# Creative Announces Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 Software Suite



## btarunr (Jul 29, 2010)

Creative Technology Ltd. today announced the Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 software suite - a powerful audio platform equipped with cutting-edge audio technologies designed to enhance ordinary PC systems limited by only basic onboard audio. The Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 software suite builds on the success of the original Sound Blaster X-Fi MB, bringing enhancement of onboard PC audio to even greater echelons. Through THX TruStudio Pro audio technology and the latest Creative EAX Advanced HD 5.0, users get to enjoy premium audio quality, effects and features on their PC systems.

Gamers can anticipate being blown away by the amazing realism from the unrivalled headphone surround and gaming sound enhancement technologies delivered by the Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2. Creative EAX Advanced HD 5.0 features state-of-the-art multi-environment rendering and reverb modelling, delivering an ultra-realistic and incredibly immersive 3D gaming experience for powering the next generation of cutting-edge PC games. The additional audio cues provided by EAX can also give gamers a competitive advantage in early detection of enemies.



"We are extremely excited to see the Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 software going into ASUS Republic of Gamers motherboards, with ASUS being the top manufacturer of motherboards in the world and constantly committed to delivering the most innovative and best performing PC solutions to enhance the gaming experience of power users. Our partnership will continue to push the boundaries of PC gaming audio, providing the much-needed realism and immersion in game-play that modern PC games demand," said Steve Erickson, Vice President and General Manager for Audio and Video at Creative.

Creative EAX Advanced HD 5.0 allows greater detail and speed in gaming audio and adds a dedicated bass feed for 128 voices, so gaming audio becomes more cinematic. Developers can also add interactive music to games, where the music can change based on actions during game-play.

Additional features of Creative EAX Advanced HD 5.0 include EAX Voice, EAX PurePath and EAX MacroFX. EAX Voice allows gamers to literally become part of the game by speaking and hearing their own voices with the same effects as the environment their character is in. EAX PurePath delivers the most accurate and cinematic surround sound ever experienced by allowing developers total control over Low Frequency Enhancement (LFE) and which speaker(s) gaming audio is played through, while EAX MacroFX recreates close-up audio so accurately that bullets would never have sounded more frightening as they zip past players' heads only centimetres away.
THX TruStudio Pro provides the latest groundbreaking technologies that are products of years of collective experience and research by Creative and THX. THX TruStudio Pro creates unprecedented levels of audio realism, adds dynamics and punch to every gunshot, explosion and gaming sound; and includes stunning surround effects, producing an incredibly realistic surround sound experience even from just a pair of stereo headphones. The THX TruStudio Pro suite of technologies features THX TruStudio Pro Surround, THX TruStudio Pro Crystalizer, THX TruStudio Pro Speaker, THX TruStudio Pro Dialog Plus and THX TruStudio Pro Smart Volume.

Other audio technologies such as EAX reverbs and a 10-band graphic equalizer allow users to enhance their music even more. These essential audio effects and controls are conveniently placed in a central and intuitive Sound Blaster Console. In addition, a suite of cool players are included to enhance the PC music listening experience, giving users full control over their music streaming and integrating seamlessly with iTunes and Windows Media libraries.

*Key Features of Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2:* 
THX TruStudio Pro audio technology creates unprecedented levels of audio realism, adds dynamics and punch to every gunshot, explosion and gaming sound; and includes stunning surround effects, producing an incredibly realistic surround sound experience even from just a pair of stereo headphones
Creative EAX Advanced HD 5.0 features state-of-the-art multi-environment rendering and reverb modelling, delivering an amazingly realistic and immersive 3D gaming experience
Creative VoiceFX technology allows users to morph their voices into other personas to help players stay in character and add flair to their online role-playing experiences
Creative ALchemy is a powerful tool that restores EAX effects and 3D surround audio for legacy, DirectSound 3D game titles running on Windows Vista and Windows 7, re-enabling that same great gaming experience
Sound Blaster X-Fi MB2 comes with native OpenAL support, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of PC games developed with OpenAL for an incredible 3D audio experience
For more information please visit this page.

*View at TechPowerUp Main Site*


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## Mussels (Jul 29, 2010)

even more proof that all the fancy features creative claim are hardware driven on their cards, are really just software and driver tweaks.

strangely, the link given at the end of the post doesnt mention X-fi MB2 at all - just the original


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## francis511 (Jul 29, 2010)

You have to pay for this right ?


