[Hardware] - Creative Lab's X-Fi Platinum Review

[bapenguin]

Creative Labs Xi-Fi Platinum Review
by: Nicholas “bapenguin” Puleo
MSRP: $199.99
Link: X-Fi Platinum

Reviewing a soundcard like the Creative Labs X-Fi is a bit of a tricky thing. Audio quality is very subjective. I needed to find a way to review the hardware from both a technical standpoint and from a subjective listner standpoint. I didn’t want to use any fancy audio measuring instruments, I wanted to know: “How does this soundcard sound to your everyday computer gamer?”

The X-Fi soundcard is an amazing piece of hardware. The main processor has around 51 million transistors, compared to 4.6 million in the Audigy. In sheer power, the X-Fi processor is around 24x more powerful than it’s predecessor. That’s quite impressive. The lineup comes in a 4 flavors: The X-Fi Xtreme Music, the X-Fi Platinum, the X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS, and the X-Fi Elite Pro. Each card has its own target audience. The Xtreme Music and Platinum are your “bare bones” solution with the latter containing a drive bay panel for easy access to audio functions. The Fatal1ty FPS is designed for gamers containing all the features of the other 2 cards as well as 64 meg of XRAM. An X makes everything extreme apparently. The final card, the Elite Pro is for the serious audio enthusiast and actually contains a higher quality DAC for a 116dB Signal to Noise Ratio as well as a breakout box for audio connections and 64 meg of XRAM.



The Test System:
Athlon 64 3200+
1 Gig of DDR3200
Gigabyte G8NS Motherboard with AC97 onboard Sound
GeForce 6800GT with 256 Meg onboard memory
80 Gig Hard drive with 8 meg cache
Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum
Klipsch Pro Media 4.1 Speakers
Koss R/30S Headphones

The Test Applications:
Battlefield 2
Call of Duty 2
Quake 4
iTunes
PowerDVD 5

Technical Specifications:
• 24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs at 96kHz sample rate
• 24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of digital sources at 96kHz to analog 7.1 speaker output
• 24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of stereo digital sources at 192kHz to stereo output
• 16-bit to 24-bit recording sampling rates: 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 and 96kHz
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio (20kHz Low-pass fi lter, A-Weighted)
• Stereo Output 109dB
• Front and Rear Channels 109dB
• Center, Subwoofer and Side Channels 109dB
• Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise at 1kHz (20kHz Low-pass fi lter) = 0.004%
• Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/96kHz input ) = <10Hz to 46kHz
• Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/192kHz input) = <10Hz to 88kHz (Stereo only)
• ASIO 2.0 support at 16-bit/44.1kHz, 16-bit/48kHz, 24-bit/44.1kHz 24-bit/48kHz and 24-bit/96kHz with direct monitoring
• Enhanced SoundFont support at up to 24-bit resolution

Yeah...that's a lot of numbers...but what does it all mean? Lets dig deeper.

I wanted to test the X-Fi against my onboard AC97 soundcard. I wanted to know a few things:

1) What kind of performance improvements will I get from the X-Fi?
2) What kind of quality difference is there between the AC97 and X-Fi?
3) What features does the X-Fi offer that onboard sound doesn't offer?

Installation of the card was easy; just plug it into an open PCI slot. Hooking up the drive was easy as well, but it does require power from a floppy connector. Creative includes a splitter to go off a standard molex power connector if needed. One thing I didn’t like was the drive was hooked up to the X-Fi card via a non standard IDE ribbon cable, not a rounded cable. This could impede airflow in some cases if not routed properly.



The drive itself is a sleek black gloss with numerous input/output options like Optical, SPDIF, Standard AV Composite, a Headphone Jack with volume control and MIDI input/output. The drive also comes with a remote control to adjust things like volume and other various features of the card.



So what does the X-Fi Platinum offer? This is a high quality soundcard which sports a 109dB Signal to Noise Ratio. SNR ratio is a measure of signal strength relative to background noise. The ratio is usually measured in decibels (dB), and the higher the number the cleaner and higher quality the sound is.

The card can also perform some neat “tricks.” For instance, the X-Fi contains what Creative calls a 24-bit Crystallizer. They claim it enhances MP3 music (and other audio sources) to make it sound better than it did on the original CD. While I don't know how true this is, it does appear to give the music I listened to a fuller richer sound. In addition you can use Creative's new “super-rip” function to rip your CDs to high quality multi-channel audio formats. This will also apply the Crystallizer functions to the file to increase the quality. The problem with this is the file sizes are ridiculous and the quality difference is minimal at best. For instance, the Perfect Dark 0 intro is a 1.1 megabyte MP3 file. In super-rip format it is over 36 megabytes. The super-rip format is in a 5.1 Surround Sound WMA file.

You can listen to both versions here: MP3 and SuperRip WMA

The card has 3 “modes” to it: Entertainment mode which is for general usage; Gaming mode which is for...yeah gaming; and audio creation mode which gives you lots of tools to use in audio creation and allows higher quality capturing of audio. It is recommended you switch to the mode that is most appropriate for your current application. Unfortunately, you can not switch between these modes via the included remote control; instead you must bring up the application control panel and cycle through it there.




