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Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series Sound Card

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10 User Reviews

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• Reviewed by: jwkoda

  Updated: 07-17-08

  Overall Rating: 3 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: Nice Sounding Card, X-Fi Technology

  Weaknesses: Expensive, Poor Support, Buggy Software and Drivers

  Overall Evaluation: This X-Fi card from Creative sounds nice when the software and drivers work. However, Creative drivers are famous for not working. If you try to get help from Creative, you are in for a frustrating experience. Updating drivers and software also involves lengthy downloads and multiple files to install. why can't Creative simplify this process.The X-Fi chip is truly a high end audio chip but creative surrounds it with very poor quality electrolytic capacitors and opamps. I have replaced the opamps and some of the caps on my card and it has resulted in significant improvements. This of course will void the warranty so I don't recommend this solution for others.The price of these cards has finally started to come down and they can now be purchased for as little as $69 after mail in rebate. I think this is a really nice sounding card but I think it could be much better if Creative would update some of the components and clean up the software.

• Reviewed by: taltorre

  Updated: 07-07-08

  Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: Signal-to-Noise Ratio 10924-bit Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to AnalogTotal Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz = 0.004%

  Weaknesses: You have to download the new drivers for Vista NO support for XLR or 1/4 input.

  Overall Evaluation: The frequency response can get as low as 10HZ with distortion level at .004%, that is PROFESSIONAL level specification! This card uses its own built in 64MB RAM, rather than use the system's RAM so now your video editing software or video game runs smoother and faster. I have some headphones with frequency ranges from 10hz to 24khz and a 2.1 desktop speakers with frequency ranges from 15hz to 27khz, so I recommend if you get this card get some Awesome speakers or headphones.

• Reviewed by: dmccue69

  Updated: 04-20-08

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: Gaming, EAX

  Weaknesses: Drivers have some problems under Vista with certain motherboard chipsets.

  Overall Evaluation: I just purchased this sound card for the new system I built. I normally just use on-board audio on my computers as I am not much of an audiophile. I decided to build my new rig for gaming as some of the new PC games look like fun. I knew that if I wanted to get good positional sound I needed a Creative Labs card for EAX support. I also wanted a card that would take care of the sound processing and leave my CPU from having to take on the load. This card takes care of all of both of those issues. It also sounds awesome when combined with one of today's newest games and a high quality speaker system like the Logitech Z-5500. What a huge improvement over on-board sound. I highly recommend this card.

• Reviewed by: Unclefunnyman

  Updated: 02-02-08

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: Sounds Good To Me

  Weaknesses: None

  Overall Evaluation: I used to think that PC gaming was all about graphics quality. Although this is certainly important, GAMEPLAY is important too, look at Darwinia. But I was in for quite a surprise when I first listened to my headphones using this sound card. WOW! Halo, Crysis, BF2, even Darwinia have NEVER sounded like this before. You are actually ONE WITH THE GAME with the audio experience provided by this card.

• Reviewed by: DR3

  Updated: 11-21-07

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:7 Days

  Strengths: This card is outstanding!Easy to install, great support for games.Sound is noticeably better and even better with medium to good speakers. Make sure your speakers and headphones support at least 5

  Weaknesses: None that I have noticed.Must have a good set of speakers and headphones to really get the benefits of this great card.

  Overall Evaluation: No more sneaking up one me.I finally can hear what I have been missing.With my Medusa 5.1 ProGamer Edition V2 headsets the audio is exceptional.Took a while to stop jumping or flinching from near misses or grenade explosions.If you can afford them it is a must buy!

• Reviewed by: JLJorden

  Updated: 10-26-07

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:1 Weeks

  Strengths: Sounds great, works well with Vista

  Weaknesses: None so far

  Overall Evaluation: I've been using Creative products for years and they have not let me down yet. This card sounds fantastic and is a breeze to install. It is a little pricey, but it is worth it.

• Reviewed by: Fun2shop

  Updated: 09-15-07

  Overall Rating: 5 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:20 Days

  Strengths: Easy installation.Crystal crisp sound on games, music, DvDs

  Weaknesses: Some unnecessary software.

  Overall Evaluation: Price is OK cause for the good sound. It works well with my Logitech Z-5300e.You can hear the crisp sound.There is a huge difference.Especially when you are in the game.The 3D sound pretty well with the Z-5300e.And it works well with Vista.I am happy with this sound card.Good product.High recommendation.

• Reviewed by:

  Updated: 07-31-07

  Overall Rating: 3 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:4 Months

  Strengths: Awesome sound. Nice glowing red "Fatal1ty" light

  Weaknesses: Compatibility issues. Frustrating when it doesn't work.

  Overall Evaluation: I had this on my eVGA 680i/QX6700 motherboard and it worked flawlessly for a while. Then it started to go in and out. I thought it was a motherboard issue and RMA'd it to eVGA. Well, with a brand new motherboard the X-Fi Fatal1ty doesn't work at all now. I plopped it in my friends nForce4/AMD setup and it works great. I bought an X-Fi extreme gamer and it works fine with my 680i/Intel setup.Numerous forums talk about compatibility issues with the 680i chipset and the Fatal1ty sound card. Of course Creative blames nVidia and vice versa. Bottom line is it looks like the X-Fi Fatal1ty may or may not work in your particular 680i board (running Windows XP, not vista), and there is no way to predict it.If you have a 680i board, I suggest going with the X-Fi extreme gamer. There is basically no sound difference.

