Fatal1ty X-Fi sound card on sale for $50 at electronics store, should I get it?

[Monkey_Business]

I saw a Fatal1ty X-Fi sound card on sale for $50 after a $70 mail-in rebate. It was initially $120 but it's on sale for less than half. Should I go for it?

 

[Hayder_Master]

whatever Fatal1ty X-Fi sound (titanium or pro) it's nice deal, but better if you put a link

 

[gaximodo]

about the price for an extreme audio/music.

 

[RejZoR]

Hell yeah. For 50 bucks it's a great deal.

 

[hat]

No. I wouldn't take that garbage for free (well, the hardware is awesome, the drivers and Creative themselves blow, blow blow). I would rather use onboard sound. Since before the release of Windows 7, Creative has been getting bug reports about memory leaks with audiodg, and there has been three driver releases since those bug reports started coming in, and they have done nothing to correct it.

 

[btarunr]

Nice deal, take it for its audio quality.

Since before the release of Windows 7, Creative has been getting bug reports about memory leaks with audiodg, and there has been three driver releases since those bug reports started coming in, and they have done nothing to correct it.

Huh? The last stable driver is dated June 2009, the only release since Windows 7 (in its then RC form).

 

[n-ster]

I hate MIRs, especially big ones...

 

[hat]

Huh? The last stable driver is dated June 2009, the only release since Windows 7 (in its then RC form).

Hmm, that may be, I just read somewhere that it was 3 releases since the bug reports started coming in. Either way, it doesn't change the fact that the drivers are broken and Creative hasn't fixed it yet—and they've had a very long time to do so.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

If you use vent there's no point in getting it as you'll have huge memory leaks. Though I'd always argue for a switch to mumble anyways.

 

[RejZoR]

I call all of it BS. Get it, if you're a gamer, you won't regret it.

 

[Marineborn]

id go for it, i had one but traded it to shev for a usb sound card, i loved that card had fricking awesome sound when yiou ran it threw a home theatre with pro logic! and i jizzed in my pants. lol

 

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

No. I wouldn't take that garbage for free (well, the hardware is awesome, the drivers and Creative themselves blow, blow blow). I would rather use onboard sound. Since before the release of Windows 7, Creative has been getting bug reports about memory leaks with audiodg, and there has been three driver releases since those bug reports started coming in, and they have done nothing to correct it.

Have not experienced any win 7 creative conundrum lately... had more shite happening in xp 32 tbh. This mem leak in audiodg, I'd like to know more of it though (symptoms, logs etc) ...

 

[hat]

Just google creative audiodg, you'll get more hits than you'll ever care to look at. Basically it's a bunch of people saying there's a memory leak, a bunch more people saying "yeah, I have that problem too", and a bunch of people who are pissed off about it.

Currently, the solution is to go into your sound properties and disable sound blaster enhancements, which is obviously not a real solution... yeah sure, let me disable these features (like CMSS... this won't work with sound blaster enhancements disabled) I was expecting to be able to use with my $150 sound card and my $80 5.1 speaker system...

Don't get me wrong, the Creative X-Fi is a great sound card, with great features, it's just extra shitty and absolutely not worth the money when you have problems like the audiodg memory leak that's been going on for at least 2 years now, and the best solution is to disable the features you expected to be able to use with your $150 sound card.

 

[Monkey_Business]

The hardware is great, but the drivers are absolutely terrible. The Auzentech prelude has even better sound quality and has no driver issues. The downside is that it's $200+

 

[btarunr]

Just google creative audiodg, you'll get more hits than you'll ever care to look at. Basically it's a bunch of people saying there's a memory leak, a bunch more people saying "yeah, I have that problem too", and a bunch of people who are pissed off about it.

Currently, the solution is to go into your sound properties and disable sound blaster enhancements, which is obviously not a real solution... yeah sure, let me disable these features (like CMSS... this won't work with sound blaster enhancements disabled) I was expecting to be able to use with my $150 sound card and my $80 5.1 speaker system...

