Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum by Creative
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Digital camera reviews of Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
Digital camera Review: Creative X-Fi Platinum
Summary: 4 Stars
I was lucky enough to find this audio component with a generous rebate. It outperformed by expectations under Microsoft XP (SP2), however I am having difficulties with the beta drivers from Creative to integrate this component in Windows Vista Home Premium. The console will not execute. Creative will not support tech questions on a beta product. I am at the mercy of Creative until they finish a final driver for the X-Fi Platinum. Great product when it works.Digital camera Review: Creative does a great job this time
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a Turtle Beach lover because I'm not a audiophile need most the best quality but can't bear with the poor quality with onboard audio. The quality Turtle Beach deliver is usually good enough and their package usually comes with a very good value. Been using Santa Cruz for years and it runs great. After upgrading CPU/Motherboard and to Z-5500, found the Santa Cruz seems to be lagging, usually about 3-5 glitches (sudden stop of sound) during mp3 playback. It might be my system's problem but anyway upgrade to Montego DDL fixed the problem. Used optical output on Montego DDL and it sounds good enough to me. But Montego DDL has a microphone problem (too low volume) that I can't live with.
So I tried X-Fi, only intention is to get the microphone problem fixed instead of getting better audio quality. When I put it with Z-5500, I can't believe the quality it delivers. I'm not audiophile but the difference is so obvious that everyone can tell. Some people complain about no optical output on XtremeMusic and no DDL on the whole X-Fi line. But you really don't need to. Man, the quality from 3 stereo cables at X-Fi is way better than optical output from Montego. This is when I reallized that for audio products, you need listening to compare, instead of looking (the spec) to compare. XtremeMusic should be good for most people but I still bought Platinum version for future proof anyway. In my value, not quality, oriented mind, I still vote for Creative this time. Creative beats Turtle Beach this time. Beats it really hard.
Of course, the microphone is fixed too.
Digital camera Review: Creative is the one of the worst with drivers
Summary: 2 Stars
Now this is an "old" product, I've been using this card for 3 years. I initially had a lot of problems with it in XP. After a while a driver came out that fixed it. I tried going to Vista in mid-2007. I gave up on getting Vista and the X-Fi to work correctly by finally abandoning Vista completely by mid-2008 (not just because of the sound card issue though). I was doing a dual-boot, so it wasn't a big deal. I am now using Windows 7. I used Beta sporadically (again dual-boot), but using RC1 then commercial release full-time the last 3 months. All my other hardware is working great with Windows 7 (64-bit), except the X-Fi card. I have lost functionality of what the card is supposed to do, like using the "What U Hear" function or the use of line-in/aux jacks consistently. Extended shut-down issues (I fixed on my own) and silly things like their auto-detect feature for automatic updates doesn't work. Of course the auto update is not very useful anyway, since they rarely release new drivers. I've been patient since I understand it's a new operating system, but it is just like my experience with Vista. Creative's last driver was 2.18.0013 released June 26. If you go onto their site/forum, there are many, many complaints with the X-Fi series (new cards included). This is Nov 28, over 5 months of complaints and not one new driver update. It's pathetic. Well the real pathetic thing is reading on the forum that the Vista drivers apparently still don't work! I usually do not write reviews that I consider to be this negative, but it's a pattern with Creative. I can remember back to DOS days struggling to get a Sound Blaster 16 card (IIRC) to work. I have now removed the card and went to the on-board audio of my motherboard. The sound is pretty good and everything works! I didn't really lose any functionality, since many of features on the X-Fi card didn't correctly or at all. Save yourself some money, life is better without Creative. I feel a little conflicted, just a little, about giving 2 stars. If you're using XP and do not plan to change, I would give it 4 stars. The sound is good and it has good features. But outside of XP at this time the support and frustration with waiting to get drivers with this company, it is a 1 star product. I figure 2 is the best representation of what someone can expect because XP is coming to the end of it's product cycle.Digital camera Review: Do not buy this card if you have NVidia chipset
Summary: 1 Stars
Pros: Perfect sound, solved resampling issues
Cons: famous popping/crackling noises makes it useless for gaming, especially in BF2 (which use OpenAL by Creative). Crystallizer is useless.
This card has the most advanced sound processor which does not work on at least 20% of high end systems, not only NVidia NForce 4 chipset, but also with other AMD and Intel CPU motherboards: see Google for "X-Fi popping/crackling". Even if you do not have in game crackling immediately, you have a good chance to get it after any memory or HD upgrade or driver configuration change. For long time Creative denied existence of this problem. Eventually it was recognized (see official CL forums) and a new driver (since November 2005!) was promised at the end of May 2006, but beta version published 05/30/06 did not solve my problem. In the case of old audigy 2 zs the problem was solved with unofficial "hacked" drivers. I suspect that X-Fi crackling is an architecture design flow, which cannot be completely solved at software level, because PCI bus cannot provide sufficient memory access for the "the fastest sound processor" simultaneously with high end graphic card, HD controller, and other devices.
Bottom end: I have to stop playing games, or go back to low quality integrated sound. Do not take risk, wait for working drivers, or buy a working card from different manufacturer. With fixed drivers I would give this card 4 or 5 stars.
UPDATE 06/12/2006
I found that many desktop motherboards (MB) have really slow south bridge (south bridge is connecting PCI, USB, Firewire, and HD to CPU directly or through north bridge), especially MBs with NVidia chipsets (and even with some Intel MBs). New beta X-Fi driver and MB BIOS updates solved the problem in many cases (but not for my MB Asrock K8NF4G-SATA2, nVidia 6100 / 410 MCP chipset), but situation is still marginal and X-Fi might go unstable again. I contact CL customer service, they did not solved the problem, but pointed out that ATI chipsets (Athlon 64, ATI 200 or 3200) have no problems with X-Fi. I decided not to return SB to seller, but save it for a new computer with ATI based MB. I guess that majority of workstation class MBs with upscale south bridge and PCI-X (even NVidia based) also should be fine with X-Fi. The trouble is that majority of X-Fi buyers have generic NVidia based MBs like me. So I can give X-Fi two stars instead of 1 (but I cannot change the rating), and even more stars if it will work well in my new computer of after new driver release (if it will work).
Digital camera Review: ETA for drivers
Summary: 4 Stars
"Due to additional requirements in the Windows Vista driver certification process, the release of the final signed drivers for the Sound Blaster range will move out beyond our initial projected date until early March. The current Beta drivers are still valid for use under Vista and are required to take advantage of the benefits of Creative ALchemy with the Sound Blaster X-Fi range to restore multichannel audio and EAX to your games. We appreciate your understanding for this change to the schedule as we work to bring you the best experience for your Sound Blaster series cards while adhering to the requirements of this new operating system."
From Creative's forums