Creative X-Fi differences

[Silent Shark]

Aside from external accessories, what are the differences between all the X-Fi versions?

Basically, what's the difference in the cards in the XtremeMusic/Platinum versions and the Fatal1ty/Elite versions?

[kempez]

Well afaik the Xtreme Music doesn't have the 64mb onboard but the Fatality/elite do

The Fatality has a front breackout box but the elite has a swish "X-Fi console"

[sawyen]

does the 64mb onboard make that much of a difference if I'm just using it for music and gaming purposes?

[Silent Shark]

Took the words right out my mouth/keyboard sawyen.

[kempez]

does the 64mb onboard make that much of a difference if I'm just using it for music and gaming purposes?

I think it does in gaming but I can't remember from the launch

[Silent Shark]

I'd guess that the ram isn't required for music (hence the XtremeMusic name), but I'll see if I can get some answers from good old google.

If you read this and know anyway, please post!

UPDATE:
Grabbed this from techspot.com:

"The X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS and X-Fi Elite Pro both feature 64MB X-RAM (SDRAM), dedicated to audio caching. This requires specific application support to function. Less audio data needs to be paged from the hard drive as it can be stored on the soundcard itself, decreasing the number of read/writes as compared with other soundcards."

So it's only an advantage in games that are written for it, and it merely speeds up the transfer of audio data (by caching it). Seems like it won't really be missed if I don't get it. I'd still like someone with experience to confirm this though...

[Smokey21]

I don't think it makes much difference at all. The Music and The Plat are the same, but with the plat you get the drive bay device for headphones, etc, and a remote, which is quite cool.

[jackvdbuk]

the extra on board ram, will give u about a 2-3 fps increase, nothing to say buy it now!tbh but the front 5 1/4 box thing, does look dandy

[Silent Shark]

I'm not paying another £80 to increase my FPS a tiny amount. I'll save that and put it towards another gig of ram, which is more necessary.

Plus I have an iMon remote, and medusa headphones, so the drive bay/remote is of no use to me .

I'm getting the XtremeMusic OEM package, to replace this LS rubbish (which I recently learned isn't actually an Audigy, but a Live! with Audigy stickers on it!).

[dangel]

Can't see it having any effect - most games have huge sound caches that dwarf 64mb (half life 2 springs to mind).

[Clunk]

maybe its just like a buffer in case another program fires up in the background while you are gaming? or could it be for fx in music making?

[Silent Shark]

The other cards have a 2MB cache, so it's still an option.

Maybe after I win the lottery. That'll solve so many problems...