Printable View
I am hearing some disturbing stuff about Creative and their drivers being unusable, they were always bad but this is pathetic. I hear that Asus are going to make sound cards now, could be promising.
So do you guys think that it is viable to buy a Xi-Fi or should I go for one of the newer sound card makers?
I have a fondness for Azuntech cards - primarily aimed at HTPC users, but aren't bundling the rubbish software creative seems intent on forcing upon us.
Pretty comparable pricing too, the top one is a lot cheaper, but the mid range cards are about the same.
AVOID XFI. i have one and like u said the drivers are terrible. Even the card itself is poo, it seemed ok at first but it crackles from time to time now. Maybe consider the consumer based M-Audio cards:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=332498
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=332497
Although i think M-Audio are a bit behind with drivers and havent managed to get a working vista driver out yet
Thanks for the advice guys.
I'm looking for something really cheap like 20 pounds or so and the Creative Audigy SE seems to be the best card for only 15 pounds, most the others don't compare with EAX and sound quality but feel free to prove me wrong :)
The X-fi drivers on my system are more stable than the nv4disp.dll which keeps falling over all the time :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Biscuit
BTW - if you get the crackle - mute the line in and mic when not in use and voila - problem solved.
I haven't heard a single crackle with any creative cards since my Audigy 2ZS.
And my drivers have been completely stable.......and that's in Vista and since the beta release =/
I think a lot of blame gets thrown around based on people mis-diagnosing a problem.
Yup I've been very disappointed by Creative drivers recently. I don't think it's their fault - back when games were coded specifically for SB cards they were the best things around. But now when you have multiplatform engines and sounds going through generic systems the creative stuff is less good - you get just as good, if not better, sound with onboard HD chips. Sad though that is to admit.
What's more, you'll have to pay money to get drivers for hardware acceleration in Vista on Audigy cards :rant:
Ok so Creative isn't that bad, their cheaper cards to me seem worth it but I will most definitely go for the razor when I step it up from Audigy :)
That is partly Microsoft's fault though....Quote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
Although, I did read they were going to charge audigy owners a 'small fee' for the fix.
Honestly, the latest integrated Realtek HD-Audio sound is fantastic, and for most applications, it will be ample. :)
Na that doesnt work. On vista i cant get the microphone to work alltogether (i dont know if im being retarded) and its not regular crackling its only with certain frequencies. This suggests its not anything to do with my set-up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee @ SCAN
Other people have had this problem and its been said the second generation card uses cheap transistors and a slightly tweaked old audigy chip... dont know the truth behind this but...
After all this trouble with drivers and what not I've heard that Creative are looking to only manufacture the chips for other companies so that they don't have to battle with the drivers like they have.
Hopefully Asus can pick up a deal with them then I think we will be in for some really decent sound cards in the near future.
Well they provide the same utility for X-Fi without charge, they're just charging audigy owners.Quote:
Originally Posted by dave87
But yeah, non of the problems are Creative's fault, which was what I was trying to say in my post ;)
I really really don't see how they can justify that position. They still make & sell both cards, they should support both cards. Good companies call that customer care.Quote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
Pointing fingers at Microsoft doesn't cut slack with me either. All sound card manufacturers are in the same boat, deal with it Creative!