# Recommend me a Sound Card (Windows 10)



## Slizzo (Jul 31, 2015)

With the release of Windows 10 I have finally come to the realization that my old Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI is inadequate, due to not having official drivers available.

Been out of the game in this regard for a long time, obviously. What do you guys recommend for a sound card? Budget will be, I suppose, $130 or less.


Thanks


----------



## rooivalk (Jul 31, 2015)

I use Xonar DG and it's running in Win10 using Uni Xonar driver (unofficial driver, but most people use it rather than official driver anyway). 
Uni Xonar itself would release Win10 driver in the next few months.

http://maxedtech.com/asus-xonar-unified-drivers/


----------



## AlienIsGOD (Jul 31, 2015)

rooivalk said:


> I use Xonar DG and it's running in Win10 using Uni Xonar driver (unofficial driver, but most people use it rather than official driver anyway).
> Uni Xonar itself would release Win10 driver in the next few months.



I have the DSX with Uni drivers and the work perfect in 10 already, but i agree they will come out with 10 drivers rather quickly i assume


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Jul 31, 2015)

try this driver for your XFi http://www.hardwareheaven.com/downl...LL OS Stable Drivers Default Tweak Edition.7z


----------



## kiddagoat (Jul 31, 2015)

Your card appears to be getting a Windows 10 Driver....

Look here:
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=126331

I have a Sound Blaster Zx and it is getting support sometime in August, your card is getting it in October.

It just depends on how well Creative is going to support their hardware... I have found certain series of their cards are hit or miss for them...  loving my Z series, they supported Audigys well... with the X-Fi I found they dropped the ball, the support was very model specific......  

ASUS cards are good when they work..... if you ever need to get support from ASUS on it... good luck..... *cries a bit* I miss my Xense *sniffle* *sniffle*


----------



## Jetster (Jul 31, 2015)

I have the ASUS Xonar DGX and it works great even with the stock drivers


----------



## Slizzo (Jul 31, 2015)

kiddagoat said:


> Your card appears to be getting a Windows 10 Driver....
> 
> Look here:
> http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=126331
> ...



I did look at that while I was looking around for Win10 support, but honestly, the sound card is probably getting close to 10 years old. It's been through a few builds already, and I need to let go of the PCI interface. 

Also, can't wait until October for a maybe working driver. I remember it too a bit for them to bake in Win 8 support, and even then it wasn't excellent.



I was looking at the ASUS cards, I have a Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultra set that I'll be plugging into the card, what do you all think of the DSX?  And thanks Freedom, I'll try that driver.



To be honest, the sound card works, it's just I have no control over it now, and it's hit or miss. Sometimes I have sound when I boot, sometimes I don't.


----------



## btarunr (Jul 31, 2015)

Realtek is the only audio chip-maker with stable Windows 10 drivers right now. Creative W10 drivers come out only in August. ASUS as usual is screwing people over with drivers.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Jul 31, 2015)

FreedomEclipse said:


> try this driver for your XFi http://www.hardwareheaven.com/downloads/PAX//PAX MASTER PCI XFI Driver Suite 2015V 1.15 ALL OS Stable Drivers Default Tweak Edition.7z



I can't recommend PAX drivers... due to their mindless tweaks. Seconds they do not work actualy, the installer isn't patched for Win10.

Use the ones provided by oldest Creative driver modder Daniel K. He's disassembled every creative dll and knows the stuff for real.

Enable Test Mode. And install there on, albeit you may have no sound using an SSD after first reboot. Just disable and enable the device, put the PC to sleep and wake up, the right registry entries will be created... a derp from Creative as always...

http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=720562

EDIT.

He uses the gamer edition, that's something alien... Indeed... no support I guess.


----------



## RejZoR (Jul 31, 2015)

Windows 8.1 drivers seem to work perfectly fine under Windows 10 for Sound Blaster Z (vanilla model).


