Friday, May 16th 2008
Creative Unveils X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Series PCI-E Sound Cards
Creative, a worldwide leader in digital entertainment products, today announces the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series and PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series sound cards, unleashing the full power of Creative X-Fi hardware audio processing for PCI Express-based PCs.
The new PCI Express Creative sound cards each feature a striking design that screams "high performance." Creative will equip the world's best professional PC gamers, who are now competing in the Championship Gaming Series (CGS), with the new PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series, the official sound card of the CGS, the only worldwide professional video gaming league.
"Audio plays a huge factor in professional gaming, where every competitive advantage can make the difference between winning and losing. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty edition sound cards significantly enhance any professional gaming rig, enabling us to hear what we can't see and perform at our highest level," said Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, world champion gaming legend and exclusive on-air analyst for the CGS.
"I demand extreme performance from my PC, and I won't settle for less than Sound Blaster X-Fi. It gives me the huge advantage of hearing my opponent before they can see me, and finishing them off before they can do anything about it," said Yazan "Clown" Ammari, Counter-Strike Source member of the San Francisco Optx CGS team.
"We've developed the PCI Express models of our Sound Blaster X-Fi gaming sound cards to meet the specific requests that we've received from end users," said Steve Erickson, VP and GM of audio and VLSI for Creative. "We have re-architected our X-Fi processor so we can deliver even more performance and provide the best audio available on the PC today. You'll know why it's worth the upgrade to PCI Express the second you hear it. We've also added Dolby Digital encoding, for connection to a home theater system for an awesome gaming experience. We created an entirely
new I/O drive with an innovative design that can fit either a 3 ½" or 5 ¼" drive bay. Plus, the Sound Blaster Titanium series cards are optimized for Windows Vista with UAA-compliant hardware."
The PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series features Dolby Digital encoding, for single-cable connection to home theater systems. The card leverages the power of the X-Fi processor optimized for PCI Express to deliver accelerated audio for improved game performance, with ultra-realistic EAX 5.0 effects and 3D positional audio. Hardware-powered 3D positional audio and EAX 5.0 effects provide stunning positional audio realism over headphones and speakers, for a much more immersive gaming experience than any motherboard audio solution can offer. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series also vastly improves voice chat clarity in online games where collaboration is vital.
"With its superb audio fidelity, EAX 5.0 support, and 128 hardware-accelerated voices, the Sound Blaster X-Fi is simply the best way to experience the rich soundscape of Guild Wars. Gamers who really care about how their PCs sound should give it a serious listen," said James Boer, ArenaNet audio programmer and Game Audio Programming author.
The new PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series sound card includes all of the features of the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series, plus an internal I/O drive for quick front panel connection to headphones and headsets. This versatile internal I/O drive design offers the choice of placement in either a 3 ½" or 5 ¼" drive bay. The 3 ½" drive features mic-in and headphone-out connections. This drive slides inside the 5 ¼" drive, which adds RCA line-in connections.
The world's first native PCI Express hardware accelerated sound cards, the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series and PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Championship Series sound cards also feature:
Source:
Creative
"Audio plays a huge factor in professional gaming, where every competitive advantage can make the difference between winning and losing. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty edition sound cards significantly enhance any professional gaming rig, enabling us to hear what we can't see and perform at our highest level," said Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, world champion gaming legend and exclusive on-air analyst for the CGS.
"I demand extreme performance from my PC, and I won't settle for less than Sound Blaster X-Fi. It gives me the huge advantage of hearing my opponent before they can see me, and finishing them off before they can do anything about it," said Yazan "Clown" Ammari, Counter-Strike Source member of the San Francisco Optx CGS team.
"We've developed the PCI Express models of our Sound Blaster X-Fi gaming sound cards to meet the specific requests that we've received from end users," said Steve Erickson, VP and GM of audio and VLSI for Creative. "We have re-architected our X-Fi processor so we can deliver even more performance and provide the best audio available on the PC today. You'll know why it's worth the upgrade to PCI Express the second you hear it. We've also added Dolby Digital encoding, for connection to a home theater system for an awesome gaming experience. We created an entirely
new I/O drive with an innovative design that can fit either a 3 ½" or 5 ¼" drive bay. Plus, the Sound Blaster Titanium series cards are optimized for Windows Vista with UAA-compliant hardware."
The PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series features Dolby Digital encoding, for single-cable connection to home theater systems. The card leverages the power of the X-Fi processor optimized for PCI Express to deliver accelerated audio for improved game performance, with ultra-realistic EAX 5.0 effects and 3D positional audio. Hardware-powered 3D positional audio and EAX 5.0 effects provide stunning positional audio realism over headphones and speakers, for a much more immersive gaming experience than any motherboard audio solution can offer. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series also vastly improves voice chat clarity in online games where collaboration is vital.
"With its superb audio fidelity, EAX 5.0 support, and 128 hardware-accelerated voices, the Sound Blaster X-Fi is simply the best way to experience the rich soundscape of Guild Wars. Gamers who really care about how their PCs sound should give it a serious listen," said James Boer, ArenaNet audio programmer and Game Audio Programming author.
The new PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series sound card includes all of the features of the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series, plus an internal I/O drive for quick front panel connection to headphones and headsets. This versatile internal I/O drive design offers the choice of placement in either a 3 ½" or 5 ¼" drive bay. The 3 ½" drive features mic-in and headphone-out connections. This drive slides inside the 5 ¼" drive, which adds RCA line-in connections.
The world's first native PCI Express hardware accelerated sound cards, the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series and PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Championship Series sound cards also feature:
- Creative X-Fi processor specifically designed for high-speed PCI Express slots in modern PCs
- X-Fi Crystalizer technology, which leverages audio algorithms to intelligently and selectively determine how to restore the highs and lows from sound effects, instruments and vocals and voices that were damaged or diminished during the MP3, AAC, game audio or other compression processes
- X-Fi CMSS-3D technology, to create virtual surround sound through speakers or headphones in games or music. In games, you hear your opponents in their exact location. With music, the sound expands so it completely surrounds you
- Dolby Digital support for compelling 5.1 surround sound through a home theater system
- Creative ALchemy to restore EAX and surround sound in DirectSound game titles running under Vista
- Certified UAA compliance for maximum Windows Vista compatibility
- X-RAM dedicated audio memory to boost performance in select games
- THX Certified surround sound for cinematic movie audio playback
- PowerDVD software with DTS-ES and Dolby Digital-EX decoding
- 24-bit audio quality and 109db SNR audio clarity
- ASIO recording support with latency as low as one millisecond with minimal CPU load
91 Comments on Creative Unveils X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Series PCI-E Sound Cards
OpenAL based apps hardware accelerate EAX in Vista. Take a look at the supported games list of ALchemy, you'll find that titles such as Quake 4 / Doom 3, etc. aren't there, because they're OpenAL apps, they'll not only perform EAX processing by hardware but also don't require ALchemy for multi-channel output.
But you're right, with such 1337 CPU's around, it's insignificant, the whole hardware acceleration thingy. ASUS devised SupremeFX X-Fi that is advertised to support EAX 4.0 HD, but software-accelerates it, but you're assured you get the advertised features.
Last I heard anyways.
audio cards - need shielding from the vast amount of EMI/RFI produced from high powered GPUs, CPUs, motherboard components, WiFi adapters and routers, cathode lights, high-speed fans, etc
the audio card has the hardest job in the rig, and is greatly taken advantage of by the general user as well
It gives the thing more of a product feel than a component feel (as nicely put by W1z). Secondly, sound cards of today need adequate amount of shielding from EMI that can affect performance/output quality (thanks to beefier video hardware), which is why, not just Creative but some other companies like ASUS have made it a point to provide sound-cards with protection against EMI (as seen on Xonar, SupremeFX).
on the other hand i have personaly had to replace x-fi cards with alternitives for nforce4 owners because the card just wouldnt work, yet strangely ANY other audio card i slaped in WORKED PERFECTLY be it via,cmedia,crystal or a few other chips, creative didnt follow proper pci bus specs(iso) hence the problems, this has happened befor, creative sound blaster live cards had issues on alot of systems back in the day, some tryed to blame via, but it happened on EVERYBODYS BOARDS on both amd and intel, turned out the ONLY FIX was to push the pci latancy out of proper spec to 96 or higher..........
