
For these tests, we will be looking at RightMark 3DSound 2.0 and Battlefield 2. With the possibility of twice the number of voices supported by Audigy, we can't do a direct comparison at some points. However, we will see how much impact going from 62 to 127 voices can have.Our test system included these components:
NVIDIA nForce 4 based motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
1GB DDR400 2:2:2:8 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX
120GB Seagate 7200.7 HD
Our RightMark tests show that the Audigy 4 Pro uses less CPU power per setting than the X-Fi. This was a little confusing at first, but we have our thoughts on why this happens. It seems to make sense to us that the X-Fi driver is more complicated than the Audigy driver. We therefore see slightly lower performance from the X-Fi card. With the X-Fi being brand new, driver improvements could also change the performance picture over time.
This performance issue should be different on the higher end X-Fi cards with games that support X-RAM. Unfortunately, we can't test this yet as no games we looked at have this ability. Storing uncompressed audio and not needing to run an MP3 or Ogg decoder in the background would help to significantly lighten the CPU load on most games. Note also how CPU usage increases nearly linearly with the number of voices used.
For Battlefield 2, we ran our usual test at medium quality settings at 1024x768. The Ultra High quality option in Battlefield 2 is only accessible with an X-Fi card (which likely means it employs more than 62 voices). As we can see, BF2 performance is consistent with our RightMark numbers. The X-Fi gives us just a little lower performance than the Audigy. It is nice to see that going from High Quality to Ultra High Quality on the X-Fi doesn't incur a significant performance penalty though.
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DerekWilson - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
That's not a game port, its a digital connector to the break out box. The breakout box has optical in and out, spdif out, RCA out, quarter inch out, and problabaly a few things I'm forgetting right now.There is no daughter card connection. The thing that looks like it is a dell case front panel connector. For whatever reason.
Saist - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
I'm trying hard not to be the wet blanket, but why in the world is everyone so gung-ho about creative products? I know I'm not the only one whose suffered from scratchy sound, static generation, swapped speaker channels, and dropped speaker channels with Creative cards. I've lost count of the number of games I've played where a sound issue has been specifically traced to a Creative driver set or Creative hardware problem. I don't want to even think about leaving the "well supported" windows world and looking towards systems that use ALSA, ARTS, or OSS sound systems. The lack of documentation makes setting up and running creative cards a pain in the rear.Quite frankly, given what I've seen of Creative's products and experienced, I'll stick with my Via Envy and wait for Via Envy2 if I'm going to upgrade. Just doesn't seem to be any sense to stick to Creative's path which invariably either winds up with less than desirable products and higher than desirable prices.
flexy - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
i take 10 ! :)
a) any REAL pro will probably NOT get a creative soundcard
b) a gamer/casual PC enthusiast will probably NOT spend $400 on a soundcard.
c) i had to stop reading the article and laughed when i read "$400"...and i laughed even more when i read that " Unfortunately, there are not a great many games out there that support X-Fi yet. On our list are Doom 3 and Battlefield 2. We tested both of these games and attained good results. We weren't able to create accurate and repeatable sound tests, but from our subjective analysis of gameplay, we couldn't really discern a quality difference between older hardware and the X-Fi."
in other words: You did NOT see (hear) any difference between a Audigy 2 and this card - besides the sad fact that there's barely a game out which supports X-FI.
What (please ?) is the point of this card/review ? Makeing us PC enhusiasts want to spend $400 on a soundcard which has no real-life use at all - or convince the *real* audio-professionals that now Creative is a contender in the "pro-market" ?
DerekWilson - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Creative is a contender and active member in the pro market with their EMU line.I wouldn't use a consumer product for professional applications. I also woulnd't use a pro card for gaming.
I don't recommend the Elite Pro at the $400 price point. But to people who want a gaming card with excellent sound quality and lots of recording features (and have money to burn), the Elite Pro fits their needs.
to be clear, games that support EAX do support the X-Fi ... just not X-RAM -- the defining performance feature. It would be more accurate to say that no game exploits all the features of X-Fi.
JNo - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Unfortunately Derek, you failed to make it VERY clear that the bottom of the range x-fi card (which most gamers would probably be happy with) is $130, which is very much more in people's spending range for an everyday soundcard. Obviously you didn't get to test it, having the elite pro instead, but because the basic model is very similar with only very slightly worse DACs (only audiophiles can tell), no extra RAM (no/v little impact today), no remote or break out box, some intelligent guesses could have been made as to its value.AnnihilatorX - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
"The SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro is the best non-pro sound solution for audio listening, features and recording"Ironic isn't it lol
PenGun - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
What's the deal with the 1 K spikes in Dynamic Range and THD? The Gina at least is smooth. The creative stuff is all over. You should be aware graphs are useful but are not a good indicator of how a card sounds.PenGun
SDA - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
"The SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro is the best non-pro sound solution for audio listening, features and recording. "That's like saying that a Prescott is the best non-low-wattage, non-AMD solution for games. Yes, whoopee, but what if you don't have stupid limitations?
To make myself clearer: a pro sound solution at the same price point or below would offer better sound quality, more features, and better recording capability.
Googer - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
I Love the irony of this statement.
Eskimooo - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
Wherever I search web before spending any larger sum there are always people complaining about the stuff they have never seen an/or have no clue about.Why do you post opinion like that and give no example? What is the point?
I mean I am reading reviews and I am trying to make a well informed decision about how to spend my money. If you draw a comparison, do it really, so that it is a valid point.
So what is the soundcard that would give me better quality of sound at recording, playback and more features at the same time at the same price?
I did not have opportunity to listen to music played back with system using X-Fi so I am looking for opinions from those who did before I eventually decide to order it online, too. Thanks to Derek this review. I have read about X-Fi enough to believe it is worth the price and that it will serve me well for a good few years like the Live card did.
Enlighten me, cus I am looking better feature set