Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer review

Creative recently added two new product lines to its X-Fi range of sound cards broadening what is already a wide range even further. At the top end the company added the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer – Fatal1ty Professional Series, certainly a mouthful and a whole lot of hardware. At the other end is the product we're interested in today – the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer.

The concept behind the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer is pretty simple. It offers an up-to-date soundcard solution to folks building small form-factor PCs thanks to its narrow card design and is also likely to appeal to those building a system on a tight budget.

Upgrade Time

The sound card is often an overlooked item when building a new system. This is where we'll often settle for a low end card where the rest of the system is being tricked out to the nth degree.

I'll admit though that a soundcard is very important to me. My existing card is a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro, quite a mouthful I'm sure you'll agree. The card cost a mint at the time and offers me all kinds of connectivity for MIDI devices and other music creation and entertainment applications.

So how would I cope with the reduced connectivity in this new card?

Installation Woes

Creative doesn't have a great reputation when it comes to software. You'll see people complain about good hardware hampered by software that makes hard work of simple tasks – such as installing a new graphics card.

Things really haven't changed with the X-Fi line of soundcards. You may find that once all the hardware and software is installed, the Creative mixer software tells you it can't detect the hardware. The only solution is uninstalling the software then stripping any residue out of the registry. And then, you guessed it, going through the whole installation again.

I had such problems installing this card correctly and it took some time before everything would work. For those wanting to use two soundcards you'll find this even more difficult, getting both the Audigy 2 to work alongside the X-Fi was a real bear.

Modular System

Eventually I got the kit working and from there things became more impressive. It's up to you whether to use the Creative software suite to control the card, or its more basic control panel, but I found the software attractive and easy to use.

One of the major selling points of the X-Fi line is the way the card reconfigures depending on the use you're putting it too. Audio creation mode puts the card in very low latency mode and strips back on the gaming bells and whistles enabling you to get some very good results in music creation software.

The card even offers effects routing through the hardware to take the CPU stress away from running all the effects through Cubase and similar software. This is one of the few aspects of the card where you'll have to use the card software rather than it's cut-down control panel.

Performance

At first I found the mode switching, between audio creation, gaming and entertainment a little gimmicky. But further use over the weeks since the card arrived from Creative have made me something of a believer. I've settled on some personal settings for gaming and watching movies that are quite distinct and switching between them is now a simple affair. I've also made use of the music creation element and found the low latency Asio drivers a godsend for some of my songwriting/recording.

Where I've found the most benefit with the X-Fi card though is in gaming. Take for instance Medieval II: Total War. This is a gorgeous game with a fabulous soundtrack. However if I went for the higher hardware sound settings my framerate would take a nosedive.

That's no longer the case using the X-Fi, with support for EAX versions up to 5.0 and clearly some impressive silicon grunt, not only is Medieval II sounding better than before I can whack up the hardware sound without any noticible effect on game performance.

Sound Quality

Other neat features include X-Fi CMSS-3D which does a pretty impressive job of simulating 3D sound in stereo headphones. The 24-bit Crystalizer is bound to divide users but I found it very useful. The Crystalizer makes flat MP3 files sound like they have more dynamic range and attempts to put the life back into heavily compressed files.

On the whole it does a good job and while not something that suits every sound, I like the effect it has on much of my MP3 collection. The thing that has impressed me most about X-Fi though is the sound quality especially while gaming. The difference between this and my old card is massive, I'm getting the same kind of audio thrills from playing games such as Battlefield 2142 and Medieval II as the visual pleasure one gains from installing a new graphics card.

Bargain?

So would I buy an X-Fi Xtreme Gamer? You might be surprised to hear that I wouldn't. I've been thoroughly impressed with the sound quality from the card and the performance in games but this isn't the card for me.

One of the drawbacks of the Xtreme Gamer card is a lack of connectivity. The slightly more expensive (but not by too much) Xtreme Music model gives the option of using an Input/Output upgrade kit – a drive bay full of connections. Or further up the product line are models that come with external connection units.

I've become a believer in the sound quality of the X-Fi range, but I personally want hardware with more options for the musician as well as the gamer. However if you're looking for a relatively inexpensive way to boost the sound quality of your PC gaming, especially if 5.1 or 7.1 surround is your goal, then I can heartily recommend the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer.