Do you use a Creative sound card?

Dark Lord · Apr 30, 2005, 08:28 PM

no audigy for me.

im useing my onboard AC97 optical to my Z-680's and it sounds perfect to me. i see no need to upgrade to a real soundcard when this sounds great to me.

RIV@NVX · Apr 30, 2005, 09:13 PM

I'm not a fanboi, but I have Audigy2 (non-ZS model). I might change it for something better at some point in the future, once I see something worth buying.

Ubergrendle · Apr 30, 2005, 10:14 PM

I have an Audigy Gamer that works for me. Even though I'm a gamer I mostly use a headset, and occasionally a 2+sub speaker setup. I doubt I'll ever buy another audio card as the onboard sound now is probably sufficient for most people's needs.

DiRtBaG · Apr 30, 2005, 10:28 PM

I shifted from Audigy 2ZS to Audiotrack Prodigy 7.1 LT, and will never shift back again, unless creative makes a card that is better than Prodigy 7.1 LT. But i don´t think they can

Audiotrack Prodigy 7.1 LT together with my Creative Gigaworks S750 is fantastic

BWX · Apr 30, 2005, 11:20 PM

Creative cards are nice, Creative software sucks IMO. I use A Fortissimo III 7.1..(with Creative speakers ironically) awesome card but more and more games seem to be using Eax HD and whatnot, so a Creative card might be in my future sometime soon..

Sonata · Apr 30, 2005, 11:23 PM

I'm not a creative fanboy, that doesn't mean I don't like creative sound cards, as I do. But I haven't had a creative sound card since my creative sound blaster live 3 years ago, when I put that in an Asus P4S533 it used to cause conflicts. I found that the onboard sound on my P4S533 was okay, the Asus P4P800 Deluxe with its Ai Audio is pretty good and my current A8V Deluxe with its Ai Audio (8 channel digital audio) is very good. Unless you have a real need for a dedicated sound card (or a budget mobo), I think onboard sound is good enough for the average user.

El Kapitano · Apr 30, 2005, 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWX

Creative cards are nice, Creative software sucks IMO. I use A Fortissimo III 7.1..(with Creative speakers ironically) awesome card but more and more games seem to be using Eax HD and whatnot, so a Creative card might be in my future sometime soon..

That's the sole reason I finally surrendered to the dark side.

**dj_stick** · May 1, 2005, 12:33 AM

Audigy ES
Audigy 2 ZS

JRosenfeld · May 1, 2005, 01:29 AM

Audigy 2 OEM came in my Dell. Have not found any reason to change; good sound for a PC card (with 5.1 speakers), though if I want to listen to my CDs I go to my hi fi room. Not really into creating/editing music files, so don't use the software much.

Rosco[CoF] · May 1, 2005, 01:31 AM

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, with their beta 4193 drivers it does everything I need a sound card to do. Even does EAX 2.0 quite well.

Asmoday · May 1, 2005, 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

How would you rate the card Mike?

Well, since i've not used a creative card since the sb live. It's kind of difficult to rate it against the audigy series. But the fortissimo is a great card for the price, no doubt about it.

>GSXR<mrbusa · May 1, 2005, 01:53 AM

i use an audigy2 zs retail and have had no problems and the sound is good.the only problem i have with cl is the driver updates for this series.go to there site and there is 15+ updates and each one has to be installed in the correct order.well the order is not very well organized to say the least.once you figure it out its all good.i will probably upgrade to audigy 4 pro when it is in the 125.00 range so that could be awhile.

peace out

syxx73 · May 1, 2005, 02:04 AM

Hercules Game Theater XP 7.1

wouldnt swap it for anything , easily the best card ive used

syxx

LuCifer · May 1, 2005, 02:54 AM

Man I want a Soundcard...

Judas · May 1, 2005, 02:59 AM

2x Hercules Digifire 7.1
Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1
Hercules Game Theater XP 7.1
Creative Audigy 2 ZS

Although i don't have a main rig of my own, i currently have the digifire 7.1 in both my sisters rig (which i use when i can) and the dedicated server. ATM, i have the fortissimo and game theaters still in there package.

