Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeMusic @ HotHardware

Iria · Oct 26, 2005, 04:24 PM

When someone talks about ways to enhance your gaming experience, we typically focus on faster graphics cards and high resolution monitors. Over the years, this has typically been the only way to dramatically enhance the way games were played. However, with the launch of Doom3 roughly a year ago, the gaming world soon realized that there was much more than graphics in an ideal gaming experience. For the first time, developers focused a significant amount of attention towards the sound effects in the game. The end result was a title whose sounds were as dramatic and intense as its graphics. Gamers were hooked and were anxious to have this new level of realism in all their games.

Although the main reason many of us buy the latest and greatest hardware is to have a better overall gaming experience, we also have some other uses for our systems that help us justify the hardware costs. From music collections to DVD libraries, most PC's these days are a personal multimedia theater. A focus on better audio hardware can have a profound effect on how songs will sound and DVD's will be watched. Subtle tones in songs can now be heard and special effects in movies can be much more pronounced and enveloping. Provided you're using high quality speakers, an upgrade to a new sound card can do wonders for nearly every aspect of your daily PC use.

Creative Labs has always been a leader in consumer sound cards with their infamous Soundblaster products. From the original Soundblaster through the Audigy2 family, Creative has done a fair job of adding new features and functionality to each new product launch. In keeping with tradition, Creative Labs has done the same with the launch of the new Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeMusic. However, with this launch they attempted to go one step further beyond new features and functionality and add higher performance to the mix. With up to 64MB of on-board memory (X-Ram) and a ton of gaming-specific features, Creative claims that this new family of sound cards can actually give gamers a higher average framerate than when using their traditional integrated audio solutions. With such a robust set of features and claims, we were more than a bit anxious to get one of these cards installed and witness its performance first-hand.
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Review: HotHardware

Oct 26, 2005, 04:24 PM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 74	Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeMusic @ HotHardware When someone talks about ways to enhance your gaming experience, we typically focus on faster graphics cards and high resolution monitors. Over the years, this has typically been the only way to dramatically enhance the way games were played. However, with the launch of Doom3 roughly a year ago, the gaming world soon realized that there was much more than graphics in an ideal gaming experience. For the first time, developers focused a significant amount of attention towards the sound effects in the game. The end result was a title whose sounds were as dramatic and intense as its graphics. Gamers were hooked and were anxious to have this new level of realism in all their games. Although the main reason many of us buy the latest and greatest hardware is to have a better overall gaming experience, we also have some other uses for our systems that help us justify the hardware costs. From music collections to DVD libraries, most PC's these days are a personal multimedia theater. A focus on better audio hardware can have a profound effect on how songs will sound and DVD's will be watched. Subtle tones in songs can now be heard and special effects in movies can be much more pronounced and enveloping. Provided you're using high quality speakers, an upgrade to a new sound card can do wonders for nearly every aspect of your daily PC use. Creative Labs has always been a leader in consumer sound cards with their infamous Soundblaster products. From the original Soundblaster through the Audigy2 family, Creative has done a fair job of adding new features and functionality to each new product launch. In keeping with tradition, Creative Labs has done the same with the launch of the new Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeMusic. However, with this launch they attempted to go one step further beyond new features and functionality and add higher performance to the mix. With up to 64MB of on-board memory (X-Ram) and a ton of gaming-specific features, Creative claims that this new family of sound cards can actually give gamers a higher average framerate than when using their traditional integrated audio solutions. With such a robust set of features and claims, we were more than a bit anxious to get one of these cards installed and witness its performance first-hand. ___________ Review: HotHardware

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