To be perfectly
clear, when it comes to gaming soundcards - Creative
currently offers the best. That said, for the more casual
gamer the Xtreme Sound 7.1 may prove sufficient enough.
Performance differences should generally not be noticeable
with faster CPUs; although on lower-end CPUs you will notice
the frame rate dipping lower more often. For example, with
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – a game which ran perfectly
fine with the X-Fi the game would produce low frame rates
noticeably more often, particularly in scenes of mass
destruction where I’d create a pile-up.
As was being said, it
is fine enough for more casual gaming or older games which
don’t overly stress the audio system. Interestingly enough
the soundcard uses Sensaura 3D Audio technology, company
which was
acquired by Creative
some time ago.
It’s not all doom and
gloom though - Sensaura’s 3D engine is still good - near
that of the nForce essentially - even if Creative have
surpassed it in recent times. More noticeable is the lack of
EAX Advanced HD support which does provide a more immersive
experience in supported games.
As previously
mentioned, there was no noticeable performance difference
with DDL enabled or disabled – it just worked, something
gamers are bound to be pleased about.
