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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."

3 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. Great but... by misleb · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Does it run Linux?

    --
    "THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
  2. but does it use tubes... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    If it doesn't have tubes, it'll sound like crap.

  3. It's FUNNY, not insightful. by SFalcon · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Bad moderator, bad.