Creative Audigy 2 ZS has been put back were it rightfully will stay untill i find someone willing to buy it.

Ran both the digifire and Audigy through it's paces. And overall, found that the preformance was a smidge faster with the hercules cards, sounded better overall in games with and without EAX, and a hell of alot more stable not to mention a much much smoother running system. (By defualt, it starts up 2 applications on boot, one of which is a systray icon for the control panel which uses nill for any cpu time or memory, another is initialization of various MIDI and soundfonts. Both of which can be disable and never really required to run until a program needs it.)

Heres the kicker, it takes 15-20 seconds TOPS to click the "Setup.exe" application, go through the driver installation, and to be playing your games and or music. No reboots, no hard configurations, no waiting period.

Hercules did a damn good job, they have been even with the sound cards before these 7.1s

Reason i'm interested in checking out how well the Hercules Fortissimo IV checks out like considering it's useing Via sound chipset now.

I'm also serprised a bunch of sound programmers didn't jump on the hercules cards due to them having 2 seperate sound chips. With a little work, easily 2 sound cards in one, seperating both to do what anyone would like with them. Course not knowing much on how they would do it, who knows.

Callisto · May 1, 2005, 03:04 AM

Audigy 2 Value, for teh win.

Blazer · May 1, 2005, 05:13 AM

I use a creative audigy2, and it has served me well through 3 motherboards and 4 processors

calidan · May 1, 2005, 06:33 AM

I have an Audigy Gamer w/ the latest Audigy 2 drivers installed.

And I have never had any crashes or lockups with any games.

I probably won't upgrade till my next rig.

**temeteus82** · May 1, 2005, 10:14 AM

I use Live 5.1 .....

Mr cairo · May 1, 2005, 10:59 AM

I'm currently using the Hercules fortissimo III but may have to switch to creative if hercules dont get off their arses and relase a newer driver for XP64 bit

germanjulian · May 1, 2005, 01:08 PM

i use an e-mu which is creative but not they normal cards?!

also what about the other manufacturers?

Grizzly · May 1, 2005, 01:19 PM

I've had my Santa Cruz for four years or something now and I see no reason to buy something else.

~~Vasot~~ · May 1, 2005, 01:56 PM

Audigy 2ZS

I do not know what some haters say about Creative\Sounblaster but these card is the best for gaming\performance

Also their latest drivers are pretty good and i am hearing they will become even better with the next driver that Creative has in BETA right now

It's better having a Soundcard like Sounblaster or Terratec etc
than
a onboard weak sound sollution like Nvidia soundstorm or AE97 or some like that which suck in gaming

Audigy 2 rulez and Creative is already planning for Sounblaster ZEN...their Future soundcard sollution
But i here it will be PCI Express Only

Quote:

Originally Posted by cairo

I'm currently using the Hercules fortissimo III but may have to switch to creative if hercules dont get off their arses and relase a newer driver for XP64 bit

There are many companies and software that does not support XP-64
so do not complain

These OS needs to be matured first (these can take from months to even a year)

also it has not yet released in stores

All companies still recommend XP(32) for full support and stability with current software out there

jkayca2 · May 1, 2005, 02:08 PM

I used to use Creative products exclusively. Soundblaster, Soundblaster Pro, etc. Never thought of going to a different brand. After a bad experience with Creative's tech support I switched. I'm quite happy with my Hercules Fortissimo. It works flawlessly. I don't know how well their tech support is because I've never had to talk to them

.

The_Neon_Cowboy · May 1, 2005, 03:55 PM

FYI: People don't realize that their soundcard can make noticeable difference in FPS!
Especially when moving from onboard to a sound card....

I've used creative in the past ... they are well known as the best in the business
sound blaster live 5.1 is all "most" people "need"...

People complan about thier driver support/lack of updates but what is there to
complain about when everything works

like i said never personally had a problem...

