Creative X-Fi Titanium PCIE $99.99+tax no MIR @ CircuitCity

[chizow]

Creative X-Fi Titanium PCIE @ Circuit City $99.99+tax

It has an instant $50 off IR, can try combining it with a CC 10% coupon or PM to BB and try using a 10-12%. Still a good price on Creative's newest card, which sells for $129.99 @ Newegg.

Key features upgraded from existing X-Fi are DDLive encoding, toslink input/output, and PCIE interface, although it does not support HDMI audio and the lossless/uncompressed/bitstream formats. The Auzentech X-Fi Home Theater 7.1 will, but it hasn't been released yet and will probably run $200+.

 

[homesluice]

Wow what luck! Have been waiting for this card to drop to a respectable price and this was it! Couldn't find any coupons for it but was able to put my $10 GC on it and get it down to roughly $98 after tax. Thanks OP!

Also beforewarned: This is for PCI-E x1 slots.

 

[Harmattan]

That's a cool looking card (not that it matters...) Would this be an improvement over a Razer Barracuda AC-1?

 

[RallyMaster]

About time they moved these things over to PCIe. I'll still stick with my XtremeMusic cards till they die though.

 

[bigfil]

Looks like an excellent deal.

If I didn't already have my Xtrememusic I'd be on it.

Ty op!

 

[Wag]

My mobo came with the plain XiFi PCI-e.

FYI: EAX is useless under Vista (yeah, you could use Creative's Alchemy emulation, but it's only EAX4 not 5 like they say but it's really a waste of time), and that's OK because Vista has better sound management features with Directsound anyways. EAX is not really needed anymore.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: homesluice
Wow what luck! Have been waiting for this card to drop to a respectable price and this was it! Couldn't find any coupons for it but was able to put my $10 GC on it and get it down to roughly $98 after tax. Thanks OP!

Also beforewarned: This is for PCI-E x1 slots.

Glad it helped, I got in on the Antec 1200/TPQ-1000 combo you linked.

Originally posted by: Wag
My mobo came with the plain XiFi PCI-e.

FYI: EAX is useless under Vista (yeah, you could use Creative's Alchemy emulation, but it's only EAX4 not 5 like they say but it's really a waste of time), and that's OK because Vista has better sound management features with Directsound anyways. EAX is not really needed anymore.

This is 100% false. If anything, EAX/ALchemy are more important in Vista as its the only way you are going to get 3D positional effects in older DirectSound games. Most newer games have proprietary sound engines or support EAX with OpenAL, however, many titles as recent as 2007 still require ALchemy for full EAX support (full EAX HD 5 with 128 voices).

 

[Wag]

Originally posted by: chizow
This is 100% false. If anything, EAX/ALchemy are more important in Vista as its the only way you are going to get 3D positional effects in older DirectSound games. Most newer games have proprietary sound engines or support EAX with OpenAL, however, many titles as recent as 2007 still require ALchemy for full EAX support (full EAX HD 5 with 128 voices).

OpenAL is definitely not the same as EAX, and is just replacing, in part, what EAX does. For more info on how Vista and EAX work, check out THIS page.

UT3 supports OpenAL and it sounds great.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Wag

Originally posted by: chizow
This is 100% false. If anything, EAX/ALchemy are more important in Vista as its the only way you are going to get 3D positional effects in older DirectSound games. Most newer games have proprietary sound engines or support EAX with OpenAL, however, many titles as recent as 2007 still require ALchemy for full EAX support (full EAX HD 5 with 128 voices).

OpenAL is definitely not the same as EAX, and is just replacing, in part, what EAX does. For more info on how Vista and EAX work, check out THIS page.

UT3 supports OpenAL and it sounds great.

I'm well aware of what's on that page, I read it back when ALchemy was still Beta and Vista was still working out its sound problems. Everything on that page just further shows your comment about "EAX being useless in Vista" as 100% false.

OpenAL is just the API substitute for DirectSound 3D, through which EAX extensions are piped through the X-Fi's hardware and translated into positional sound.

Here are the facts:

1) In OpenAL games, you will get all the EAX effects in Vista that you got with DirectSound 3D in XP that you might not get with software/non-EAX solutions. Mass Effect is a recent example of this, as the sound options are A) EAX with an X-Fi or B) Stereo with anything else.

2) In older DirectSound 3D games, you will need ALchemy to intercept DirectSound3D calls and translate them on-the-fly into OpenAL for EAX support. Recent examples of this include The Witcher, NWN2+MotB, FEAR, Titans Quest etc.

3) Newer titles with proprietary/software positional sound engines will work fine with Creative cards and other audio solutions for 3D effects. COD4, Crysis, CoH are a few examples.

In examples 1 and 2 the differences are not subtle when EAX works. Its all or nothing in many cases and something that cannot be mistaken.

 

[videopho]

How is Creative Lab's Vista64 sound card driver as of late?

