X-Fi Titanium PCI-Express: Are there Cracking & Popping issues with Battlefield 2 & 2

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RB30

Limp Gawd
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Sep 16, 2007
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Ok, now Creative came out with X-Fi Titanium PCI-Express, which supposedly should fix the cracking and popping issues with Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2132 since Creative technical support said the probelm with X-Fi and Battlefield series lied in PCI bus. Now the new audio card is using PCI-E bus. So does anyone with X-Fi Titanium still hearing the cracking and popping sounds when artillery fires?
 
I can't testify to performance under the Battlefield 2 or 2142 engines.

I can say that I experienced a lot of snap-crackling-popping (SCP) when using 4GB of RAM with games when I had SLI enabled. BIOS, chipset, and video/sound drivers decreased the frequency of SCP, but never eliminated it when using 4GB of RAM w/ video cards in SLI.

As you mentioned, it appears to be a problem with the chipset and how it handles a lot of information over the PCI bus when it is also trying to handle a large amount of video and memory.

The Titanium PCI-E completely eliminated this for me. I can use 4GB of RAM & SLI, and in all of the games that I had problems with previously, this SCP is gone.

Unfortunately I don't own either of the games you are asking about, so can't test to answer your specific questions.
 
PCI Express bandwidth is not shared (unlike PCI) so no bandwidth related problems should occur.
 
Though somewhat unrelated, I'd like to mention that you could also eliminate these issues by not using Creative hardware.

If you want to give them more of your money, though, that is, of course, your choice.
 
Uncle Jim said:
PCI Express bandwidth is not shared (unlike PCI) so no bandwidth related problems should occur.
Click to expand...

I would love to know why the X-Fi has so many problems with certain combinations of hardware. I'm not even sure I can blame the X-Fi.

X-Fi, 2 x 8800 GTX (non SLI), 4GB RAM, AMD CPU, nforce4 = no crackling
X-Fi, 2 x 8800 GTX (SLI), 2GB RAM, AMD CPU, nforce4 = no crackling
X-Fi, 2 x 8800 GTX (SLI), 4GB RAM, AMD CPU, nforce4 = crackling

For whatever reason, using the PCI-E X-Fi means no crackling, so I'm happy.
 
deruberhanyok said:
Though somewhat unrelated, I'd like to mention that you could also eliminate these issues by not using Creative hardware.

If you want to give them more of your money, though, that is, of course, your choice.
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Thank you for contributing something useful to this thread :rolleyes:

I will be buying a Titanium soon - looks like a good deal considering the prices of the Xonar D2X and the Prelude - plus the Titanium won't have the driver issues either of the other cards have.

Never thought I'd say I was buying a Creative card to avoid driver issues :eek:
 
I think the Titanium was priced to be attractive to gamers who don't need the ultra sound performance provided by the Prelude or D2X.

If you listen to high-quality sources using a high-end set of speakers (and possibly high-end receiver) then the Prelude, D2X, or even the Creative Platinum will probably sound better.

But if you mostly just listen to mp3s on mid-range computer speakers (like my Z-5500s) then those higher-end cards aren't going to give you that much of a benefit, at least that you can hear.
 
According to this review the Titanium edges out the other cards in sound quality as well. Their previous reviews showed the Asus card to be comparable to the Prelude in sound quality.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
According to this review the Titanium edges out the other cards in sound quality as well. Their previous reviews showed the Asus card to be comparable to the Prelude in sound quality.
Click to expand...

Although I agree with the general tone of the review (after using the sound card for roughly a month I think it is superior to the X-Fi PCI Fatal1ty I had previously, in every way), I should point out that the Titanium is being compared to the Creative eXtremeGamer (PCI) & the Asus Xonar DX (PCI-E.)

The article doesn't compare the Titanium to the high-end sound cards (Creative's X-Fi Platinum (PCI), Auzentech's Prelude X-Fi (PCI), or the Asus Xonar D2 (PCI) or D2X (PCI-E.)

But I think the Titanium is a pretty nice card for general gaming and music listening.
 
After you guys' recommendation, I just bought X-Fi Titanium PCI-E for Windows Vista running BF2142, and so far no more cracking and popping sounds especially when artillery firing. Very good!
 
I want someone to take this mofo apart and check out the DACs on it, but that's me. I suspect this is simply a tweaked X-Fi Platinum on a PCIe bus (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but not worth trading in an X-Fi Elite Pro for).
 
Balthazor said:
The article doesn't compare the Titanium to the high-end sound cards (Creative's X-Fi Platinum (PCI), Auzentech's Prelude X-Fi (PCI), or the Asus Xonar D2 (PCI) or D2X (PCI-E.)