When they where 1st introduced (before Audigy) the live series that is some people had
problems related wich was solved by disabling com 1 or 2, that share are resouce that
card wants to use...

Other then that i've never herd a complaint 1st hand though I read quite a lot of them on
here....But useally from people are useing KX or turn to KX drivers... people doing things
most of us aren't

Sonata · May 1, 2005, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Neon_Cowboy

FYI: People don't realize that their soundcard can make noticeable difference in FPS!
Especially when moving from onboard to a sound card....

Wouldn't the average Joe be better off putting the money saved on not buying a sound card into a better video card, I think that would make a better improvement in FPS!

I would also like to know how you have worked out that a soundcard can give you better FPS! i.e., can you provide benchmarks with and with out your sound card installed. I can't imagine there would be much difference in FPS.

Gaijin · May 1, 2005, 09:36 PM

Not quite a fanboy, was happy with my good'ol Terratec cards til last year when personal needs "forced" me to upgrade to a Creative Audigy 2 ZS.

Been quite happy with the cards performance & features so far, seems Creative have learned something over the years about drivers...
All though slowly.

Zelig · May 1, 2005, 10:24 PM

Audigy 2 ZS here... I don't much like Creative though.

ronnn · May 1, 2005, 11:33 PM

I use an audigy 2 , but am not a fanboy. Am more than open to trying a card with better sound qualities.

BWX · May 2, 2005, 02:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonata

Wouldn't the average Joe be better off putting the money saved on not buying a sound card into a better video card, I think that would make a better improvement in FPS!

I would also like to know how you have worked out that a soundcard can give you better FPS! i.e., can you provide benchmarks with and with out your sound card installed. I can't imagine there would be much difference in FPS.

A DSP on a good soundcard will free up more CPU cycles for faster performance (Fortissimo, Audigy, etc), many benchmarks on the web will prove that.

Apr 30, 2005, 09:13 PM	#32
RIV@NVX Freedom is a feature. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Croatia, Rijeka Posts: 4,476 Rep Power: 67 System Specs	I'm not a fanboi, but I have Audigy2 (non-ZS model). I might change it for something better at some point in the future, once I see something worth buying. __________________ -- Vedran

Apr 30, 2005, 10:14 PM	#33
Ubergrendle Semper ubi sub ubi Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Toronto Posts: 702 Rep Power: 0	I have an Audigy Gamer that works for me. Even though I'm a gamer I mostly use a headset, and occasionally a 2+sub speaker setup. I doubt I'll ever buy another audio card as the onboard sound now is probably sufficient for most people's needs. __________________ Veteran of the PC Microchannel / EISA wars of the late 1980s.

Apr 30, 2005, 10:28 PM	#34
DiRtBaG DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Denmark Posts: 27 Rep Power: 0	I shifted from Audigy 2ZS to Audiotrack Prodigy 7.1 LT, and will never shift back again, unless creative makes a card that is better than Prodigy 7.1 LT. But i don´t think they can Audiotrack Prodigy 7.1 LT together with my Creative Gigaworks S750 is fantastic __________________ DiRtBaG DFI Lanparty nF4 SLI DR \|Amd 64 4000+@2921 \| Asetek WaterChill Antarctica \| XFX GEFORCE 7800 GTX Extreme XXX 512MB Core clock 600/1800\| G-Skill Extreme 2GB HZ PC4000 Dual DDR. Cas 3-4-3-8 \| 1WD Raptor 36GB \| 2x300GB Maxtor10 16MB IDE \| 1x300GB Maxline III 16mb 3x200GB SATA Maxtor 8Mb \| Samsung 16X Dual layer DVD brænder \| Plexwriter 52/24/52A \| AUDIOTRAK Prodigy 7.1 LT \| Creative GigaWorks S750 7.1 THX \| Creative DTTS-100 Decoder \| ViewSonic VP201b 20.1" TFT \| Chieftec Dragon Bigtower \| Enermax EG651P-VE NoiseMagic NMT-2 and 3412N/2GL 550 Watt Psu \| Sennheiser 155 usb Headset \| Platronics DSP 500 Headset \| Logitech MX1000 Laser \| Logitech diNovo Media Desktop v2.0 \| Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 \| Epson Stylus Photo RX600 MulitPrinter Last edited by DiRtBaG; Apr 30, 2005 at 10:34 PM.

