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Creative's X-Fi Audio Chip Reviewed

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the nothing-sounds-as-good-as-profits dept.

theraindog writes "The Tech Report has posted an in-depth review of Creative's new X-Fi audio processor. The 51-million transistor chip employs a unique audio ring architecture that pushes an apparent 10,000 MIPS, supports up to 128 hardware-accelerated voices for 3D audio, and can upsample and upmix stereo 16-bit/44.1kHz audio to multichannel 24-bit/96kHz. Creative says that the X-Fi's upsampling and upmixing capabilities can make MP3s sound better than the original CD, and although that claim isn't validated by listening tests, the X-Fi does sound better than other consumer-level audio cards. It also performs better in games, in part because precious few sound cards feature hardware acceleration for 3D audio."

4 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. MIPS by PsychicX · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ah, good old MIPS. I always love this number. The first thing they tell you in computer architecture classes is, "This is the MIPS value. People used to use it, but it's very much a bullshit number."

  2. Missing link? by synthparadox · · Score: 5, Informative

    Missing link?
    http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q4/soundblaster- x-fi/index.x?pg=1

  3. Creative Bloat by Anti-Trend · · Score: 5, Informative
    You're right that Creative's Windows drivers are bloated, unstable and downright nasty. But the open-source emu10k1 drivers for Linux are actually quite good, and I've found that with a little tinkering, I can get my Audigy2 sounding better in Linux/ALSA than I can in Windows/DirectX. The best part? Zero bloat, and the drivers just work with no extra crazy software required. I just want to hear sound for goodness sake, not run friggin' Creative OS. I wonder if this new card will also have open-source drivers?

    -AT

    --
    Working in a DevOps shop is like playing in a band made up entirely of keytarists.
  4. Solution might be kx project by gkitty · · Score: 5, Informative

    I always had bad experiences with stable machines becoming unstable after installing Creative's drivers, and never liked that you can't seem to just install what seems like a driver but have to screw up your system with what seems more like an application suite / (buggy) driver combo. What's worse is that despite the bloat Creative's stuff never has the features that I actually want in a sound card.

    The only salvation for my SB cards has been the 'kx project' drivers:

    http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/index.php?skip=1
    (sorry I don't know to enter a URL here...)

    If you are a musician these drivers have the features you actually want; WDM, ASIO, GSIF - other than the sound floor (on my SBLive) they make the card competative with a mid level music card. No bloat and I've found the driver to be solid, though the UI is rather yucky.