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## Easo (Jul 29, 2010)

_the latest Creative EAX Advanced HD 5.0 ;Creative EAX Advanced HD 5.0 features state-of-the-art _
EAX 5.0, is how old?


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## Sasqui (Jul 29, 2010)

Mussels said:


> even more proof that all the fancy features creative claim are hardware driven on their cards, are really just software and driver tweaks.
> 
> strangely, the link given at the end of the post doesnt mention X-fi MB2 at all - just the original





francis511 said:


> You have to pay for this right ?



Interesting move.  It certainly reeks of Creative trying to pry cash from customers who realise that onboard sound hardware is just as good as most of their products.

Being "Creative", is certainly going to cost money.  How much is the question.


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## RejZoR (Jul 29, 2010)

Mussels said:


> even more proof that all the fancy features creative claim are hardware driven on their cards, are really just software and driver tweaks.
> 
> strangely, the link given at the end of the post doesnt mention X-fi MB2 at all - just the original



I've used X-Fi MB on my rig and it felt sluggish. So, properly fast chip handling the acceleration is indeed a priority here. So all the bragging about X-Fi superiority is not just marketing BS. I really wonder what the CPU usage will be when using X-Fi MB2 with audio intensive games...


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## KainXS (Jul 29, 2010)

all it is . . . . . is trustudio, . . . . . . creative must be doing bad about now.


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## NdMk2o1o (Jul 29, 2010)

Screw creative and their S-Fi MB you lose the serial for the software that comes with the mobo and you have to pay for it, bunch of idiots, wouldn't touch them again.


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## RejZoR (Jul 29, 2010)

Well, to be honest, it's not their fault that *you* lost it...


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## Taskforce (Jul 29, 2010)

Really? these fools still targeting consumers with dat gaming crap?

Trust me ever since port-ritis Xram, EAX and all the other mumble jumble crap just seems pointless, developers are hard pressed to jump on that bandwagon, but who knows...


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## mdsx1950 (Jul 29, 2010)

RejZoR said:


> Well, to be honest, it's not their fault that *you* lost it...



It's not just that. You can only use their key 3 or 4 times. I'm not sure. And afterwards you gotta pay. So their service does *suck*.


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## WarEagleAU (Jul 29, 2010)

So this will work with the Supreme FX Xfi card that comes with some mobos like Asus right?


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## Batou1986 (Jul 29, 2010)

And what game released in the last year used eax or any of creatives so called features ?

Creative might as well stop making soundcards there stuff is junk, i bought the X-Fi- plat a while ago i have yet to see any game that it works properly in more less any games that support it.

In fact BF2 and BF 2142 touted xfi as a feature for the best sound which is why i bought it yet when enabled in game it sound great for the first 5 min then sounds start looping i can hear grenades blowing up from miles away and then it just turns into one big screeching cacophony of sound and crashes.

the only thing i do like is being able to upmix 2.0 to 5.1 when listing to music.


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## VulkanBros (Jul 29, 2010)

WarEagleAU said:


> So this will work with the Supreme FX Xfi card that comes with some mobos like Asus right?



Well it comes with all Intel and AMD ASUS ROG mobo´s: http://rog.asus.com/
and can free of charge be downloaded from either http://vip.asus.com/ or http://support.asus.com/download/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us  -  remember to select a ROG motherboard ex. Crosshair IV Formula and select Utilitys......


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## WarEagleAU (Jul 29, 2010)

I looked at that Vulkan, but I didn't see the new one they were talking about. I will look at your links. Thanks bud.


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Jul 29, 2010)

The hardware makes a big difference, this software solution eats up at least 10% of your cpu. It's the same as when you buy their usb soundcard. It's just adding connectors, the processing is done on your cpu. Though I'm sure those who need to justify their lack of expenditure on a soundcard would love to believe it can all be done with software. Even with this and an ssd + 6 GHz cpu to blow past the performance hit you'll still be limited in quality. People don't swap out their opamps for shits and giggles.


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## Perseid (Jul 29, 2010)

I almost feel bad for Creative. Way back in the day the Soundblaster was THE card to get. The only other card you even considered was maybe the Gravis Ultrasound. Now that motherboards are coming with onboard audio that already does everything most of us need, they're kinda stuck.