----------



## Ferrum Master (Jul 31, 2015)

RejZoR said:


> Windows 8.1 drivers seem to work perfectly fine under Windows 10 for Sound Blaster Z (vanilla model).



Z, Zx and ZxR has Windows 10 WHQL drivers already.


----------



## natr0n (Jul 31, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> I can't recommend PAX drivers... due to their mindless tweaks. Seconds they do not work actualy, the installer isn't patched for Win10.
> 
> Use the ones provided by oldest Creative driver modder Daniel K. He's disassembled every creative dll and knows the stuff for real.
> 
> ...



Thanks, I was unaware you had to go to sleep and wake, now my system has sound on reboot =D


----------



## RejZoR (Jul 31, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Z, Zx and ZxR has Windows 10 WHQL drivers already.



No they don't... Go to Creative webpage and there are drivers from 2014... The Win10 drivers are scheduled for August (at least for SB Z series). Though to my suprise, the old ones work fine. I think they'll just make the same shit they did for Windows 8.x. They simply renamed the driver and updated the date...


----------



## Frick (Jul 31, 2015)

Slizzo said:


> It's been through a few builds already, and I need to let go of the PCI interface.



That is probably the only reason to replace it as it's still a good sound card.


----------



## rtwjunkie (Jul 31, 2015)

Slizzo said:


> I did look at that while I was looking around for Win10 support, but honestly, the sound card is probably getting close to 10 years old. It's been through a few builds already, and I need to let go of the PCI interface.
> 
> Also, can't wait until October for a maybe working driver. I remember it too a bit for them to bake in Win 8 support, and even then it wasn't excellent.
> 
> ...


 
Or in the alternative you could wait for that driver support before upgrading, since W10 isn't that crucial to have right now?  Just because the Extreme Gamer is PCI doesn't mean anything if you still have a PCI slot.  I used mine up until ten months ago, when I finally jumped on the Z.


----------



## Slizzo (Jul 31, 2015)

Or, you could read my posts and see I'm on Windows 10 right now. Honestly I have no desire to support Creative anymore. They've had me as a customer for quite long enough. 

I have a PCI slot now, but I do not plan on having a PCI slot forever.


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Jul 31, 2015)

Slizzo said:


> Or, you could read my posts and see I'm on Windows 10 right now. Honestly I have no desire to support Creative anymore. They've had me as a customer for quite long enough.
> 
> I have a PCI slot now, but I do not plan on having a PCI slot forever.



well.... each to their own but ive had a lot of issues with Asus soundcards, thats why i eventually went full circle and came back to Creative a year ago and i havent had half as many problems. Im only on windows 7 mind you but the same issues might be able to be replicated on other operating systems as none of the Windows operating systems have had DirectSound/Hardware Acceleration since Vista.

I still get a little clipping in older games but its not too bad compared to Asus cards which would cause all sorts of random glitches, anomalies and CTDs.


Unless Asus really step up their driver support then I will stay with creative.


----------



## Slizzo (Jul 31, 2015)

Laughable. Creative has sucked for many years now on the driver side, getting something that would work with 7 and 8 took a long time, and it was touch and go for a very long time when those OSes released.  I have a sour taste in my mouth from them, so I won't be going Creative again any time soon. They've largely abandoned their PC sound market.

Everything I have read so far points to the UNi drivers for ASUS as being very good, which is acceptable.



In the end I suppose arguments can be made either way about driver support from Creative and ASUS.


----------



## AsRock (Jul 31, 2015)

btarunr said:


> Realtek is the only audio chip-maker with stable Windows 10 drivers right now. Creative W10 drivers come out only in August. ASUS as usual is screwing people over with drivers.



Well that aint true, your forgetting sound though HDMI.


