Sound Card for 3D gaming?

[Sniper]

I have a new Extreme Gamer & it came with the proper drivers for either OS. I know the product so I'll personally stick with it. Like most things people like it's all in preference! I've never used anything but since I started in this business so that's all.

[IvesKu]

Thanks so much for the help, guys. Realy appreciate that.

Still I'm curious about how many 3D games really support EAX3~5?

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by IvesKu

Thanks so much for the help, guys. Realy appreciate that.

Still I'm curious about how many 3D games really support EAX3~5?

Look it up.. there is a list... and 90% of the games are EA.

[Robscix]

Here is the list....Which game support which levels os EAX are not listed. Click the link and the list is linked to at the top of the page. EAX Games List

[belgolas]

Well I can tell (at least in XP) That there is a big difference from EAX 2.0 to EAX 5.0 in some games like Battlefield 2. Big difference. But most games it doesn't matter much. XP my extreme gamer X-fi has been amazing for me. Only a few small problems but mostly it is fine. Haven't tried vista though. Never do I ever want to be on onboard sound again.

[Robscix]

Here is a list of EAX effects per technology level for those interested. The fact remains that some games would utilize the effects to a higher extent them some others. EAX 5.0 is still relatively new and hasn't been as widely adopted for games yet. Future games may make better use of the technology. While some people love EAX in games others don't care about it so much. Depends on the type of games you play also.

EAX Level Feature List

EAX 1.0

• Environmental Effect Presets
• 32 individual 3D voices
• Per-channel individual environmental presets
• Hardware DSP Rendering

EAX 2.0:

• Occlusion Effects
• Material-specific reverb parameters

EAX 3.0:

• 'Smoothing' between 3D audio environments
• Direct access to all reverb parameters
• Environmental Panning
• New reverb engine
• 64 simultaneous voices
• Beginning of the AdvancedHD Designation from new reverb engine

EAX 4.0:

• Real-time hardware effects
• Multiple simultaneous environments
• Flange, echo, distortion, and ring modulation effects

EAX 5.0:

• 128 simultaneous voices
• EAX Voice - Processing of microphone input signal
• EAX PurePath - EAX Sound effects can originate from one speaker only
• Environment FlexiFX - 4 available effects slots per channel
• EAX MacroFX - realistic positional effects at close range
• Environment Occlusion - Sound from adjacent environments can pass through walls

[lcdguy]

i also vot for auzentech. They are imho a much higher quality board manufacturer than creative. I have had 1 creative card (buggy as hell) and 2 auzentech cards (both were awesome) the only issue i had with the auzentech cards was digital support in linux for one and support at all for the other. I personally love my X-Meridian for the DTS connect and DDL features. If i had to choose again it would be auzentech. Not to mention the replaceable opamp chips is a nice feature.