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## Meizuman (Jul 29, 2010)

I would like to see Creative going bankrupt OR starting to make products with real features.


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## RejZoR (Jul 29, 2010)

I've used X-Fi MB many more times than only 4 times... no problems. Also, MB version only supports 64 sounds while real X-Fi offers 128 simultaneous sounds.


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## craigo (Jul 30, 2010)

Is this software Realtek specific?


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## KainXS (Jul 30, 2010)

WarEagleAU said:


> So this will work with the Supreme FX Xfi card that comes with some mobos like Asus right?





craigo said:


> Is this software Realtek specific?



with the first version of X-Fi MB not many codecs were supported besides realtek and ADI's(not many ADI's were supported) HD codecs

The Supreme FX 1 an 2 are ADI codecs on risers and use X-Fi MB,

with Trustudio(kinda like X-Fi MB 1.5) though the X-Fi Xtreme Audio is also supported but the drivers are only given to specific vendors and are hard to find even for the version that supports the codecs.

with X-Fi MB and Trustudio any codec that supports software host(IE:Creative Host Program)  is supported but creative has to add them in(it was easier to add it in yourself with X-Fi MB but creative blocked it out and coded it into the dll's instead of an ini in the very first version of Trustudio).


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## hat (Jul 30, 2010)

Between the audiodg memory leak and cpu usage problems, the driver butchering for the Audigy series on Vista and later, and the recording problems (such as my microphone input sounding like I'm talking through a fan, this is a common problem too), I wouldn't even think about touching Creative with a 10 foot pole.

To Creative: GJ on releasing stuff that already existed. Next time you release something, I hope it's a fix for all the problems everyone's been having with your hardware.


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## Sasqui (Jul 30, 2010)

hat said:


> Between the audiodg memory leak and cpu usage problems, the driver butchering for the Audigy series on Vista and later, and the recording problems (such as my microphone input sounding like I'm talking through a fan, this is a common problem too), I wouldn't even think about touching Creative with a 10 foot pole.
> 
> To Creative: GJ on releasing stuff that already existed. Next time you release something, I hope it's a fix for all the problems everyone's been having with your hardware.



Tell us how you really feel!

Took me 1 month to get XP drivers for the SB Live... they ended up coming on a nice neat drivers disk from the UK (they simply never realesed them in the US).  WTF?


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## naoan (Jul 30, 2010)

Huh... So what happened to zii? thought it was pretty nifty...


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## D4S4 (Jul 30, 2010)

*All i have to say is...*


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jul 30, 2010)

also who needs 128 sounds seriously are you going to sit there and tell me you can distinguish between 128 different sounds hell 64 different sounds or 32 or 16 chances are slim that you can after about 20 sounds at once its just gonna sound like gibberish so ive never had any use what so ever for creatives sound cards that said.  Other sound cards for HTPC usage or for better music playback i can understand when it comes to audiophiles. But that said if your willing to spend ALOT of time with an integrated Equalizer you can get some damn good sound to rival creatives garbage


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## Perseid (Jul 30, 2010)

Especially if you're mixing 128 sounds through software. You don't need Creative's funky magic drivers to do that and it's going to eat the same amount of CPU either way.


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## RejZoR (Jul 30, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> also who needs 128 sounds seriously are you going to sit there and tell me you can distinguish between 128 different sounds hell 64 different sounds or 32 or 16 chances are slim that you can after about 20 sounds at once its just gonna sound like gibberish so ive never had any use what so ever for creatives sound cards that said.  Other sound cards for HTPC usage or for better music playback i can understand when it comes to audiophiles. But that said if your willing to spend ALOT of time with an integrated Equalizer you can get some damn good sound to rival creatives garbage



That's what you think, but i know it better. There is a difference in terms of far more sounds going on at the same time with much less "pauses" in between. There used to be an old SB Live! demo showcasing Unreal with 16 and 32 sounds. It's the same effect in newer games.
However it's a much higher chance of hitting the limit in FPS games than in any others, because weapons them self use up many channels. Take L4D2 as an example.
Loads of zombies screaming, music rumbling in the background, 4 automatic rifles going on at the same time etc.

