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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Reflex - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Derek, please read the following http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/audio/uaa.msp...">article on Universal Audio Architecture. Between that and Intel's HD Audio spec, all the supposed benefits of the X-Fi driver architecture are achieved already, and in a standard fashion that other sound card manufacturers can follow. There is nothing unique about what Creative is offering, only the marketing surrounding it, and in fact its been on the market since Intel's HD Audio first came out.Multiple source/multiple channel audio is definatly a major application in the future, but Creative is not the company leading the charge on this, only following suit.
Once again I feel that your article in its present state serves as an advertisement rather than an objective analysis. I am certain that was not the intention, however due to the lack of research it came out that way anyways.
HardwareD00d - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
Thanks for your post. I was thinking I'd upgrade from my Audigy2 to an X-Fi, but now I think I'll pass.PenGun - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
Could not have put it better, thanks.PenGun
monsoon - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
guys, i'm looking for an HTPC config with dual-core AMD where i can use the opticl drive without turning on the PC......i know, seems a bit out of context; but if this card or any lesser ( ? ) can be used in such context, what product would you recommend ?
i like the HP DEC form factor, but i'll take anything proven worthy WITH AMD DUAL CORE and and an optical drive independent from PC.
thanks for feedback,
cordially,
a.
Calin - Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - link
The ASUS boards have the capability to play audio CDs from BIOS (I remember something like that, I don't have the ASUS board/manual to check). Maybe if you start the CD it will play while your computer is stopped?whymeintrouble - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
I believe HP has a media center pc that can run a dvd drive, but not need to be in windows to use it. I don't know if it has the option of the Dual Core X2s though.I want to see a few more reviews go up before I make my judgements on these cards.
RussG - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
This still won't make myself, and a lot of people, upgrade from onboard sound. What I would like to see is more comparisons of how this is going to affect my FPS in more then 1 game, and how it stacks up to common on board solutions. They bring out all of this marketing because realities are not many people care about sound greater then onboard, and with no game support or evidence of existing game improvement there is little reason to pick this up.NeonFlak - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
I bought the $130 X-Fi last night at bestbuy. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere but compared to all my other sound cards, including onboard sound, when listening to MP3s or any other sound format it is very muffled unless the crystalizer is turned on. But, just as the review says the crystalizer doesn't really work well with everything.Games sound fine though. I haven't tested any movies since I don't watch movies on my pc.
DerekWilson - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
Are you sure you don't have CMSS-3D turned on? I find that sound can get very muffled and muddied when playing music using CMSS-3D ... That could be your problem.Our experience is that the sound quality with no filtering is better on the X-Fi than most other solutions. Of course, we do still need to look at the XtremeMusic card.
knitecrow - Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - link
Ok, SoundBlaster is the only game when it comes to games... but what about listening to music or watching DVDs?Does it sound any better than my $30 chaintech VIA ENVY24 card or M-audio Revolution? I would like to see some blind listening tests.
You have many many software based solutions that claim to make mp3s and other lossy formats sound better, for example SRS WOW effects that come bundled with Windows Media Player or Qsound. Is the creative crystallizer any better when compared to such software solutions?