 

[shingletingle]

Originally posted by: Wag

Originally posted by: chizow
This is 100% false. If anything, EAX/ALchemy are more important in Vista as its the only way you are going to get 3D positional effects in older DirectSound games. Most newer games have proprietary sound engines or support EAX with OpenAL, however, many titles as recent as 2007 still require ALchemy for full EAX support (full EAX HD 5 with 128 voices).

OpenAL is definitely not the same as EAX, and is just replacing, in part, what EAX does. For more info on how Vista and EAX work, check out THIS page.

UT3 supports OpenAL and it sounds great.

Stop spreading false information.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: videopho
How is Creative Lab's Vista64 sound card driver as of late?

They've been mostly problem-free for me since the November 2007 fixed the Vista 64/4GB+ issue. Since then they've released a few that improved slightly. The latest are definitely the best though, and also have a much improved Audio Console that reintroduces Dolby/DTS decoding.

Audio Driver

Audio Console

 

[flmjiggy]

use live search and do what they and myself did here
http://hardforum.com/showpost....032938972&postcount=13

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: flmjiggy
use live search and do what they and myself did here
http://hardforum.com/showpost....032938972&postcount=13

Where to get the $15 off coupon?

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: videopho
How is Creative Lab's Vista64 sound card driver as of late?

They've been mostly problem-free for me since the November 2007 fixed the Vista 64/4GB+ issue. Since then they've released a few that improved slightly. The latest are definitely the best though, and also have a much improved Audio Console that reintroduces Dolby/DTS decoding.

Audio Driver

Audio Console

New driver, that's great!
Will give it a try.

 

[imported_dryloch]

I scored one of these yesterday and put it in my Vista 32Bit box and it is by far the best sound card I have ever had. Did I mention I hate Creative as much as anyone but I have to give credit here. I hooked it to my Z5500 speakers using an Optical cable with the DTS upconversion and it sounds much better then my Audigy 2 or Turtle Beach DDL cards. For 99.99 this is worth it to anyone sitting on the fence. Go get the newer driver on the website and throw the disk in the trash. The drivers on the CD are from April.

 

[Imported]

Does it do 5.1 with an optical cable?

I have the X-Fi Music and it won't.. even with that I/O attachment.

 

[Odeen]

Originally posted by: Imported
Does it do 5.1 with an optical cable?

I have the X-Fi Music and it won't.. even with that I/O attachment.

Yes, that's the "DD Live" functionality. You get 5.1 channel Dolby Digital stream over optical.

Please note that DD is a lossy codec. Optical cable does not have the bandwidth to carry six or eight regular PCM (i.e. uncompressed digital) channels - in order to do that you have to have LPCM output from an HDMI port.

 

[Odeen]

Originally posted by: dryloch
I scored one of these yesterday and put it in my Vista 32Bit box and it is by far the best sound card I have ever had. Did I mention I hate Creative as much as anyone but I have to give credit here. I hooked it to my Z5500 speakers using an Optical cable with the DTS upconversion and it sounds much better then my Audigy 2 or Turtle Beach DDL cards. For 99.99 this is worth it to anyone sitting on the fence. Go get the newer driver on the website and throw the disk in the trash. The drivers on the CD are from April.

It's not upconversion, it's actually lossy encoding. The bitrate of the highest bandwidth DTS or Dolby Digital signal is 1.5 megabit/second, the same as bandwidth of uncompressed stereo (at 16bit / 44.1 KHz). Both DTS and Dolby Digital use perceptual encoding (similar to MP3) to fit six or eight channels in the space of two.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Odeen

Originally posted by: Imported
Does it do 5.1 with an optical cable?

I have the X-Fi Music and it won't.. even with that I/O attachment.

Yes, that's the "DD Live" functionality. You get 5.1 channel Dolby Digital stream over optical.

Please note that DD is a lossy codec. Optical cable does not have the bandwidth to carry six or eight regular PCM (i.e. uncompressed digital) channels - in order to do that you have to have LPCM output from an HDMI port.

Yep, that's all correct. I certainly prefer analog personally, but some out there may prefer DDLive digital output if they have a really high-end receiver and prefer the receiver's DSP/DAC to the X-Fi's.

Also Imported, Creative promised DDLive encoding beta drivers for older X-Fi some months ago for July, but we didn't get them. I wouldn't hold your breath if you're considering the Titanium for this feature, as it may never come or take months.

 

[Compddd]

So if I have a Logitech 5450 5.1 speaker system and a X-fi Fatality using it with analog cables, I would see no benefit or lose quality getting a Titanium and using a optical cable?

 

[Odeen]

Originally posted by: Compddd
So if I have a Logitech 5450 5.1 speaker system and a X-fi Fatality using it with analog cables, I would see no benefit or lose quality getting a Titanium and using a optical cable?

You would likely lose quality.

If you currently get a lot of "hum" or "hiss" from the speakers, that may stem from a lousy analog soundcard-speaker connection. In that case, replacing that with digital will get rid of the interference.

 

[Compddd]

I can hear hissing from the speakers if I put my ear right next to it. Does that qualify or does it sound like my setup is fine?