Also games are designed to use as much sounds as there are allowed by the soundcard.
So anything that goes beyond it's capability is simply clipped. Either the hard way by soundcard or the soft way by the game audio engine that plays only the global sounds (like music) and the sounds closest to player until the limit is reached. New games are mostly all capable of rendering 128 channels at once, it's all up to soundcard to render that. Or the CPU in which case the games will feel different even on quad cores. Like it's all sluggish during gameplay...

@perseid
Yes, but only in the X-Fi MB case. With proper hardware X-Fi chip, that's not the case.


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## Wile E (Jul 30, 2010)

Sasqui said:


> Interesting move.  It certainly reeks of Creative trying to pry cash from customers who realise *that onboard sound hardware is just as good as most of their products.*
> 
> Being "Creative", is certainly going to cost money.  How much is the question.



No it isn't. That's not even debatable. Same features =/= same performance.



Batou1986 said:


> And what game released in the last year used eax or any of creatives so called features ?
> 
> Creative might as well stop making soundcards there stuff is junk, i bought the X-Fi- plat a while ago i have yet to see any game that it works properly in more less any games that support it.
> 
> ...



No probs in BFBC2 with X-Fi here.



hat said:


> Between the audiodg memory leak and cpu usage problems, the driver butchering for the Audigy series on Vista and later, and the recording problems (such as my microphone input sounding like I'm talking through a fan, this is a common problem too), I wouldn't even think about touching Creative with a 10 foot pole.
> 
> To Creative: GJ on releasing stuff that already existed. Next time you release something, I hope it's a fix for all the problems everyone's been having with your hardware.



We went over the Audiodg memory leak before. Ir seems to be more an issue with the programs accessing it than Creative's drivers. I have no mem leaks in mine at all, neither does anyone else I know.



crazyeyesreaper said:


> also who needs 128 sounds seriously are you going to sit there and tell me you can distinguish between 128 different sounds hell 64 different sounds or 32 or 16 chances are slim that you can after about 20 sounds at once its just gonna sound like gibberish so ive never had any use what so ever for creatives sound cards that said.  Other sound cards for HTPC usage or for better music playback i can understand when it comes to audiophiles. But that said if your willing to spend ALOT of time with an integrated Equalizer you can get some damn good sound to rival creatives garbage



No, no amount of eq or effects will make on-board sound better than a dedicated card.


All that said, this software is nothing more than gimmicks. It will not make your on-board magically more accurate or clean. X-Fi MB is crap.


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## SluggyJ (Jul 30, 2010)

> also who needs 128 sounds seriously are you going to sit there and tell me you can distinguish between 128 different sounds hell 64 different sounds or 32 or 16 chances are slim that you can after about 20 sounds at once its just gonna sound like gibberish


 Well I read some were that to get a realistic sound for say a shot gun in a game takes about 8 sounds to create... Anyway I thought My Create X-fi plat was great, I absolutely loved it and would recommend it to anyone until Windows Vista came out and Microsoft decided to change the way there sound model worked... my games was never the same again and alchemy never really worked properly, I sold my X-fi and stayed with onboard, Since the Microsoft change its sound model Creative have not been able to bounce back


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## RejZoR (Jul 30, 2010)

That's just loads of rubbish. Only ALchemy works properly and all the other stuff like GX mode on ASUS cards works on every 5th game. As for ALchemy, i know only ione game that doesn't like it.
I've had Xonar Essence STX and as much as i liked it's overall quality, i hated it's rubbishness in games.


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## D4S4 (Jul 30, 2010)

All in all - hardware = speed & quality (if you set it up properly, i know many people who have messed up their sound totally with the damned eq and other crap drivers offer )
           - software = "cool" soundin' FX  (almost any full fledged audiophile would start spitting all over the place, cursing the freaking compressors and eq effects - it's no longer the original sound, the way it's supposed to sound)

X-Fi MB = one big no no imho.


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## hat (Jul 30, 2010)

Wile E said:


> We went over the Audiodg memory leak before. Ir seems to be more an issue with the programs accessing it than Creative's drivers. I have no mem leaks in mine at all, neither does anyone else I know.



I know of two other people, who just happen to be the only two people I know in real life that have X-Fi cards, that have had the memory leak issues. That and half the internet having the issues along with them. Creative's official solution as of now? Disable the enhancements! Cripple your card by disabling the features that are causing the problem!