But I think the Titanium is a pretty nice card for general gaming and music listening.
Click to expand...
I realize this. I'm also drawing my conclusions from reviews I've seen that show the Xonar D2X to be superior to the Prelude, and the Xonar DX to be about equal to the Xonar D2X in terms of sound quality. In fact, according to one review I read, the only thing the D2X offers over the DX is the awesome looking EMI shield and real-time Dolby encoding.

In any event, it will be a nice upgrade over my dead Audigy 2 ZS.
 
I will probably end up getting one of these too if my xtrememusic has any issues in vista 64. I will find out tomorrow when I yank it from my old rig and finish my new one.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
I realize this. I'm also drawing my conclusions from reviews I've seen that show the Xonar D2X to be superior to the Prelude, and the Xonar DX to be about equal to the Xonar D2X in terms of sound quality. In fact, according to one review I read, the only thing the D2X offers over the DX is the awesome looking EMI shield and real-time Dolby encoding.

In any event, it will be a nice upgrade over my dead Audigy 2 ZS.
Click to expand...

Considering X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro PCI-E also got EMI shield and real-time Dolby Digital Live encoding via optical output and the price is about right $120 street price, it is definitely a nice upgrade even for X-Fi Xtremegamer Fatality Pro PCI.

Also the review showed X-Fi Titanium PCI-E has lower CPU usage than PCI version, which is even better for my 2-3 years old system.
 
Is it worth upgrading if I have an X-Fi Platinum? I don't really notice that much popping, but would the sound quality be a bit better? And would optical connections finally work like they're suppose too?
 
If you don't hear any popping or cracking on your X-Fi Platinum, I won't recommend upgrade to X-Fi Titanium unless you need optical input/output or Dolby Digital Live.
 
RB30 said:
After you guys' recommendation, I just bought X-Fi Titanium PCI-E for Windows Vista running BF2142, and so far no more cracking and popping sounds especially when artillery firing. Very good!
Click to expand...

Glad to hear it. They've seemed to release this product with fairly stable drivers.

If you already have an X-Fi (any of the true X-Fi cards) I wouldn't recommend the Titanium unless:

  • You experience snap-crackle-popping using certain combinations of hardware or with certain games
  • You really want to free up a PCI slot to use for something else (I put in a PPU I had sitting around)
  • You want to use Dolby Digital encoding (in which case you better have a really nice high-end receiver to take advantage of it)

But if you are looking to upgrade to an X-Fi from some other sound device I wouldn't choose any of the PCI versions over the Titanium PCI-E.

The dolby digital optical out sounds cool, but unless you're receiver has high-end DACs, you have really nice speakers, and you listen to high quality source audio, you probably won't be noticing a difference between dolby digital out and analog out on the Titanium.

Plus Creative has stated that they are offering Dolby Digital on most existing X-Fi cards and some Audigy cards in August for $4.92.

So just consider that if you're looking at the Titanium solely because you want Dolby Digital.
 
RB30 said:
Considering X-Fi Titanium Fatality Pro PCI-E also got EMI shield and real-time Dolby Digital Live encoding via optical output and the price is about right $120 street price, it is definitely a nice upgrade even for X-Fi Xtremegamer Fatality Pro PCI.

Also the review showed X-Fi Titanium PCI-E has lower CPU usage than PCI version, which is even better for my 2-3 years old system.
Click to expand...
Where do you see it for $120?
 
Though somewhat unrelated, I'd like to mention that you could also eliminate these issues by not using Creative hardware.

If you want to give them more of your money, though, that is, of course, your choice.
 
deruberhanyok said:
Though somewhat unrelated, I'd like to mention that you could also eliminate these issues by not using Creative hardware.

If you want to give them more of your money, though, that is, of course, your choice.
Click to expand...

Um... why the exact same post by two 'different' users?
 
kiensduree said:
Though somewhat unrelated, I'd like to mention that you could also eliminate these issues by not using Creative hardware.

If you want to give them more of your money, though, that is, of course, your choice.
Click to expand...

Very strange.
 
Yeah, I'm kind of wondering that myself. Maybe he meant to quote me and make some kind of smart comment like "that doesn't really help" or something?

ftr, I realize it isn't really helpful, but I feel it's a point that still needed to be made by someone. :)
 
And FTR I have no problem with contrasting opinions. I'm just glad the discussion hasn't descended to all out fanboy (or anti-fanboy) forum flaming.
 
I just wanted to double check. Was going to pick one of these up, but Im currently running 2 8800GTX's, so my only PCIe slots will be the 2 between my 8800s. This card looks like its a little high, but doenset look long, so it shoudlnt mess with the fan on the 8800. But wanted to check that the sli bridge does go over the card?
 
I upgraded from a audigy 2 to the this card, and its an amazing card. I dont have any Poping or cracking while playing Bf2.
 
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