Don't get me wrong, the Creative X-Fi is a great sound card, with great features, it's just extra shitty and absolutely not worth the money when you have problems like the audiodg memory leak that's been going on for at least 2 years now, and the best solution is to disable the features you expected to be able to use with your $150 sound card.

Audiodg is just a component that carries out the software processing of audio (something which Creative X-Fi processors avoid, by design). It works as a separate process just so that 3rd party code such as X-Fi Crystalizer can be inserted into it, making room for whatever memory leaks. It's not a big security or stability risk.

The issue is way too trivial to deter you from buying or using X-Fi sound cards, especially when you're getting one for $50. People just want some or the other reason to bitch at Creative because they want to feel good using their shitty-quality Realtek HD audio codecs.

 

[hat]

I'm not bashing Creative because it's cool, or because I'm trying to avoid crying myself to sleep over my bad audio quality (personally, I think my Audigy SE sounds great, I just wish Creative hadn't removed the CMSS functionality from thier Vista/7 drivers, another shitty thing Creative did, but that's not the issue here...).

No, audiodg isn't a security risk. I never said it was. Stability risk... it can be, in a way. I would say something is unstable when I'm talking on Vent and playing a video game at the same time, and the audiodg process gets so fat that everything starts lagging and going to shit.

I've read that audiodg is a DRM tool. From how I read it, you make it seem like audiodg is a 'crutch', in a manner of speaking, for developers to use to insert thier cool stuff, such as the X-Fi Crystalizer into it; however, audiodg did not exist in XP, and cool stuff like the Crystalizer and CMMS worked great.

Trivial issue? Hardly. A trivial issue would be something like the sound card not having a spot to plug one of those goofy wires that went from the cdrom to an audio header to get audio from the cdrom back in the day. This issue is an issue about losing functionality, such as CMSS, to a memory leak issue that's been going on for quite some time, and hasn't been fixed over a time period something like two years. In my opinion, this is a very huge issue that must be avoided (again, why pay all this money for these features if they're not even usable), and I am simply trying to make others aware of it, so they don't get the same issues that plauged so many others.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

If you have a complete list of all the settings, like the crystalizer, that are effected by turning off enhancements that would be helpful for a friend of mine... so he knows exactly what features of his expensive card can't be used

@Monkey
Any auzentech card using creative chips is going to have the majority of driver issues creative cards do, it's only a slightly modified version of them. So far the best drivers I've used have been community modded. Now I can actually switch modes without it crashing every other time. I don't use vent so I can't comment on if they fix the memory leak.

 

[hat]

I don't have a list of features that can't really be used. All I know is my uncle was having the audiodg issue with Ventrilo (and full tilt poker of all things), and I searched the internet looking for answers... looking for a fix. The best fix I found was to go into the sound properties and disable the "sound blaster enhancements", which we quickly discovered removes CMSS functionality. Surround sound still worked fine if whatever audio we were playing was designed to be surround sound, but upmixing support, for example, getting a stereo MP3 to play over the back and center speakers, was gone.

 

[btarunr]

I'm not bashing Creative because it's cool, or because I'm trying to avoid crying myself to sleep over my bad audio quality (personally, I think my Audigy SE sounds great, I just wish Creative hadn't removed the CMSS functionality from thier Vista/7 drivers, another shitty thing Creative did, but that's not the issue here...).

No, audiodg isn't a security risk. I never said it was. Stability risk... it can be, in a way. I would say something is unstable when I'm talking on Vent and playing a video game at the same time, and the audiodg process gets so fat that everything starts lagging and going to shit.

I've read that audiodg is a DRM tool. From how I read it, you make it seem like audiodg is a 'crutch', in a manner of speaking, for developers to use to insert thier cool stuff, such as the X-Fi Crystalizer into it; however, audiodg did not exist in XP, and cool stuff like the Crystalizer and CMMS worked great.