There are so many applications that cause these issues. I know of Ventrilo for myself, but I have also heard of people complaining that playing music causes it, and even L4D2... with so many applications having the same problem on Creative's hardware, but not on anyone else's, it seems to me that the problem is on Creative's part and it's up to them to fix it.

So there's my explination about the memory leak problems. Even expunging that from my argument, there's still the driver butchering for the Audigy series and the recording problems to worry about.


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## RejZoR (Jul 30, 2010)

Funny. This is my second X-Fi card (used to have X-Fi XtremeMusic and now X-Fi Forte) and they both work flawlessly. They have occasional glitches here and there, but those are isolated non repeatable problems that happened on every product out there.

@D4S4
Actually, X-Fi MB is great for netbooks. You have a crappy i945 audio where X-Fi features make it a bit better.


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## D4S4 (Jul 30, 2010)

Yeah, i forgot about that... My focus were desktops. Anyhow, i can imagine that software eatin up netbook's battery if it's so processor hungy... :shadedshu

good ol mp3 player FTW


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## RejZoR (Jul 30, 2010)

There wasn't any noticeably faster power drain.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jul 30, 2010)

as i said wile e  i can understand using some sound cards that are on the market creatives offerings on the other hand just dont cut it anymore my main point being no one has the ability to distinquish 128 simulatneous sounds from EAX etc making that a giant gimmick and this mb software probably still can do EAX properly when emulated making it a still broken seldom used feature. Now as i previously mentioned some sound cards are usefull for those whom are audiophiles and need that extra clarity but theres certainly far better choices for that than anything creative has.


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## KainXS (Jul 30, 2010)

well after using audigy mb, x-fi mb and trustudio, I would say its not worth the time, in most cases, the only real reason to buy it is for crystalizer and thats iffy, some people hate it some people like it, and if you want to buy it for gaming, its still not worth it, for some notebooks it might be good considering that the add in cards for notebooks made by creative will alot of time not let you use your speakers, and you have to use the headphone jack on the card, making the MB your only alternative..

I would like to see creative make a comeback though, I was thinking why they don't try to make a partnership with AMD or Nvidia to get X-Fi running on the codecs integrated in their gpu's, I wouldn't buy it but alot of people who don't know any better would and they can make a lot of money, it should be possible too.


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## hat (Jul 30, 2010)

RejZoR said:


> Funny. This is my second X-Fi card (used to have X-Fi XtremeMusic and now X-Fi Forte) and they both work flawlessly. They have occasional glitches here and there, but those are isolated non repeatable problems that happened on every product out there.
> 
> @D4S4
> Actually, X-Fi MB is great for netbooks. You have a crappy i945 audio where X-Fi features make it a bit better.



Not sure about the X-Fi series, but the microphone choppiness I described before is another common problem, something about the Audigy series not having proper 64 bit support if I recall correctly. Inb4 "check your mic", because the mic works perfectly with onboard, and the "What U Hear" function would also record in this choppy fashion, the same way the mic did.


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## Mussels (Jul 30, 2010)

hat said:


> Not sure about the X-Fi series, but the microphone choppiness I described before is another common problem, something about the Audigy series not having proper 64 bit support if I recall correctly. Inb4 "check your mic", because the mic works perfectly with onboard, and the "What U Hear" function would also record in this choppy fashion, the same way the mic did.



you arent making it up, i get the same problems with my SB live 5.1! and audigy cards. either the mic is very choppy and stuttery (or just full of static)... but it works fine on every non creative card, and in XP on the creative cards.


creative only make things work on their latest hardware - if you've had trouble free times with creative, just wait. you'll run into the shit sooner or later.


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## RejZoR (Jul 30, 2010)

I'm not using Mic, but if What U Hear exhibits the same problem, i don't have one, because the sound is perfectly fine. As far as i was recording video from games using Fraps and a What U Hear to capture game sound.


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## hat (Jul 30, 2010)

You don't have a Creative card...


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## RejZoR (Jul 30, 2010)

Then what it is? It has an X-Fi chip, only thing that doesn't share with it are opamp/DAC/high end capacitors and other similar stuff that only affects sound quality but not sound features offered by the core processor. Essentially it's a Titanium card with higher grade components, nothing else. I also had real Creative made X-Fi (Xtreme Music) that worked flawlessly. But that one was on PCI bus.