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Jul 31, 2015)

Slizzo said:


> Laughable. Creative has sucked for many years now on the driver side, getting something that would work with 7 and 8 took a long time, and it was touch and go for a very long time when those OSes released.  I have a sour taste in my mouth from them, so I won't be going Creative again any time soon. They've largely abandoned their PC sound market.
> 
> Everything I have read so far points to the UNi drivers for ASUS as being very good, which is acceptable.
> 
> ...



well......







Whatever floats your boat, It fixed my problems, Some of the anomalies/glitches and other issues actually broke a few of my games. rendered them totally unplayable. Im not the only one here who had problems with Asus Soundcards either, @RejZoR had problems too.


The days when creative were synonymous with the phrase 'bad drivers'  are long gone and the water has been safe to have a dip in for a long time now. Not had any problems with creative when it comes to Win 7, Havent used windows 8 yet so cant comment.

The problems i experienced were using UNi drivers.


----------



## rtwjunkie (Jul 31, 2015)

Slizzo said:


> Or, you could read my posts and see I'm on Windows 10 right now. Honestly I have no desire to support Creative anymore. They've had me as a customer for quite long enough.
> 
> I have a PCI slot now, but I do not plan on having a PCI slot forever.


 
Your initial post nor the subsequent post (nor your system specs) do not state you are on W10 now.  But that's ok, keep shitting on people just because YOU didn't make yourself clear.  It's always easier to blame others for your own inadequacies.


----------



## droopyRO (Jul 31, 2015)

What about a DAC ? i had an XFI XtremeGamer with plenty of problems in Win 8.1 i got a http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LP3AMC2/?tag=tec06d-20 completly plug and play, no drivers needed(i have not tested it on Windows 10 yet, but i dont think it will be a problem).


----------



## hat (Jul 31, 2015)

I'm using onboard until my x-fi gets support.


----------



## kn00tcn (Aug 1, 2015)

high impedance headphones aside, is it still worth it to have a sound card? i want to reduce cpu usage (more game fps) and/or latency (potentially improves music production)

i have read that usb dacs INCREASE cpu usage, a bad idea for anything realtime, but great for isolating noise to listen to music or movies

sound cards... people say late 90s had better positional sound than vista onward, i dont have surround but i was really hoping truaudio took off to have headphone based algorithms

EDIT: maybe i can disable all sound drivers to see if there is any change in cpu load or fps?

EDIT2: i think this was my 1,000th post


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Aug 1, 2015)

kn00tcn said:


> high impedance headphones aside, is it still worth it to have a sound card? i want to reduce cpu usage (more game fps) and/or latency (potentially improves music production)
> 
> i have read that usb dacs INCREASE cpu usage, a bad idea for anything realtime, but great for isolating noise to listen to music or movies
> 
> ...




I dont think CPU usage matters much these days, Not when most people are rolling with quads whats an extra 0.5-0.10% CPU usage to 4 very fast cores?


----------



## Slizzo (Aug 1, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> Your initial post nor the subsequent post (nor your system specs) do not state you are on W10 now. But that's ok, keep shitting on people just because YOU didn't make yourself clear. It's always easier to blame others for your own inadequacies.





Slizzo said:


> *With the release of Windows 10 I have finally come to the realization that my old Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI is inadequate, due to not having official drivers available.*
> 
> Been out of the game in this regard for a long time, obviously. What do you guys recommend for a sound card? Budget will be, I suppose, $130 or less.
> 
> ...



I'm sorry that my first sentence wasn't clear enough for you to glean that I was probably running Windows 10 and that is why I posted my question.  I'll try to write every single word that is in my brain about the subject at hand, at the risk of being overly verbose in the future...


Thanks for the help fellas. I believe I'll probably be ordering a Xonar DX.


----------



## INSTG8R (Aug 1, 2015)

Slizzo said:


> With the release of Windows 10 I have finally come to the realization that my old Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI is inadequate, due to not having official drivers available.
> 
> Been out of the game in this regard for a long time, obviously. What do you guys recommend for a sound card? Budget will be, I suppose, $130 or less.
> 
> ...



