Gigabyte Offers Free 30-Day X-Fi Audio Trial for X58/P45/P43 Series Motherboards

[OnBoard]

TBH, I don't think Creative have anything to do with the download cost for these hashed onboard audio driver sets - I think this is GIGA's way of covering the licensing cost for products that are already on the market. I'm sure after a few months, for owners of new boards that will be released to market, there will be no charge as the licensing cost will be rolled into the motherboard's price.

See where you pay?
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1174182&postcount=5

the hell 32 bit x86 only?

x64 too:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1174160&postcount=4

 

[Aevum]

yea, but as always, the problem isnt the DSP or the drivers (well, with creative the drivers are always aweful), Manufacturers like onkyo, M-Auido, Auzentech habe been hable to provide audio quality quite superior to creative and their X-fi by using decent opamps, dacs and quality PCB design, things creative NEVER does and is too expencive to implement on a motherboard,

i have a Auzentech with a C-Media 8770 which is is supposbly far inferior to a X-fi chip and X-fi software enhancements, i poped in some fresh quality opamps, and it wipes the floor with my old X-Fi xtreme music, and gone are the bloatware drivers, so all i can say about creative is GOOD RID,

 

[KainXS]

So someone could mod these to work on every realtek chip??

Don't know, but I will definitely try

 

[imperialreign]

See where you pay?
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1174182&postcount=5

Again - this is to cover the licensing costs . . . doesn't matter if you're forking the cash over to GIGA or Creative. It's a partnered deal. Creative is payed for the licensing, and they provide the drivers (either directly, or indirectly via GIGA - and whether or not you pay directly to Creative or to GIGA), and GIGA is allowed to "support" these features.

yea, but as always, the problem isnt the DSP or the drivers (well, with creative the drivers are always aweful), Manufacturers like onkyo, M-Auido, Auzentech habe been hable to provide audio quality quite superior to creative and their X-fi by using decent opamps, dacs and quality PCB design, things creative NEVER does and is too expencive to implement on a motherboard,

Creative wouldn't be the ones to impliment any PCB components directly on the motherboard - that'd be GIGA's territory.

Besides, although the other audio card manufacturer's do use some components that are better quality than 95% of Creative's lineup . . . they still don't always choose components that would be best suited for the card, and the majority of the time, it's only to bolster the SNR rating to make the card's specifications look good on paper.

Actual audio quality that the user hears is entirelly subjective, and based a lot on what they use to listen to their audio.

 

[Hayder_Master]

nice im go try it

 

[VIPER]

TBH, I don't think Creative have anything to do with the download cost for these hashed onboard audio driver sets - I think this is GIGA's way of covering the licensing cost for products that are already on the market. I'm sure after a few months, for owners of new boards that will be released to market, there will be no charge as the licensing cost will be rolled into the motherboard's price.

I am just installing the software now. You can download it either from GBT website or from any other site where is available (like Softpedia for example). And the software is pure Creative sh*t, has nothing to do with GBT! GBT just pointed to us that we can use this software on certain MB's. That's all. But, hey, it's easy to throw the cat somewhere else to create some bad ideas, ain't it?

Later edit: "The audio device supported by this application is not detected. The application will exit." / "There are no supported audio device available." a.s.o.

I have a EP45-DS4 which "qualifies" for this software... WTG, Creative!

 

[OnBoard]

Later edit: "The audio device supported by this application is not detected. The application will exit." / "There are no supported audio device available." a.s.o.

I have a EP45-DS4 which "qualifies" for this software... WTG, Creative!

Either it's Vista thing or you'll need later drivers (comes with 2.04).
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=1229163&postcount=10

 

[VIPER]

I will try the new ones you said. But I did what a "normal" user would do, I downloaded the drivers from my MB webpage. And it says it's for Vista 32bit... They should work... Tomorrow I will e-mail my old colleagues in GBT RMA to tell them something is fishy...

Later edit: thanks a lot, now it works

 

[enterco]

What is X-Fi MB

What is X-Fi MB
Is a software driver, which adds to your sound processing chain (only on selected chips) some capabilities. Here is the web page detailing Creative X-Fi MB. This is the second generation of software-only EAX implementation from Creative available to other manufacturers, following the first generation called Audigy MB. It seems that X-Fi MB is available only for some models from specific vendors (Dell, Gigabyte, Asus, etc). When it is installed, the driver will disable the current Dolby software, and installs the following applications: Alchemy (to provide EAX to OpenAL library call translation for older games on Vista), MediaSource (some media player/organizer), Audio Console (an application which provides access to Creative audio features), Console launcher (same thing as Audio console, but with a user-friendly interface), WaveStudio and VolumePanel (a system tray control application). After installation on Vista, these Creative features are available:
- EAX environment Effects (echo/reverb for standard applications)
- CMSS 3D (surround sound on headphones, 2 channel to n speakers, etc)
- Crystalizer (improves mp3/movie sound quality)
- OpenAL, supporting EAX up to level 4
- Another dolby encoder, replacing the one bundled by Gigabyte

The most interesting feature is 'Crystalizer', which makes the music sound better (IMO, of course).

Here is the whole story