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## ToTTenTranz (Jul 30, 2010)

Wow, Creative bashing season is now open. Again.

Now we see people complaining about their 12 year-old soundcards not working correctly in current operating systems.

I wonder why we never see people bashing nVidia because their Riva TNT doesn't work with Windows 7 64bit.


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## hat (Jul 30, 2010)

ToTTenTranz said:


> Wow, Creative bashing season is now open. Again.
> 
> Now we see people complaining about their 12 year-old soundcards not working correctly in current operating systems.
> 
> I wonder why we never see people bashing nVidia because their Riva TNT doesn't work with Windows 7 64bit.



Fair enough. What about the audiodg issues then?


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## ToTTenTranz (Jul 30, 2010)

Mussels said:


> even more proof that all the fancy features creative claim are hardware driven on their cards, are really just software and driver tweaks.
> 
> strangely, the link given at the end of the post doesnt mention X-fi MB2 at all - just the original



All the "fancy features" are made through hardware indeed. 

But like pretty much everything in computing, the features can be run in software mode.

The difference is that 5 years ago (when the original X-Fi was released) we had the Athlon 64 X2 @ 1600Mhz  and the dual Pentium 4 @ 2GHz. 
All the features couldn't run through software mode without a substantial performance hit.

Nowadays the CPUs are 5x faster and the performance hit is now negligible. Therefore, using a dedicated sound chip for sound processing isn't really needed any more.



Do you have any doubts that an i7 runs Quake 2 in software mode a lot faster than a Voodoo 2 in hardware mode?


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## hat (Jul 31, 2010)

True, but 5 years ago, we were playing games that were from 5 years ago. Hardware grows more powerful, but the software becomes more resource hungry as well.


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## D4S4 (Jul 31, 2010)

I still like dedicated hardware much more. Either do it properly or don't do it at all.

btw - i can't wait for sound fx processed by the gpu - i bet some company has it under development


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## RejZoR (Jul 31, 2010)

Actually it has been aleady done on GPU. I just don't remember what was he exact deal, but i know it was accelerated by GPU.


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## Wile E (Jul 31, 2010)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> as i said wile e  i can understand using some sound cards that are on the market creatives offerings on the other hand just dont cut it anymore my main point being no one has the ability to distinquish 128 simulatneous sounds from EAX etc making that a giant gimmick and this mb software probably still can do EAX properly when emulated making it a still broken seldom used feature. Now as i previously mentioned some sound cards are usefull for those whom are audiophiles and need that extra clarity but theres certainly far better choices for that than anything creative has.



You can't distinguish 128 individual voices, no, but you can damn sure hear a clear difference between 64 and 128, even tho you can't single out every individual sound. 128 voices fills out the sound a hell of a lot more.

As far as audio quality, there's no better choice than a Forte in it's price range. Not only does it sound as good or better than all the others in the range, it has more features, and can use those Creative effects for the rare occasions they are still in use.


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## RejZoR (Jul 31, 2010)

And many features work on non EAX games as well. Like CMSS-3D that creates incredible 3D positioning on only 2 speakers (i'm talking proper 3D space positioning, not some cheap echo effect filter), Elevation Filter handles reproduction of sounds above and below so you perceive them the same way you do in real life (they just sound different if they are above or below you).
And also sounds that are close to you sound very different. So you can always tell if a car is trying to pass you by or zombie is tearing you on the right side in L4D. Most ppl don't even know these things exist and affect sound because they all just run around screaming how Creative sucks. But as an old user of Aureal Vortex based soundcard and long time Creative user i know how to appreciate good sound. Not just in terms of raw quality but in terms of proper 3D sound positioning. Been taking sound as advantage in gaming for ages and have been accused of wallhacking several times, because i could read the 3D sound so well, it looked like i'm using a wall hack.


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## NdMk2o1o (Jul 31, 2010)

RejZoR said:


> Well, to be honest, it's not their fault that *you* lost it...



No but crippling the hardware by charging for the software to make it run is shitty whatever way you look at it, unless you wouldn't mind paying ATI/NVIDIA for drivers? same thing.