I am in the same boat with my X-Fi Fatality. I really love the card alot it's been amazing. I might pull a little dirty trick tho. My Ex Wife has a PCIE Auzentech Forte X-Fi. I may pull a little switcheroo on her when I have to finally say goodbye to my PCI slot. I know she wouldn't notice the difference anyway.






Ferrum Master said:


> I can't recommend PAX drivers... due to their mindless tweaks. Seconds they do not work actualy, the installer isn't patched for Win10.
> 
> Use the ones provided by oldest Creative driver modder Daniel K. He's disassembled every creative dll and knows the stuff for real.
> 
> ...



Yep also a big yes to the Daniel_K Drivers. They are flawless OH and support Win 10 in his latest  version.


----------



## WhiteNoise (Aug 23, 2015)

screw sound cards. use onboard digital out to a dac then amp. Or a receiver. Can't be beat and will always work. or just use a USB DAC then output to your amp of choice.


----------



## lZKoce (Aug 23, 2015)

How do you feel about USB sound cards? $130 is a sizable budget. Depending on your listening setup, you could use Sound Blaster X-Fi HD / Sound Blaster Omni Sound etc. I have grown attached to USB sound cards, because I can swap them between different machines:


Laptop with crappy audio-> no problem/
mini-ITX build with crappy audio-> no problem etc etc


----------



## WhiteNoise (Aug 23, 2015)

I can tell you how I feel about USB sound cards. They work well. I've owned a few of them. I'd still just use an outbound dac though.


----------



## Cybrnook2002 (Aug 23, 2015)

I will say I am using a Creative X7 with windows 10 (august driver they released) and I am smitten, as I was on win 7 and 8.1 with it as well.

That aside, I now have a Soundblaster ZxR (also has the august windows 10 driver released) which is basically BNIB would sell you for your $130 (and may a few bucks for shipping) if your interested.

I have some Asus OP-Amps (the upgrade kit that comes with the Xonar Essence STX II, two Texas Instruments LME49720s and one MUSES 8820) if you want em.... As the ZxR has up-gradable Amps. Had the Asus for a little while and could not tell the difference between it and the ZxR.


----------



## Solaris17 (Aug 23, 2015)

FreedomEclipse said:


> well......
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I too am hesitant to install my D2X though id really like that. My issue is the no driver support from Asus but atleast those just didnt want to install those unified drivers that kid is pumping out fucked my system when I tried them.


----------



## RejZoR (Aug 23, 2015)

ASUS has been far worse with audio drivers even compared to old Creative. It was so bad, ASUS soundcards weren't even listed under ASUS product support page (and I think they still aren't. They were simply not listed. That tells a lot about confidence and support they have. ASUS just jumped the "high end" soundcards bandwagon with no regard for actually supporting the products.


----------



## GLD (Aug 23, 2015)

I have the same sound card as the OP. As of 8-18-15 there are now Windows 10 drivers for or cards. Sadly there is no console launcher so no equalizer, but there are drivers to make the cards work.
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=126331


----------



## RejZoR (Aug 23, 2015)

That's however still the crappy part I hate about Creative. They just roll out drivers, but they don't bother with control panels. And that attitude sucks.


----------



## Slizzo (Aug 24, 2015)

I bought an ASUS card after I posted last. Using UNI drivers, everything is working well. Audio panels etc...  Only one weirdness, it doesn't detect my rear speakers normally, so I had to fudge around with the audio panels to get them to work correctly.


And reason why I don't use a DAC and all that is because I have a nice set of Klipsch Promedia Ultras that still work well.


----------



## arbiter (Aug 24, 2015)

Slizzo said:


> I bought an ASUS card after I posted last. Using UNI drivers, everything is working well. Audio panels etc...  Only one weirdness, it doesn't detect my rear speakers normally, so I had to fudge around with the audio panels to get them to work correctly.
> 
> 
> And reason why I don't use a DAC and all that is because I have a nice set of Klipsch Promedia Ultras that still work well.


