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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."

10 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."

    1. Re:MIPS by isdnip · · Score: 5, Funny

      It stands for Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed.

      Fortunately the term is obsolete, and instead we have really accurate metrics like PR-ratings, NetBurst MHz and AMD's "+" numbers.

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

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

  3. Creative Left Out by OneByteOff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I feel bad for Creative, they are pretty much the one and only sound card manufacturer (yes I know there are others but they are the most popular IMO). But is there really a demand for a bigger and better sound card from the average consumer?. How often are you in the middle of playing [insert game name here] and found yourself saying "man, I need a sound card upgrade, I'm just not getting the performance i need!!". In addition, when was the last time you thought of water cooling your sound card?.

    My point is merely that sound cards provide great sound, but if your not in the Music industry, all the cards sound pretty much the same.

    1. Re:Creative Left Out by Guspaz · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You're thinking of the Aureal Vortex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A3D). A3D simulated a low-detail version of the 3D environment and calculated reverb based on the reflections inside that environment.

      A3D died off years ago, and Aureal was bought out by Creative. EAX still can't come close to A3D's capabilities.

      For an idea of the A3D generation, Quake 3 supported A3D for 3D audio, though it was later removed when A3D died off.

    2. Re:Creative Left Out by ashpool7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, you left out the part where Creative crushed Aureal by playing dirty and ate the technology to no useful end. Creative threatened to do almost the same thing to ID Software with the "carmack's reverse" fiasco. 3D sound positioning has stagnated because of Creative.

      nVidia probably backed off SoundStorm because of either implicit or obvious threats from Creative.

      In terms of Companies That Are Evil, I'd say Creative ranks right up there with Microsoft. I don't see why we should give them the time of day.

  4. Better than a CD? by Marlor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Creative says that the X-Fi's upsampling and upmixing capabilities can make MP3s sound better than the original CD.

    In other news, Creative have created a new image compression standard that makes compressed images "look better than the original uncompressed version". A Creative spokesperson has announced that this compression standard uses the same technology as X-Fi to create information out of thin air.

    Seriously, there is no way to make a recording that is compressed by a lossy algorithm such as MP3 sound as good as the original without creating information out of thin air. Of course, X-Fi can't do this, so it must be "guessing" what the original information was. This would of course mean that what you are listening to is just a moderately close approximation of the original recording that has had information added to it to sound "better" (by some Creative engineer's definition of "better").

  5. 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.
  6. Define Better - The masses don't look for accuracy by nick_davison · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That image technology has been around forever. Just watch an episode of CSI.

    I was going to make much the same observation and then something occured to me:

    Quality of sound is subjective.

    It's why every crappy CD player and walkman comes with a Bass Boost. Boosting the bass doesn't make the sound more authentic than the original but, for the average listener with no idea what clear music should sound like, more bass is appealing and a selling gimmick.

    Similarly, you upsample, apply smoothing algorithms, apply fractal algorithms, whatever, you may be able to give a perception of clarity, of spacial separation, etc. far in excess of what the original CD had. That doesn't mean it's what the artist and engineers intended, it doesn't mean it's more accurate to the original performance, but you'll still get the average 13 year old telling you that Britney's latest masterpiece sounds even better now.

    So, you can make a track sound "better" to an average sampling of listeners without it being more accurate to the environment of the original recording. It's all about their definition of better.

  7. 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.