• Reviewed by: jayhall0315

  Updated: 06-29-07

  Overall Rating: 4 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:

  Strengths: Crisp sound quality, easy to install, better software package than the Audigy 2ZS, improved headphone sound, driver updates now available

  Weaknesses: Slightly outclassed by the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude, no 64 bit Vista drivers, 64 MB X-RAM is gimmicky, no PCI-express version, too few jacks on back of soundcard itself

  Overall Evaluation: (Jan 6th, 2008) This review is a bit easier since I am fortunate to have one box running the older Audigy 2 ZS soundcard, my fiancee's running an Auzentech X-Meridian, my lab mid-tower running the newer Auzentech X-Fi Prelude and my full tower with the X-Fi Fatal1ty version. So, a side by side comparison is easy.The XtremeGamer Fatal1ty version of this card includes the basic soundcard with the 64 MB of onboard RAM, but does not come with the glossy black Input/Output(IO) box and remote that the other Fata1ty versions have. In comparison to the other price points, it has the 64 MB of memory (X-RAM) that the Xtreme Music and Platinum do not, but lacks the break out box and higher quality digital to analog converters (DACs) of the $260 Elite Pro or X-Fi Prelude.So how does the Fatal1ty version of X-Fi stack up ? Well, first off, it would help if you have saved your allowance for awhile, because the Fatal1ty goes for about $125 on the web (about $170 if you want the Fatal1ty version with the IO box). This has recently been mitigated though by the release of two new X-Fi models ($70 and $100) so Creative appears to be getting the message about the high price points.The Fatal1ty version is easy to setup and should only take about 5-10 minutes. The XtremeGamer Fatal1ty does not use the flat ribbon cable or IO box so this will help with airflow and looks in a nice case. On a postive note, Creative has finally decided to make the bloat in their software and driver packages optional. The included CD-ROM allows you to install as much or as little of the numerous programs as you would like (all you really need are the drivers). The software applications are also much easier to access and use, like the Console Launcher, which allows you to fiddle with settings to your heart's content. The semi-gimmicky 64 MB of X-RAM will only allow a 0-4% framerate improvement until more optimized titles start to show up (currently, only Battlefield 2, Quake 4 and Prey support the X-RAM).How does it sound? Well, sound impressions are so subjective and relate very much to what equipment you have already gotten used to in your own home. Without going into a great deal of engineering babble or Rightmark 3D sound tests, I will say that if you own or owned an Audigy 2ZS card, then you WILL NOT note much difference except when using headphones. I used the Audigy 2ZS card for two years with first a Logitech Z-5300 5.1 speaker setup and later with the Creative Gigaworks 7.1 set and the largest difference with the X-Fi Fatal1ty comes from utilizing the CMSS-3D setting to make surround sounds more "envelope" you. This effect is primarily for headphones but is also noticeable on 5.1 or 7.1 speaker systems when used for gaming, and really does make it feel like enemies are sneaking up behind you (provided you have placed your satellite speakers correctly). I also cannot detect any differences between Creative's Fatal1ty and Auzentech's X-Fi Prelude (although the latter has better components). If you are using a 2.1 speaker setup, then you will likely notice little change. Also, I can confirm that 3D headphone sound (used Sennheier and Turtle models) is slightly improved but the effect is subtle when compared to the Audigy 2 ZS. Bottom line; It is better sound, but not by leaps and bounds.On another note, due to its near monopoly in the soundcard business, Creative was getting lazy and failing to release driver updates and patches for known problems. Thanks to market competition, persistant techies, bloggers and review sites, Creative is now releasing better drivers, especially with regards to Vista (although, where are the Linux drivers ?!). Vista 32 bit drivers are now out and work but there is no 64 bit support. You will also need to grab the Alchemy package for EAX enabled games to work within Vista. Bottom line is that Creative is aware of the Vista problems and is working them out slowly, instead of standing in the way, so general support is improving.So, should you buy the Fatal1ty version (or one of the cheaper models)? That is a tough question, because for $60 more you can purchase the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude which has higher level components but no IO bay (unlike the $170 Platinum Fatal1ty) I give the Fata1ty four stars plus (but not quite five) for its good sound, more available models, improved driver releases but gimmicky X-RAM, ribbon cable, ho-hum Vista drivers and lack of Linux drivers.

• Reviewed by:

  Updated: 06-27-07

  Overall Rating: 1 Star Review

  Duration of ownership:6 Months

  Strengths: NONE

  Weaknesses: VERY limited usefulness in Vista 32 bit, NOT usable in Vista 64 Bit

  Overall Evaluation: The drivers are very limited in usefulness for Vista OS, creative keep saying they are going to have a full functioning package, then they put out a re-released unsigned beta version of drivers. They keep telling consumers that it works with Vista, yea it works if you only want sound out of 2 speakers, no Dolby digital, no 6.1 or 7.1 surround sound, and no support for games. So how can they say it works? IT DOESNT !

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