Since your last post drivers for your other card are out as well so. I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty still using now. I was using the windows 8.1 drivers which mostly worked with a few issues but still worked til offical win10 came out.

http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=126331


----------



## TheButcherNL (Aug 24, 2015)

I thought it never could be an upgrade from my X-Fi Fatality FPS to Sound Blaster Zx according to sound, but the sound is much better for me, so good card, olé

cyaburg


----------



## Brett Stevens (Sep 10, 2015)

RejZoR said:


> ASUS has been far worse with audio drivers even compared to old Creative. It was so bad, ASUS soundcards weren't even listed under ASUS product support page (and I think they still aren't. They were simply not listed. That tells a lot about confidence and support they have. ASUS just jumped the "high end" soundcards bandwagon with no regard for actually supporting the products.



Well ASUS's Business model is doesn't include support... it does include new products...


http://rog.asus.com/442312015/gaming-sound-cards/asus-announces-strix-sound-cards/


Sigh...


----------



## MIRTAZAPINE (Sep 10, 2015)

I know this is way out of your budget get the the ODAC and the Obejective2 amplifier. The circuit was design by NwAvGuy. He have a huge explanation in his blog about the "snakeoil" of audiophile business and how soundcard test lack objective test for them. It is good meaty long read.


----------



## RejZoR (Sep 10, 2015)

The thing is, in 90's and to 00's, soundcards were really gaming focused. No stupid "audiophile" snakeoil nonsense but pure technology designed for games. Proper HW accelerated 3D audio with HW filtering and effects (EAX). We didn't have 30 billion SNR and 192bit audio, but we had an audio equivalent of graphics GPU.

Today, they are selling us software rendering equivalent of audio as best thing since sliced bread. GTFO. You don't need 126 SNR for game audio samples compressed in MP3 or other lossy format. But you do need good 3D audio positioning and filtering to apply environmental effects in realtime. Yeah, we have software 3D engines, but frankly, they all sound like crap. Plasticky and artificial. Half-Life with EAX from 16 years ago sounds better than any game today. Same goes for System Shock 2 which can luckily be played using OpenAL and EAX even on modern Windows.

All these fancy numbers and Japanese this, German that components are pointless and they don't add up to ANYTHING. If we still had superb EAX 4 or 5 in games, then I'd still defend these specs, but without any of that, nope.


----------



## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Oct 7, 2015)

Chiming in after a bit here because since being Windows 10, anything sound related is pissing me the fuck off. Creative released sound drivers in August. I installed them, audio randomly drops for no reason and sometimes comes back. A lot of times too, I will get a loud feedback noise coming out of my headsets when I click on something and it even happens when im not doing anything. 

I go back to onboard sound. I get crackels and pops on my skylake motherboard. 

Creative releases drivers on September 23rd, I install them. Same issue as before in August. 

Im so sick  of fucking shoddy sound.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Oct 7, 2015)

I'm going to get trashed for this but I actually like Realtek onboard with Microsoft's generic HD Audio driver.  Realtek delivers adequate sound quality at adequate power to my analog speakers which hugely amplify the signal.

...I've given up on cards.  Instead of trying to get high quality audio to my 5.1 speakers, I give them Realtek and I went with low-end audiophile headphone DAC+amp (Schiit Modi 2 + Schiit Magni 2).  Can't say I regret it.


----------



## hat (Oct 7, 2015)

Seems I'm not the only one that misses hardware accelerated sound. Why the hell did they take that away anyway?


----------



## Ferrum Master (Oct 7, 2015)

hat said:


> Seems I'm not the only one that misses hardware accelerated sound. Why the hell did they take that away anyway?



Because M$ did not want anyone messing out with their API ecosystem and make money from some binary blobs not included in the OS... like EAX was... So they killed it together with Creative.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Oct 7, 2015)

hat said:


> Seems I'm not the only one that misses hardware accelerated sound. Why the hell did they take that away anyway?


