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Since the original Sound Blaster Live and
the EMU10K1 audio processor, Creative’s new soundcard
releases have been characterized by incremental jumps rather
than revolutionary changes. Although the Audigy series was
indeed a welcome improvement, it was still built upon
features from previous generations; much like we are used to
see in the world of processors or GPUs.
Enter the new Sound
Blaster X-Fi series, a truly new soundcard release from
Creative in several years. Based on a completely new audio
processor that Creative Labs like to call the “Xtreme
Fidelity Engine”, the chip was in development for five years
at the Creative ATC (Advanced Technology Center) in
California.
Having owned almost
all of Creative’s soundcards since the SoundBlaster 16, I
have had the chance to experience many of those incremental
jumps in the technology used, be it on the hardware or
software side (e.g. EAX), the X-Fi offers several
significant architectural changes such as the Ring
Architecture, S-SRC, Quartet DSP, as well as 24-bit
Crystalizer, and CMMS-3D.
Putting marketing
aside for a second though, the transistor count in the new
X-Fi audio processor has been raised to an impressive 50
million (compare that to the 5 million in the Audigy 2), as
well as the speed of the chip has been doubled to 400 MHz.
As has been the norm
for previous Creative products, different bundle packages
are available in the X-Fi series; some of the basic
differences are listed below:
|
|
X-Fi Xtreme Music |
X-Fi Platinum |
X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS |
X-Fi Elite Pro |
|
Hardware Included |
X-Fi card |
X-Fi Card, 5.25-inch front panel control bay |
X-Fi card, 5.25-inch front panel control bay |
X-Fi card, external control bay |
|
Onboard RAM ("X-RAM") |
None |
None |
64MB |
64MB |
|
Software Bundle |
Base:
Doom3 EAX patch, Audio Console, Creative MediaSource & DVD-Audio
Player, DTS Neo:6, Karaoke Player, Smart Recorder, SoundFont Bank
Manager, THX Setup Console |
Base, plus Vienna SoundFont Studio, Console Launcher, Volume Panel,
WaveStudio, Creative Media Toolbox, Creative Diagnostics |
Base, plus Vienna SoundFont Studio, Console Launcher, Volume Panel,
WaveStudio, Creative Media Toolbox, Creative Diagnostics) |
Base, plus Vienna SoundFont Studio, Console Launcher, Volume Panel,
WaveStudio, Creative Media Toolbox, Creative Diagnostics, CuBase LE,
WaveLab Lite, Amplitube SE |
|
Remote Control |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Price |
$129.99 |
$199.99 |
$279.99 |
$399.99 |
Today we will be
taking a look at the X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS model, which is
endorsed by professional gamer Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel.
Quid pro quo, the X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS also features a glowing
Fatal1ty logo on the soundcard and drive bay. Without
further ado, we will go through some of the technological
advances found in the X-Fi, and then onto sound quality
impressions and how the card ranks up compared to previous
generations and other competing products.
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