Apr 30, 2005, 11:20 PM	#35
BWX unplugged Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: USNY Posts: 19,665 Rep Power: 109 System Specs	Creative cards are nice, Creative software sucks IMO. I use A Fortissimo III 7.1..(with Creative speakers ironically) awesome card but more and more games seem to be using Eax HD and whatnot, so a Creative card might be in my future sometime soon.. __________________

May 1, 2005, 02:54 AM	#44
LuCifer DH sig maker! Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Fontucky Posts: 1,158 Rep Power: 45	Man I want a Soundcard... __________________

Apr 30, 2005, 08:28 PM	#31
Dark Lord HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI Posts: 5,945 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	no audigy for me. im useing my onboard AC97 optical to my Z-680's and it sounds perfect to me. i see no need to upgrade to a real soundcard when this sounds great to me.

Apr 30, 2005, 11:23 PM	#36
Sonata DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Hot as hell in summer Posts: 284 Rep Power: 0	I'm not a creative fanboy, that doesn't mean I don't like creative sound cards, as I do. But I haven't had a creative sound card since my creative sound blaster live 3 years ago, when I put that in an Asus P4S533 it used to cause conflicts. I found that the onboard sound on my P4S533 was okay, the Asus P4P800 Deluxe with its Ai Audio is pretty good and my current A8V Deluxe with its Ai Audio (8 channel digital audio) is very good. Unless you have a real need for a dedicated sound card (or a budget mobo), I think onboard sound is good enough for the average user.

May 1, 2005, 01:29 AM	#39
JRosenfeld HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 104 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Audigy 2 OEM came in my Dell. Have not found any reason to change; good sound for a PC card (with 5.1 speakers), though if I want to listen to my CDs I go to my hi fi room. Not really into creating/editing music files, so don't use the software much.

May 1, 2005, 01:31 AM	#40
Rosco[CoF] HardwareHeaven Lover Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Traverse City, MI Posts: 158 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, with their beta 4193 drivers it does everything I need a sound card to do. Even does EAX 2.0 quite well.

May 1, 2005, 01:53 AM	#42
>GSXR<mrbusa im a FREAK Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 2,107 Rep Power: 55 System Specs	i use an audigy2 zs retail and have had no problems and the sound is good.the only problem i have with cl is the driver updates for this series.go to there site and there is 15+ updates and each one has to be installed in the correct order.well the order is not very well organized to say the least.once you figure it out its all good.i will probably upgrade to audigy 4 pro when it is in the 125.00 range so that could be awhile. peace out

May 1, 2005, 02:04 AM	#43
syxx73 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 1 Rep Power: 0	Hercules Game Theater XP 7.1 wouldnt swap it for anything , easily the best card ive used syxx

May 1, 2005, 03:04 AM	#46
Callisto DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 94 Rep Power: 0	Audigy 2 Value, for teh win.

May 1, 2005, 05:13 AM	#47
Blazer Tweeker Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kitchener Posts: 611 Rep Power: 61 System Specs	I use a creative audigy2, and it has served me well through 3 motherboards and 4 processors __________________ ASUS Maximus Formula, OCZ 780MXS ps, Core2 Duo 8400 @ 3.80GHz,Corsair Water cooling kit, 4x2gb Mushkin DDR2 8000, 5 hardrives totalling 1.75 TB, Sapphire Theatrix, SyncMaster 2343, Logitech MX-518, 2 Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 Crossfired , running on Windows7 64 bit, all in an Antec P160w Case.

