Asus Vs Creative

[handscombmp]

I know that there is already a thread about a sound card but from what I read he seems to be talking about one for music whilst this is gaming.

I've currently got a friend who wants to get a sound card (£70 Max) as like me he needs dolby Digital Live. I said that he should go for the Asus Xonar DX i have but he didn't seem so sure.
What this basicly boils down to is what is the better card
The Asus Xonar DX
or the
Creative X-Fi Titanium
He's running Vista 32bit but i don't know if that makes a difference now as i'm not sure if Creative have got their act together. He's mainly going to use it for gaming (with it connected Digitaly up to Home Cinema Receiver) so thats why he likes the Creative due to EAX 5.
Be interesting to see what you guys (and Gals) say.

Thanks
Handscombmp

[shaithis]

If he is running Vista, then I would say the Asus is the better card.

There are pros and cons for both though. EAX support on the Asus cards is in its infancy, so a lot of games will lack the environmental effects that can add a little extra atmosphere to games but creatives Vista drivers are shoddy. It wasn't until I tried the Xonar that I suddenly realised how many features of the creative drivers were broken (I thought some of the features were broken because of Vista, the Xonar proves that isn't the case).

Like for like, the Xonar sounds better, the creative can obviously sound better under EAX effects though (not taking into account general sound quality).

There is a compromise though (although I personally wouldn't do it as it puts money in creatives pocket ultimately)....the Auzentech X-FI Prelude 7.1, supposedly it's drivers are better then creatives (not a great feat ) and it has perfect EAX (not surprising as it uses creatives own chip).

Unfortunately, I have no personal experience of it to directly compare it or it's drivers.

[Powderhound]

I've got the same problem; it's worth looking for the list of Xonar EAX emulation incompatible games before making a decision; I personally have decided to go with the Creative, simply because there seem to be a lot of problems with clicking and popping when in DS3D GX mode.

[DDY]

Creative's X-Fi Titanium drivers for Vista are remarkably (even surprisingly) good, I haven't had a problem with them so far, everything works as it should.

Bar the games, the Xonar also does everything flawlessly, a few games here and there have problems with the EAX emulation.

The thing I like about the X-Fi Titanium over the Xonar DX is the S/PDIF in and out ports where the Xonar DX has out only, if that's an important feature for your friends setup then go for that.

[handscombmp]

I've got the same problem; it's worth looking for the list of Xonar EAX emulation incompatible games before making a decision; I personally have decided to go with the Creative, simply because there seem to be a lot of problems with clicking and popping when in DS3D GX mode.

Have you got it yet. You couldn't tell me what its like when you get it.

If the EAX emulation isn't perfect he may prefer the X-FI

[Agent]

I would quite happily lose EAX to avoid Creatives business practices. Even if their drivers are working ok now, we have already seen Creative remove features that people have paid for in later driver updates in an effort to force them to upgrade.

Even with Windows 7 being based off Vista - I will not run the risk of Creatives shoddy business practices and be wondering if a card I buy will work ok with it.

[staffsMike]

I would quite happily lose EAX to avoid Creatives business practices. Even if their drivers are working ok now, we have already seen Creative remove features that people have paid for in later driver updates in an effort to force them to upgrade.

Even with Windows 7 being based off Vista - I will not run the risk of Creatives shoddy business practices and be wondering if a card I buy will work ok with it.

They also periodically remove any useful software/ drivers/ firmware to make your Zen's which are more than a couple of years old really hard to use.

I tried to get some music I have left on an old Jukebox Zen the other day, it was actually easier than the last time I tried 2 years ago), but it was still such a nightmare I wrecked my old CD collection to find the original driver disk.

They used to do this wonderful little program called nomad explorer.. it was so easy.. but they removed it as they thought mediasource was a good idea.. which has since been removed as a download. Real player has a go at connecting but won't let you copy anything off.. My Zen Vision: M is the last one I will buy... and I didn't buy it.

I'll get an archos next time..

No idea about the soundcards by the way. Both companies service is rubbish but I think I would rather have the Asus.

[Powderhound]

Have you got it yet. You couldn't tell me what its like when you get it.

If the EAX emulation isn't perfect he may prefer the X-FI

I haven't ordered it yet; need to persuade the parents to let me spend £65 on a sound card and £90 on a set of Z-2300s.

[EndlessWaves]

As the owner of both an eee PC, Asus X1650 and a Audigy 2 ZS I can safely say that BOTH companies have terrible software departments.

I'm in a very similar situation though, trying to decide whether I'd rather have CRMSS headphone on the X-fi or Dolby Headphone on the Xonar

At the moment I'm leaning towards creative, better the devil you know

[handscombmp]

I haven't ordered it yet; need to persuade the parents to let me spend £65 on a sound card and £90 on a set of Z-2300s.

I remember that. Trying to explain to my parents why i wanted that even though it cost £100.
You may be interested in this (sorry if i got your age wrong ) but its a debit card which means you can just order things if you have the money without using your parents card

Back to the point now. Like EndlessWaves said i've heard the software departments are terrible and sometimes Asus drivers aren't any better.
Looking at the games that have problems quite a few of them are games my friend plays so that may put the creative in the upper place. As DDY says he's had no problems.

[Powderhound]

I'd be paying for it; they just try and limit my computer expenditure.

[Thorsson]

OTOH I just try to limit *my* expenditure on my darling offspring's computers...

[Powderhound]

It's not even as I'm short of cash; my holiday job made me in three weeks what many of my friends make working saturdays all year...

[gnoofz]

Am looking to upgrade my machine, was wondering if I would notice a difference between on-board audio vs the asus and creative soundcards you are looking at for music and some gaming?

I'm currently using Logitech's x230 2.1. Cheers

[Enda]

It depends what onboard audio you have, what speakers you have, whether you play games or only listen to music and several other factors. For a careful listener the sound card is still a better option compared to onboard audio - unless you take the digital path and stream the signal optically to a high quality receiver.

As for the initial creative versus asus question - I would choose Creative anyday, despite service issues they have had which look almost innocent compared to ASUS outright 2008 lies regarding e.g.:
-EPU on their motherboars
-batteries with Eee PC
-false claims regarding full EAX support with Xonar cards

Also keep in mind Xonars are not real PCI-express cards. They use a bridge and this is why they require extra power connector and are capped at PCI speed. So they fit in the PCI-e slot same as your girlfriend might fit in her favourite pants bought in summer 1998 but it does not make her as hot as she was back then.

[dangel]

I look forward to MS making EAX irrelevant via DirectX. It mostly is, with Vista anyway - but it'd be nice for the re-introduction of hardware acccelerated sound to exclude creative's ****ty API.