Creative Sound Cards

I've just upgraded my system with new 7800GS GFX card (yes that is AGP :woowoo: ) and my graphics are superb. I'm still having the same old problems with sound e.g. stuttering and crackling in BF2, FarCry and the likes (I've tried updating drivers and everything and its not the speakers).

I still have a SB Live 5.1 that came with the PC ages ago (Dell 8300 :woowoo: ). Anyway, i was wondering if it is worth upgrading to either an Audigy 4 or X-Fi and which is best value.

Any advice on what to get would be helpful, especially if you own any of these. I don't know much about sound... or anything for that matter, so thanks.

What speakers / headphones are you using with your PC?

:Oops: Double post... :Oops:

Creative 5.1s

If you play Battlefield 2 online a lot then I recommend an X-Fi, it sounds amazing. Even if you don't you will appreciate the improvements whenever sound comes out of your PC. I went from Realtek AC97 5.1 to it and the new card blew onboard audio out of the water.

I'm using it in conjunction with a set of Creative 5.1 analogue speakers (can't remember the model number, they were about £45 when I got them) and they've been pushed to the edge, so much so that my headphones now sound a bit better than them...

I got the X-Fi Xtreme Music package for £80 back in January but the price has gone down a bit since then so I find them to be very good value for the level of sound quality. Thing is you only get the card and a driver CD in the package so if you're using digital speakers you'll need to buy an adapter from Creative to use more than the analogue connectors - or get a higher priced version of the card for the I/O drive.

Well, Creative speakers take good advantage of Creative sound cards. They'll be connected via analogue out, which is fine.

IMO, the upgrade is worth it. The Live! is pretty unimpressive IMO, not much of an upgrade over modern onboard sound. The X-Fi on the other hand is a very versatile card. Yes there are better for music playback (and even then, the Elite Pro can hold it's own), but as a all-in-one card, the X-Fi series is definitely worth it. Oh yea, the non "Pro" verison of the Audigy 4 is basically a glorified rebadged Audigy 2. I'd go the extra mile and get the X-Fi.

Really anything above the Live! will be a huge improvement. I've had problems with them failing and generally giving me trouble. Any Audigy will be better it (I'm quite happy with my orignal Audigy). I guess it all depneds on cost and the importance of audio to you. I don't have any high quality speakers or headphones though. If you're an audiophile the X-Fi sounds like a great choice. Otherwise I'd save the dough and get a cheep Audigy.

You also want to make sure there is a good ground. Any uneven grounding or a bad connection on a ground plug will cause simptoms like you describe. But I guess thats beside the point since the Live! is such a sucky card anyways (or I just them).

X-Fi All the way, it really is the dogs!

I had alot of crackling etc from my Creative 5.1 s a year ago and it turned out the subwoofer was knackered , might be worth investigating ? Creative have some good support forums worth having a gooseys at ?

I too get a lot of crackling but it turned out to be my wireless connection
turned it off and it disappeared.
ruuning 2 pc's with
audigy 2 and 5.1 live get it on both