May 1, 2005, 06:33 AM	#48
calidan Frozen in Carbonite Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 1,409 Rep Power: 57 System Specs	I have an Audigy Gamer w/ the latest Audigy 2 drivers installed. And I have never had any crashes or lockups with any games. I probably won't upgrade till my next rig.

May 1, 2005, 10:59 AM	#50
Mr cairo F0rum For Humans Only Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Slightly to the left Posts: 1,764 Rep Power: 87 System Specs	I'm currently using the Hercules fortissimo III but may have to switch to creative if hercules dont get off their arses and relase a newer driver for XP64 bit __________________

May 1, 2005, 01:08 PM	#51
germanjulian Back in London Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: London Posts: 1,797 Rep Power: 0	i use an e-mu which is creative but not they normal cards?! also what about the other manufacturers? __________________ /\|\ Asus P5W DH Deluxe, Intel C2D E6600, 2GB Corsair XMS2-6400C4 DDR2, E-VGA GeForce 7800 GT, Creative X-Fi Extreme Music, 500GB Seagate 7200.10 SATA, Lian Li PC-V1100 Aluminum Case Black, etc. http://germanjulian.com /\|\

May 1, 2005, 01:19 PM	#52
Grizzly Lurker Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Sweden Posts: 8 Rep Power: 0	I've had my Santa Cruz for four years or something now and I see no reason to buy something else.

May 1, 2005, 02:08 PM	#54
jkayca2 DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Canada Posts: 379 Rep Power: 0	I used to use Creative products exclusively. Soundblaster, Soundblaster Pro, etc. Never thought of going to a different brand. After a bad experience with Creative's tech support I switched. I'm quite happy with my Hercules Fortissimo. It works flawlessly. I don't know how well their tech support is because I've never had to talk to them . __________________ [color=Blue]PNY Verto GeFORCE 6800GT AGP 256MB DDR3 - 1 GHz Win XP Pro (SP 2) - Directx 9.0c Intel P4 2.8C GHz - Abit IS7 Mobo 2x512 + 2x1024 MB PC 3200 DDR WD 74 GB Raptor + WD 120 GB HD with 8 MB Cache Hercules Gamesurround Fortissmo 7.1 Logitech Z5500 Speaker System Leadtek WinFast TV 2000 XP Deluxe LG GSA-4160B DVD Burner Logitech LX700 Keyb, mouse combo Mitsubishi DiamondPro 2070SB 22" CRT[/color]

May 1, 2005, 03:55 PM	#55
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 90 System Specs	FYI: People don't realize that their soundcard can make noticeable difference in FPS! Especially when moving from onboard to a sound card.... I've used creative in the past ... they are well known as the best in the business sound blaster live 5.1 is all "most" people "need"... People complan about thier driver support/lack of updates but what is there to complain about when everything works like i said never personally had a problem... When they where 1st introduced (before Audigy) the live series that is some people had problems related wich was solved by disabling com 1 or 2, that share are resouce that card wants to use... Other then that i've never herd a complaint 1st hand though I read quite a lot of them on here....But useally from people are useing KX or turn to KX drivers... people doing things most of us aren't __________________ Last edited by The_Neon_Cowboy; May 1, 2005 at 04:05 PM.

May 1, 2005, 09:36 PM	#57
Gaijin DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Finland, Europe Posts: 101 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Not quite a fanboy, was happy with my good'ol Terratec cards til last year when personal needs "forced" me to upgrade to a Creative Audigy 2 ZS. Been quite happy with the cards performance & features so far, seems Creative have learned something over the years about drivers... All though slowly. __________________ [COLOR=DeepSkyBlue]In Vino Veritas ... [/COLOR]

May 1, 2005, 10:24 PM	#58
Zelig HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 3,187 Rep Power: 69 System Specs	Audigy 2 ZS here... I don't much like Creative though. __________________ --

May 1, 2005, 11:33 PM	#59
ronnn DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 617 Rep Power: 0	I use an audigy 2 , but am not a fanboy. Am more than open to trying a card with better sound qualities.