I already know that Creaive sucks, but I really am curious if this card is a significant upgrade from an Audigy 2.
The [color=red]Ultra High Quality[/color] setting in BF2…it tasks me.
You can check out our preview of the X-Fi here:
“It vexes me. I’m terribly vexed.”
If my prior impression is correct, the 24-bit Crystallizer feature on these things is true 24/96 upsampling — Loyd, is that right?
If it is, I will get one of these models in my next PC, no question. I play music over my PC much more than I ever thought I would (through a good older analog receiver I picked for the purpose and a pair of Cambridge Soundworks Model 17s), and upsampling should be just perfect for MP3s. I read on some MP3 hardware blog that there’s an Asia-only player with an onboard upsampler…Jeezy peezy! Whyn’t we have that, Maw?
A phono input is a great idea, but I won’t need it, since I can just plug the RIAA-equalized output from my main receiver’s headphone jack into a normal line input. So I guess I’ll get the low-end model, unless people here think future games will really take advantage of this dedicated audio RAM. (Well? Do ya?)
After reading that I am left with a Meh feeling. I agree with what they say about a gamers card though.
I haven’t played around with it enough to determine if everything is upsampled. But I can tell you that a huge part of the chip real estate is devoted to doing sample rate conversion correctly.
Y’know, if I actually was considering the “gamer” version of the card, the Fatality logo thingy would steer me away. Stupid.
“Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?”
For me the card will be a must have for my next gaming computer because of the new CMSS-3D.
I’m not willing to set up a 5.1/7.1 speaker set around my desk and CMSS-3D gives you for the first time a suprisingly well working virtual surround - especially with headphones. Serious technical people in Germany, not known for hyperbole, call it spectecular. It’s supposed to be no comparison to the so so Dolby Heaphone technology. And from a technical/mathematical standpoint the system is a lot more sophisticated and a good demonstration of what the new 51 million transistors (think pentium 4) chip is capable of.
For music playback you get a 109dB SNR and better handling of 44,1 Khz sampling rates.
Yes, the spatial effect over headphones is pretty remakable, particularly left and right. Center channels seem only a couple of feet in front, but that’s still much better than past efforts.
Actual measured S/N was 107dB – pretty darned good for something installed in an electrically noisy PC. Also, Creative has really cleaned up IM distortion by a couple of orders of magnitude, which says a lot about how good the new sample rate conversion is.
To answer the original question, while I’d probably put an X-Fi in a new system, I doubt I would spend the money to replace an Audigy 2.
I feel the exact same way. Branding your part after a kid named Wendel who charges for his autograph does not inspire me to open up my wallet.
I feel the exact same way. Branding your part after a kid named Wendel who charges for his autograph does not inspire me to open up my wallet.[/quote]
Yeah, I had a couple of harsh statements about this whole endorsement thing in my review. I figure anything that needlessly drives up the cost is dumb.
Do you really think it drives up the cost? It’s $80 more than the Platinum, but has the 64MB of XRAM that’s also in the $399 model.
I suspect it would still cost $80 more, with or without the uber-gamer dude’s handle on the box.
Do you really think it drives up the cost? It’s $80 more than the Platinum, but has the 64MB of XRAM that’s also in the $399 model.
I suspect it would still cost $80 more, with or without the uber-gamer dude’s handle on the box.[/quote]
Riiigggghhht. $80 more for including a $5 chip. Even a 3-4x profit markup for the added cost of goods isn’t justified.
I figure the endorsement is costing them only about 5% per unit, but you have to then multiply that by 3 to make up for the cost.
Nice review Case. I might be tempted to buy the base card when I build my next system (hopefully prices will have dropped) but creative isn’t winning me over much with their bundles/prices and features. From the looks of the pictures, it only has coax digital out, not optical which is just well, stupid. I’m not going to pay over $200 for a sound card without an optical output in this day and age. How are the drivers so far for it?
Do you really think it’s 5%? I have no idea what endorsement deals are worth but yikes. Is a pro gamer really that big of a deal?
Do you really think it’s 5%? I have no idea what endorsement deals are worth but yikes. Is a pro gamer really that big of a deal?[/quote]
Does he even get a cut of the revenue? I’d imagine just giving him a lump sum for use of the name would be enough.
I met Wendel’s agent when I was in Taiwan last June. He’s a pretty sharp cookie. All the gamers get 50% of the take of all the endorsements (there’s more than just Wendel, but he’s by far the biggest. And yes, it’s a royalty arrangement, though I don’t know the actual number. I pulled 5% out of the air to use as an example.
I have to wonder, though – do even teen gamers actually respect any of these guys enough to want to buy a product because he’s endorsed it? Do these companies realize that they actually lose some sales to these pointless endoresements?
I was debating putting together an Athlon X2 system (decided to wait until around Vista-ship time), and was considering an SLI-capable motherboard. And thus the Abit Fata1lity immediately fell out of the running simply because of the idoitic tie-in.