Because modern CPUs are more than capable of handling it.  And let's be honest, the only thing the really high end cards did were sound effects.  I hate sound effects.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Oct 7, 2015)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Because modern CPUs are more than capable of handling it.  And let's be honest, the only thing the really high end cards did were sound effects.  I hate sound effects.



I really liked those UT, thief like effects, they were better by miles that it is now... they gave you asset hearing things where they are... and helping where to point the instagib actually.

Now it is more like mish mash... skyrim was actually good at it, albeit buggy, but nice... cannot remember any good examples really... maybe some help from other members.


----------



## hat (Oct 7, 2015)

One thing I don't understand is if the sound is done in software, then that means the sound card does what, nothing? Why does Creative go toting it's quad core sound processor in cards like the Recon3D, if it does nothing?


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Oct 7, 2015)

As I said, sound effects (digital sound processing).  If you don't use them, its pretty much useless.

Game developers stopped trusting sound processors (audio codecs like Realtek and physical cards like Creative) a long time ago because of all the bugs as well as feature availability.  Modern games almost always work using positional data to handle audio more realistically on the CPU (e.g. wwise by Audio Kinetic is popular).  It works through the Windows audio stack and completely ignores DSP/manufacturer.  They get a much more consistent result across the entire field of audio hardware.

A good DAC is important where analog speakers are connected.  Realtek and C-Media provide most of the DACs out there.  They aren't amazing but they get the job done.


----------



## hat (Oct 7, 2015)

Well, thats crap.

One other question: what happens in W10 (and other OS since XP) when I tick the EAX box on in games (like BF2142)?


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Oct 7, 2015)

I don't know for sure but I suspect it is only EAX1 which is pretty much public domain.  EAX on Realtek is 100% software DSP.  I think it is turning off the game's DSP (like wwise) and handing it off to the driver DSP.  Framerate wise, I doubt it makes any difference but it could sound different.


----------



## EarthDog (Oct 7, 2015)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I'm going to get trashed for this but I actually like Realtek onboard with Microsoft's generic HD Audio driver.  Realtek delivers adequate sound quality at adequate power to my analog speakers which hugely amplify the signal.
> 
> ...I've given up on cards.  Instead of trying to get high quality audio to my 5.1 speakers, I give them Realtek and I went with low-end audiophile headphone DAC+amp (Schiit Modi 2 + Schiit Magni 2).  Can't say I regret it.


this. You really nulled to spend some coin to get noticeably better audio than what the realtek alcohol 1150 codecs offers. Not only do you need a card, but good cams/speakers to even hear it.


----------



## Slizzo (Oct 8, 2015)

hat said:


> Well, thats crap.
> 
> One other question: what happens in W10 (and other OS since XP) when I tick the EAX box on in games (like BF2142)?



EAX is emulated by your current card. It should improve sound quality of whatever you're playing.


----------



## RejZoR (Oct 8, 2015)

Not if you use ALchemy which translates the calls to OpenAL and behaves identical to EAX under Win9x/XP...


----------



## Slizzo (Oct 8, 2015)

RejZoR said:


> Not if you use ALchemy which translates the calls to OpenAL and behaves identical to EAX under Win9x/XP...



Yeah, this is what I was referring to.


----------



## purplekaycee (May 7, 2016)

i need recommendations of a average budget and good sound card fro my rig   running

windows 10   64 bit


----------



## rtwjunkie (May 7, 2016)

purplekaycee said:


> i need recommendations of a average budget and good sound card fro my rig   running
> 
> windows 10   64 bit



Probably best to start a new thread.


----------



## Slizzo (May 20, 2016)

rtwjunkie said:


> Probably best to start a new thread.



Agreed. This one has run its course.


----------



## purplekaycee (May 21, 2016)

There is another thred


----------

