Any advantage using my X-Fi Titanium over 6950 HDMI

[rahavsmt]

I just bought a ATI 6950. It is my first graphics card to come with HDMI connection.

Before I was using my X-Fi with optical spdif passthru. So that means I am passing the DAC on the X-Fi right? So if I am using the HDMI connection for audio, theoretically it should sound the same as before when I was using the X-Fi spdif?

 

[ripken204]

digital is digital, it should sound exactly the same.
whenever i decide to upgrade my video card i will be ditching my auzentech x-fi prelude and using my video card instead.

 

[Mr. Wolf]

In my rig, the volume dropped noticeably when I switched from my onboard audio (Realtek 889) to the HDMI audio in my ATI 5870 (either card). I ended up going back to the onboard.

 

[bbf]

I just bought a ATI 6950. It is my first graphics card to come with HDMI connection.

Before I was using my X-Fi with optical spdif passthru. So that means I am passing the DAC on the X-Fi right? So if I am using the HDMI connection for audio, theoretically it should sound the same as before when I was using the X-Fi spdif?

Yep, when you use your X-Fi's SPDIF output you're bypassing the expensive (for a computer sound card) DAC's and OpAmps on the X-Fi Titanium.

From what I can see, for your setup here's my take on things:

X-Fi Titanium Advantages:
- Hardware 3-D Positional Audio Acceleration (minor advantage these days since main CPU's are so fast.)
- Extra X-Fi audio processing (Crystalizer, etc, etc, that I've not found to be any advantage for me, so I just leave them turned off, however, others LOVE what it does to fill out MP3 audio.)
- Can record high quality audio from digital/analog inputs
- Can plug in headphones directly on the computer with high quality audio (the only reason I keep my X-Fi (not titanium) in my machine.)

Built-in ATI 6950 HDMI Audio Advantages:
- Full 7.1 192kHz/24bit audio (SPDIF on X-Fi can only do 2 channels uncompressed, or 7.1 using Dolby Digital or DTS lossy compression.)
- One fewer cable connection between computer and AV receiver.
- Can get rid of the Creative X-Fi Drivers and free up a slot in your computer. (major advantage IMHO to rid system of extra low level drivers, especially of Creative's quality.)

Sound quality wise the 6950 over HDMI will be better than the X-Fi over SPDIF since it can run 7.1 uncompressed... if you're using a receiver and half decent speakers. If you're running the sound directly to a TV or a monitor with speakers, then you'll probably not be able to hear the difference because you'll only be using two channels through crappy speakers anyways.

So if you don't intend to ever record any audio (you can still do some from your on-board audio), and don't mind plugging in your headphones to your receiver or built in audio on your computer, then IMO just rip out the X-Fi Titanium and sell it on Craigslist.

 

[ripken204]

bbf, some of those pros you listed for the x-fi are not to useful, for me at least.
3D positioning? personally i dont like that, if my audio is 2.1, i will listen to it in 2.1
i dont care much for the crystalizer, makes my music sound fake. on crappy speakers it does help a bit but i still dont like it.
recording audio is always nice, but how many of us will ever use that?
headphones can be plugged into a receiver as well, sure the sound card may be better for that, but im assuming he cares more about receiver/speakers than headphones.

then the plus of selling it and getting money

 

[Geryon]

I've been trying to find out exactly the same information as the OP, with my main focus being gaming, on a 5.1 speaker system.

The two opposing points of view I've seen elsewhere on the net are:

1. The HDMI output on ATI cards is simply a passthrough so you'll be hearing game sounds exactly as the developer intended. However, X-Fi hardware can significantly enhance the game sounds, so you'll be missing out on those improvements if you ditch it.
   
2. Most modern games are implementing their own software sound engines which render the X-Fi hardware useless since it no longer provides any enhancements. Thus, the HDMI output on your ATI card will do just as good a job as any other sound device.

The trouble is, these are just anecdotal statements. Can anyone definitively answer whether current and upcoming games make use of X-Fi hardware, particularly on Windows 7 where DirectSound is gone (I know Alchemy can bring back EAX support for legacy games)?

 

[tronmaster]

I've been trying to find out exactly the same information as the OP, with my main focus being gaming, on a 5.1 speaker system.

The two opposing points of view I've seen elsewhere on the net are:

1. The HDMI output on ATI cards is simply a passthrough so you'll be hearing game sounds exactly as the developer intended. However, X-Fi hardware can significantly enhance the game sounds, so you'll be missing out on those improvements if you ditch it.
   
2. Most modern games are implementing their own software sound engines which render the X-Fi hardware useless since it no longer provides any enhancements. Thus, the HDMI output on your ATI card will do just as good a job as any other sound device.

The trouble is, these are just anecdotal statements. Can anyone definitively answer whether current and upcoming games make use of X-Fi hardware, particularly on Windows 7 where DirectSound is gone (I know Alchemy can bring back EAX support for legacy games)?

You know I am using an ATI 5870 and one thing I have found with the HDMI connection to my receiver is that I can't listen to multiple things at once. For example, I am listening to Windows Media Player music, and decide to play a video on Classic Media Player, the WMP would just stop. I think this happens with my iTunes too. Plus WoW sounds only "okay" compared to the Sound Blaster connection. Hmm?

Secondly, I play a lot of older games, and they sound crappy or their internal sound don't recognize the direct sound. I get the default sound in Neverwinter Nights 1, I can't pick 3D directional sound or was it 5.1 Dolby or whatever it is... So for me I would use Alchemy just for this.

The only reason why I use the HDMI for sound is for Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD with my blu-ray but everything else I am perfectly fine with using the Sound Blaster.

So right now I am experimenting with using the ATI 5870 HDMI to be use with only the classic media player to bitstream my blu-ray and everything else I am using an optical connection with my Sound Blaster Titanium.

I know I didn't answer your question, but I really don't see a lot of newer games supporting just EAX or whatever the latest Sound Blaster technology when they can just rely on Directsound.

 

[Geryon]

I am using an ATI 5870 and one thing I have found with the HDMI connection to my receiver is that I can't listen to multiple things at once.

That doesn't sound good Has anyone else experienced similar issues, or can anyone else say that their HDMI output works fine?

So right now I am experimenting with using the ATI 5870 HDMI to be use with only the classic media player to bitstream my blu-ray and everything else I am using an optical connection with my Sound Blaster Titanium.

Does the optical output work well for you? As I understand it, S/PDIF connections only have enough bandwidth for 2 channels of uncompressed audio, so the only way you can get 5.1 audio is in a compressed form. From what I've read on AV forums, this in turn means you need an expensive high-end DAC to decompress the audio in decent quality, otherwise, you're better off using uncompressed analogue outputs.

I really don't see a lot of newer games supporting just EAX or whatever the latest Sound Blaster technology when they can just rely on Directsound.

That's the thing though; the DirectSound API doesn't exist from Vista onwards. I've been doing some more reading, and basically, developers can still support EAX in future using the OpenAL API, but Microsoft are pushing the XAudio2 API instead since that's what the Xbox 360 uses, thus making it even easier to port between consoles and PC.

So many recent PC games are just bad console ports that it seems like XAudio2 might become dominant over OpenAL and X-Fi cards will become a waste of money from a purely gaming perspective. (Obviously they still have other advantages).

The uncertainty just sucks, because I'm trying to decide whether to invest in an expensive X-Fi card with HDMI output, or just use my ATI card's HDMI.