Creative X-Fi launched : next generation audio

[TrinireturnofGamez]

  Creative labs is finally releasing a brand new architecture for their sound cards ,before every 'audigy' and 'sound blaster' was based on the same 7 year old technology with minor improvments , now creative is finally releasing a brand new technology that sports many new features that will promise better audio performance (lower cpu usage esp in games )  quality and more options .  The chip will be able to resample audio to much higher quality  , provide a 3d sound  virtualization  enviroment for headphones  and  many other things .   



made in 130nm process
51.1M transistors
400Mhz clockspeed
10.340 MIPS theoretical overall processing power (equivalent to a P4 3.4Ghz)
  should be fairly cheap, cards could be sold at 50 US and creative will still make a nice profit, of course the cards will be a few hundred US at first but prices will fall and low end models will be released .
   This may mean alot for gamers  especially those with 5.1 and 7.1 audio systems  , Battlefield 2  already has support for the X-fi card if you look in the audio panel , it promises better performance and a more immersive audio experience .

 
http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-17602-1999-x-x-x

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/x-fi/technology/gamers/

[W1nTry]

I am no sound freak so quite frankly this isn't gonna bother me til later on when its a defacto standard. I still sweating meh Audigy 1394, will move up to a Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Ltd. ed. When I get meh Z5500's

[TriniXaeno]

I was a creativelabs buff in the past.

nowadays, AC97 codec doing me just fine. lol

Onboard sound killed the radio star.

only benefit is for hard core audiophiles.

not like my cpu power is being strained by the games I play anyway.

[W1nTry]

Not stressing the cpu baego? what about the beauty that is EAX 2 Positional Audio? or better yet THX for meh movies? I think offloading even a little from meh CPU goes a LONG way esp if yuh running Doom3 and up, I mean I hear talk that BF2 on high res does stutter on a 7800GTX 0_o without 2GB of RAM??? WDF?? anyways I jes saying that cause I want THX Z5500 lol...

[TriniXaeno]

rofl

I put on the high texture option in BF2 and it was stutterfest 2005. Even with the 6600 256mb

Not sure why, poor coding I'd bet. The original Battlefield was a total and utter resource hog and this one looks no different.

512mb ram? Don't even think about it. HD thrashing like mad.

but yeah, I love the idea of EAX 2 positional audio in games like Ravenshield and SWAT 4. Slower pace gives more credence to the feature.

For anything fast paced, stereo works just fine.

As for THX quality sound at home, that is hard core audiophile territory. Lucas level appreciation of sound. Just gimme my mp3s with some serious bass. Good to go. lol

Movies is another story. Anything worthy of being heard in THX, I'll go movietowne,
for everything else, there's mastercard.