Trivial issue? Hardly. A trivial issue would be something like the sound card not having a spot to plug one of those goofy wires that went from the cdrom to an audio header to get audio from the cdrom back in the day. This issue is an issue about losing functionality, such as CMSS, to a memory leak issue that's been going on for quite some time, and hasn't been fixed over a time period something like two years. In my opinion, this is a very huge issue that must be avoided (again, why pay all this money for these features if they're not even usable), and I am simply trying to make others aware of it, so they don't get the same issues that plauged so many others.

1. No, audiodg does nothing more than signal processing using the CPU (something Creative X-Fi cards use less of, anyway).

2. It's perfectly normal for drivers from any vendor to insert 3rd party code into audiodg process (that's why audiodg was designed to run as a separate process in the first place, and not some internal kernel module). In Entertainment mode, the X-Fi driver offloads CMSS3D and Crystalizer processing to it.

3. Yes, it's an absolutely trivial issue, close to being a non-issue for a vast majority of users, because it doesn't affect stability or security, further, doesn't affect the quality of the product.

 

[HookeyStreet]

I saw a Fatal1ty X-Fi sound card on sale for $50 after a $70 mail-in rebate. It was initially $120 but it's on sale for less than half. Should I go for it?

I cant believe you need advice on this matter Your credit card / cash should be out already

If you have the spare cash, go for it

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

doesn't affect the quality of the product.

Your logic does not compute... what are you living in bizarro world? Your wheels are square you say? You pay for a product with a certain feature set, that feature set turns out to be defective. That is a quality issue any way you cut it.

 

[Tatty_Two]

I'm not bashing Creative because it's cool, or because I'm trying to avoid crying myself to sleep over my bad audio quality (personally, I think my Audigy SE sounds great, I just wish Creative hadn't removed the CMSS functionality from thier Vista/7 drivers, another shitty thing Creative did, but that's not the issue here...).

No, audiodg isn't a security risk. I never said it was. Stability risk... it can be, in a way. I would say something is unstable when I'm talking on Vent and playing a video game at the same time, and the audiodg process gets so fat that everything starts lagging and going to shit.

I've read that audiodg is a DRM tool. From how I read it, you make it seem like audiodg is a 'crutch', in a manner of speaking, for developers to use to insert thier cool stuff, such as the X-Fi Crystalizer into it; however, audiodg did not exist in XP, and cool stuff like the Crystalizer and CMMS worked great.

Trivial issue? Hardly. A trivial issue would be something like the sound card not having a spot to plug one of those goofy wires that went from the cdrom to an audio header to get audio from the cdrom back in the day. This issue is an issue about losing functionality, such as CMSS, to a memory leak issue that's been going on for quite some time, and hasn't been fixed over a time period something like two years. In my opinion, this is a very huge issue that must be avoided (again, why pay all this money for these features if they're not even usable), and I am simply trying to make others aware of it, so they don't get the same issues that plauged so many others.

I have all CMSS 3D functions in Win 7 on my Xifi Elite pro????

 

[btarunr]

Your logic does not compute... what are you living in bizarro world? Your wheels are square you say? You pay for a product with a certain feature set, that feature set turns out to be defective. That is a quality issue any way you cut it.

What I'm saying is that the memory leaks don't affect the performance or quality of audio, or any of its features, and that something like memory leaks with audiodg does not affect that in any significant way.

What world do you come from? Where you undergo surgery for sneezing? Where you spin a chaingun at your neighbour's dog for peeing on your mailbox? Where something as trivial as audiodg memory leak deters you from buying X-Fi, especially when you're getting it for $50? Then it's your world that's bizarro, mine is fine.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

What I'm saying is that the memory leaks don't affect the performance or quality of audio, or any of its features

Wait a sec, aren't you the one that mentioned the crystalizer no longer working when you disable enhancements? You're saying that's not a feature? Again I'm really not getting your logic. It sounds like everything that's clearly a feature affected by this memory leak is something you don't think is a feature and therefore can't be considered as negatively effecting the value of the card when they don't work? That doesn't make sense...

 

[erocker]

For 50 bucks, get off the internet and go get it.