creatives KNOWN for pulling crap like that then blaming the board maker, asus is known for blaming the user for bios related issues(gigabyte and msi are just as bad about that tho)
honestly, i really hope we see some good cmedia based pci-e soundcards, if only to spice up the market a bit, im a fan of cmedia ever since i disscovered that they acctualy have a usefull support forum that has some drivers for OLD chips that they dont even make anymore, creative just tells you to fark off and buy a new card.
as to the issues with fetures/drivers on the x-fi, danial k dosnt make drivers, he just mods them, same as OMEGADRIVE dosnt "make" drivers he just mods their installers.
see the DK drivers acctualy just enable stuff that creative INTENTIONALY dissabled or broke, thats why they got pissy when he fixed it, they wanted to force you to buy a re-hash of the same card but that had support for the fetures they intentionaly dissabled.
this is like nvidia or ati/amd dissabling dx9 support on a videocard on vista because they are bringing out a new videocard and want more sales, butt unlike creative, ati/nvidia wouldnt be stupid enought to pull that shit.........
Granted, Creative didn't realize there would be issues, which is why the early revision X-Fi's were in need of firmware updates so soon. Bad design on Creative's part.
and yes again creative FAILED TO PROPERLY TEST their designs, also the issue wasnt 100% fixed with the firmware and bios updates, it was just lessened in most peoples cases, they got it down to a level where it was "acceptable" or "passable" but still.....
i just find it funny that raid cards, scsi cards and any number of other devices that demand high bandwith over the pci/pci-e buss work FINE, but creatives very expencive cards had issues......
guess that shows how well they test their products b4 putting them in users hands........
most users who had issues with the nF4 and 5 series either ran SLI, or very specific nVidia cards - it was a bad design on nVidia's part, the chipset would ignore IRQ requests from other devices, to allow the video cards to keep access of the BUS; without the IRQ from the X-Fi being serviced, the APU kept buffering the audio and it would start to break up . . .
other issues from other boards which started up further down the road, where due to overheating of the APU (lack of testing on this is obvious, or they didn't intend there would be a problem). Early revisions didn't have a heatsink, and the higher temperatures put a strain on the APU itself over extended periods of time - after a long enough period of abuse, the capacitors started to break down, and started leaking, and just prior to that, you would start experiencing vast amounts of audio issues, usually in the form of SCP.
I can't blame Creative 100%, but they shouldn't had the foresight to at least slap a heatsink on them from the start just to be safe. They're not the only company that's run into issues with lack of adequeate, cooling, though . . .
and then there are the growing number of pre-built systems from the likes of all the big OEMs, and most of these have locked BIOSes for their motherboards. Depending on the motherboard, CPU, and the general SYS setup, PCI latency needs to be adjusted for the X-Fi cards . . . hell, PCI latency is something that has had to be adjusted for years and years, but, back in the day, the BIOS was open to users - cause you either knew what you were doing in BIOS, or you didn't so you left shit alone. As systems have become more and more pre-built, and more and more average users started purchasing systems, the BIOS had to be locked from features that could potentially damage hardware, and out the door PCI latency settings went.
Not really a problem, until you bring home an X-Fi, Audigy, or some other BUS hungry PCI device, and install it. Now you'll start running into hardware issues, as your new device won't work properly, especially under load. But you can't adjust the latency properly, as the OEM design wasn't meant to be 100% supportive of upgrades, and who takes the flak for the device not working correctly? The manufacturer of said device.
All I'm trying to say, is that yes, Creative should've put a little more effort into testing prior to initial X-Fi shipment; but for nearly almost all of the major problems people have complained about, it's nothing to do with the X-Fi but instead is typically caused by something else. The vast majority of users who've purchased the cards aren't as keen as the majority of us here, and that's where a lot of problems start to arise.