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## KainXS (Jul 31, 2010)

NdMk2o1o said:


> No but crippling the hardware by charging for the software to make it run is shitty whatever way you look at it, unless you wouldn't mind paying ATI/NVIDIA for drivers? same thing.



what? crippling hardware by charging for software



its not creatives hardware with the MB software, its their software and they charge for it(I would say rip off people though) but its there software and they have the right to charge for it.

would you want want to be a artist and bundle a music cd with a cd player and someone loses the cd then pirates it, of course not.


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## RejZoR (Jul 31, 2010)

Well, if you don't like Creative software part you can always use basic drivers provided by the core vendor. Usually Realtek or ADI...


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## hat (Jul 31, 2010)

You mean I can use drivers for my Audigy 2 ZS that aren't Creative drivers, or some form of Creative drivers? I would love to actually be able to use that card without all the issues I have with it with Creative's drivers.


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## RejZoR (Jul 31, 2010)

I was talking about X-Fi MB software. You can use it or you can just use base drivers that were meant for that device in the first place.


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## ToTTenTranz (Jul 31, 2010)

NdMk2o1o said:


> Screw creative and their S-Fi MB you lose the serial for the software that comes with the mobo and you have to pay for it, bunch of idiots, wouldn't touch them again.






NdMk2o1o said:


> No but crippling the hardware by charging for the software to make it run is shitty whatever way you look at it, unless you wouldn't mind paying ATI/NVIDIA for drivers? same thing.




The X-Fi MB is a *software* product.
If you buy Office 2010 and lose the box with the cd-key, microsoft won't give you a new one. If you buy Photoshop and lose the serial, Adobe won't give you a new one.

You buy a motherboard that bundles a game. If you lose the game's serial, the developer will not give you a new one.

Now, do you understand the ridiculousness of your complaints?
You're actually complaining that Creative isn't the first company ever that compensates their customers for lost serials.

Then again, it's Creative. Any chance to bash Creative is a good one, even if the reasons are completely shallow.


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## D4S4 (Aug 1, 2010)

ToTTenTranz said:


> Then again, it's Creative. Any chance to bash Creative is a good one, even if the reasons are completely shallow.



sooo, it's Creative bashing week?


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## mdsx1950 (Aug 1, 2010)

ToTTenTranz said:


> The X-Fi MB is a *software* product.
> If you buy Office 2010 and lose the box with the cd-key, microsoft won't give you a new one. If you buy Photoshop and lose the serial, Adobe won't give you a new one.
> 
> You buy a motherboard that bundles a game. If you lose the game's serial, the developer will not give you a new one.
> ...



Its not just that. You cant use the serial more than 5 times. That's what pissed me off. If you reinstall windows or you reinstall the software for 5 times it's gone.    :shadedshu


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## RejZoR (Aug 1, 2010)

I think i've re-installed it more times and it's still working. But i can't be sure. You can still contact their tech support. Going to their forums for advice is also useful. I can say for sure that they will sort this out since you still own the software and valid serial. Windows work the same way. I have to call MS every time i re-install Vista. Though i use disk imaging so i only have to do that if i change my hardware too much (last time it was when i had to RMA my mobo).


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## exodusprime1337 (Aug 2, 2010)

sooo... is this software out, or no... i can't find a dl, and i didn't have to enter a key for my software... crosshair IV here?


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## KainXS (Aug 2, 2010)

when you install from a cd sometimes you won't need the key because its in the cd but when you download it from their site then key or trial.

its not out


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## KainXS (Aug 10, 2010)

X-Fi MB 2 is now on Asus's site if you want to try it.

Look under the RAMPAGE III GENE for the software.


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## erpguy53 (Jan 26, 2015)

I know that this thread is very old but I just wanted to point out that the X-Fi MB2 software requires at least Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 to run as it dropped Windows XP support.  Many people were not aware of the minimum Windows system requirements for X-FI MB2 when it first came out.

See the X-FI MB2 datasheet:
http://www.creative.com/oem/resources/Software/X-FiMB2.pdf

Minimum System Requirements
-Supported HD-Audio Codec
-Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
-Microsoft Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 (32-bit or 64-bit)
-Intel Pentium Dual Core, AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core or equivalent processor, 2.0Ghz or faster


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## Prima.Vera (Jan 29, 2015)

Tell me 1 single game nowadays or in the past years that is using EAX 5.0!!


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