Sound Card Recommendation

[ckthulhu]

I was wondering if someone could give me a recommendation for a sound card that is around the $100 range.

[Jakel]

I use the Fatality X-Fi titanium for gaming and I love it but I recently discovered that I couldn't connect the sound card to my GTX 275 FTW video card to pass the sound for the HDMI port. Regardless this sound card is solid if you're not planning on using the HDMI to output sound also lol.

[Barry3000]

Anyone have experience with both Creative and ASUS cards? I've heard that the X-fi cards are better for gaming, but I'm not sure how important the EAX support really is.

[ozzy983]

Anyone have experience with both Creative and ASUS cards? I've heard that the X-fi cards are better for gaming, but I'm not sure how important the EAX support really is.

Not much anymore; MS removed the ability for EAX to function natively in DX10. You can install a program from Creative to sort of fix the issue, though, from my limited testing, it sort of fixes it, but causes some of my sounds to distort and/or play behind where they should. (no settings I could change seemed to fix it).

The issue may or may not be fixed in directx 11. Though my guess would be no.

[brothergc]

I suggest a bluegears B-Enspirer http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829127002
I tryed the ASUS Xonar D1 7.1 lousey drivers the asus tryes to be a creative XFI card in that it has modes you have to set for games, music , and movies , also uses open AL which in UT2007 I found that the voices were muffled . The XFI is a nice card if you can get stable drivers but compaired to the bluegears , the creative drivers are quite a impact on any system even a high end box like my lynnfeild setup . I put in the bgears and wow what a difference . everything was faster, and the sound was clean and crisp.

[Poci]

Not much anymore; MS removed the ability for EAX to function natively in DX10. You can install a program from Creative to sort of fix the issue, though, from my limited testing, it sort of fixes it, but causes some of my sounds to distort and/or play behind where they should. (no settings I could change seemed to fix it).

The issue may or may not be fixed in directx 11. Though my guess would be no.

That is not really the case. THey removed DirectSound for legacy games.

If your game uses OpenAL, which most now do, then EAX should work fine.

In any case as far as Xfi is concerned im starting to think its a pos.

It does have great sound quality but the drivers suck, Bf2 for example would sometimes cause a total system freeze where only a cold boot would fix it. If I run with mobo sound instead of Xfi its fine. And the ironic part is that BF2 supposedly was in bed with creative, the friggen game has xfi options in the audio controls.

Im gonna see how everything works with Win 7 and if I still have the Xfi/BF2 problem Im getting rid of it and getting me an Asus or Bgears

[brothergc]

That is not really the case. THey removed DirectSound for legacy games.

If your game uses OpenAL, which most now do, then EAX should work fine.

In any case as far as Xfi is concerned im starting to think its a pos.

It does have great sound quality but the drivers suck, Bf2 for example would sometimes cause a total system freeze where only a cold boot would fix it. If I run with mobo sound instead of Xfi its fine. And the ironic part is that BF2 supposedly was in bed with creative, the friggen game has xfi options in the audio controls.

Im gonna see how everything works with Win 7 and if I still have the Xfi/BF2 problem Im getting rid of it and getting me an Asus or Bgears

I agree Poci, the xfi just is not worth it . I tryed the Asus and the Bgears and between the 2 cards the Bgears won hands down in games . games I am running are UT2004, UT3, and forged Alliance . In UT3 the Bgears sounded better then the XFI and the Asus . I have not tryed BF2 but if it uses the same engine as UT3 then the bgears card is what you want.

[xiz0r]

I like my xonar dx7.1 a lot.
But thats also the only recent sound card I've had my hands on... way better then onboard audio (if you can actually hear/feel the difference)

Mine is hooked via spdif to my home theater receiver and sounds really great for music and can encode game sound to DD5.1 which is really neat and sounds nice too (could be better with dts and higher end version of the xonar since dd5.1 has low bitrate for each channel (or lower then I'd like))

I'll add that my sound system is probly worth more then my whole rig ... so result might/will vary depending on what you are using ...

[3dfxrain]

Asus Xonar (any of dem, take your pick) or whatever else, however Asus Xonar FTW IMO