Creative's hardware is still great, but I'll full-out agree that their tech support and customer service are crap as of right now.
as to "most issues" your forgetting the x-fi music cards driver issue that causes the driver to use 100% cpu at times, thats 100% a software flaw creative should have spoted, and would have if they used the same testing menthods videocard and cpu makers use( acctualy having REAL PEOPLE test the hardware b4 u sell it :O )
i :banghead::banghead::banghead: for a week trying to track that down, in that time the client was upset, thinking i had setup the system wrong(he is the one who ordered the x-fi card because of all the hype) and then a post showed up on creatives forums detailing the problem i was having, the "fix" was to remove most of the software that came with the card, leaving it effectivly the same as old cards that dont have spicific drivers(aureal/avancelogic where its just the windows built in driver)
in he end the client had me swap the card for a VIA chipset card that i had in my work machien( had it in corner of the shop used to play music and download drivers/manuals/bios's exct) it wasnt a cheap card, but it was under 1/2 the price he payed, he just desided the hassle wasnt worth it, so i resold the card AS IS to somebody(who then was mad whenhe had the same issue on his dell :P )
basickly its exectly what we can both agree on, creatives support sucks.
and to be honest, it has alwase sucked, just that they got lucky a few times like the audigy cards, most of them had very few problems compared to sblive and x-fi cards.......
i want to see mobo makers start using GOOD CHIPS on their enthusist boards.
imagin them using cmi8768+ chips for onboard audio.....it wouldnt be that much extra cost, but would drive the quility of the onboard sound thru the roof if done properly(solid caps, good solid coils, exct)
creatives really hurting lately because most people dont see the need to change from their onboard sound once they update the drivers, i know i dont see the "need" not that i would turn down a razer/auzen/htomega/asus sound card if it was offered to me, but i dont "need" it anymore, hell i hope realtek, cmedia, adi and the rest endup doing what asus did, putting out EAX software enabled drivers, that would pretty much FORCE creative to get......creative HAHA......(nice pun!!!)
Only reason Creative gets reamed on their software issues is cause they release only 1 or 2 driver packages a year . . . which means that if there are issues, you have to roll back and wait 7-8 months for the next update. That - is inane and retarded, IMO. I've even run into is before when running WIN XP Media Center for a short while - the only driver that worked with that OS was the one bundled on the CD; no driver update worked correctly - even though Creative listed is as being supported. At the very least, they could give us a set schedule so we know when to look forward to, instead of just releasing a driver whenever they feel like it.
onboard is starting to give Creative and C-Media a run for their money, for sure, and coupled with the vast amounts of users who can't hear a difference, or don't have decent enough speakers to hear the difference, Creative really needs to change their tune. You can sell people the new hardware, but when the majority of users are complaining about your customer service and tech support - they won't buy.
i mostly game an watch movies, music tends to be turned way up so everybody can hear it when we are doing housework or working outside(no shit, this setups louder then the very expencive shelf system my father gave me when he upgraded.....well upgrade that turned out to be no better then what he had :P )
honestly, for the size of the speekers they kickass, and the subs from the logitech units THUMPS u can feel it thru the walls (impressive for its size!!)
meh, like i said, if only they would make it intresting to people to buy a new card, but creatives supports BLAH at best, horrindus is a better word for it, and many of the cmedia based cards just lack fetures that grab most ppls attention, i think for cmedia and the like adding asus style eax software acceleration would probbly grab peoples attention.
auzen lost my intrest when they dumped the x-med in favor of kissing creatives arse to get the x-fi chip........the ONLY reasion i can see them dumping it is because it was something they had to do to get creative to work with them.
creative have always made decent hardware, but their software has always been pisspoor - they will drop the old products very fast in order to make people buy a newer one.
Thats actually good knowledge for anyone reading this thread about this product.
:D
So your Audigy box came with a print which read it supported Windows Vista? In case you forgot, Audigy users can now download and use ALchemy for free and legal.
Regarldess, without daniel K's drivers it is missing features. The website states the audigy card supports several features (such as dolby decoding, amongst others) that simply didnt work until daniel K enabled them. Are you aware that in vista with an audigy card, ALL we get is the windows volume slider and speaker settings? none of the creative apps are there, so we cant enable any of the advanced features.
oh and have fun with the asus card, they seem to be doing well at the moment. (i'm waiting hopefully for a shorter card that will fit in my matx rig)