I know I know, you are asking yourself, “Penguin, this is all well and good, but how are the games man...the GAMES!?!?” I'm glad you asked.

Quake 4
Resolution: 1600x1200
AA: No
AF: No
Level: Data Processing Terminal
EAX Enabled for X-Fi, DNF for AC97

I never had any performance issues with the onboard AC97 audio, I always ran close to 60 FPS. The sound quality was decent and I never had any problems with it. When I switched to the X-Fi though FPS remained unchanged, but the sound quality....wow! What a difference, the environment had so much more depth to it. I could hear the bullets echoing off walls, when doors opened it the sound was rich and deep. Positioning of the enemies was amazing. It really totally changed my experience with the game

Average FPS:
AC97 Onboard - 53
SoundBlaster X-Fi – 55

As you can see, in Quake 4 the performance difference was minimal at best, but the audio quality was a huge jump.

[bapenguin]

Call of Duty 2
Resolution: 1600x1200
AA: No
AF: No
Level: Russian Training Mission
EAX Enabled for X-Fi, Enabled for AC97

I think Fraps may have a bug in it with this game and reporting the FPS, Fraps claims I average around 19-22 FPS, but the gameplay is much smoother to me. Call of Duty 2 didn't seem to utilize as many effects as Quake 4 did for the environment, but the quality difference was noticeable between the onboard.

Average FPS:
AC97 Onboard – 20
SoundBlaster X-Fi – 21

Battlefield 2
Resolution: 1600x1200
AA: No
AF: No
Level: Daqing Oilfields (32 Players)
EAX Enabled for X-Fi, DNF for AC97

Battlefield 2 was next on my list, and actually has a special mode for X-Fi soundcards. The problem is, you need an X-Fi card with XRAM to enable it, so I was SOL here. I decided to test whether or not having the card in Entertainment Mode rather than Gaming Mode affected the performance of the game. Sound quality was much improved over the AC97 onboard audio with the X-Fi. Weapons sounded richer; there were new noticeable environmental effects. The bass on explosions were more powerful. Overall the experience was more immersive.

Average FPS:
AC97 Onboard – 27
SoundBlaster X-Fi (Entertainment Mode) – 30
SoundBlaster X-Fi (Gaming Mode) – 31

So there was a difference between the modes, apparently the soundcard dedicates more of it’s processor to EAX gaming functions.

iTunes

I wanted to test how MP3s sounded with the Creative Labs 24-bit Crystallizer function.
I used iTunes to do play the mp3s and adjusted the Crystallizer via the remote control and carefully listened to subtle changes in the songs. During rock songs, the higher the value of the Crystallizer the more detailed the guitars became. Other than that, the sound quality was generally richer. During classical music the detail on horns became more apparent, but there wasn't the depth like there was with some rock songs. During Dance/Techno music the claps/hits of the music became more detailed and the bass line became louder. The sound was generally much richer. I thought Dance/Techno music seemed to benefit the most from the Crystallizer function.
The card also has the ability to do a Pro-Logic Decoding of sorts that Creative calls CMSS-3D. X-Fi CMSS-3D allows users to enhance their MP3 music to surround sound over headphones or multi-channel speakers. It’s a bit gimmicky but it does work and does utilize all of your surround sound speakers when listening to 2 channel audio. Using it with headphones makes the audio more positional as well.


Power DVD
I wanted to test the DTS/Dolby Digital decoding capabilities of the X-Fi. I used copy of The 5th Element Ultimate Edition, a DVD I use quite a bit as reference in my home theater. The X-Fi did an excellent job decoding the stream (it's kind of hard to screw that up), but what was really nice was it converted the 5.1 Stream to 4.1 to use on my system. Using the headphones the X-Fi did an excellent job of creating 3D space as well. If you wanted you could also hook up a DVD player via the optical connection and use the X-Fi as a receiver to do your Dolby Digital, DTS and DTS-ES decoding.

Conclusion
Overall the X-Fi is a big difference between your standard onboard soundcard. Not only does it provide higher quality audio and better performance in games, it also provides more input and output options for recording and ripping audio. The price might scare some, but according to creative both The Audigy and Audigy 2 debuted at the same price points as the X-Fi. Creative really needs a 5th card in the lineup for the budget gamer with the 64 meg of XRAM and no drive bay add-on for $150 bucks.

The Good
Excellent Sound Quality
Tons of features
Improves Performance Across the board
Crystallizer makes sound richer

The Bad
The drive bay uses a standard flat IDE cable
Switching between the 3 modes is a bit of a pain

The Ugly
Higher end models are way to expensive

Verdict:
4.5 out of 5 EvilEyes


Thank you Creative Labs for supplying the card for review.

[BabyJesus]

I have the "Fatal1ty" version. I like it but as always with creative the card has a few issues with popping some odd instances of sound going strange for a few seconds(although, only a few times since I've had it). Kinda like the 3d effect going out of whack. Other than that it does sound much better than my old on board sound and performance seems better overall in some games.


I got it on the "cheap" (if $200 is cheap). Via the QuakeCon discount off of the regular MSRP of $279.

I bought it for my next PC upgrade but there are many reports of it having major issues with Nforce 4 boards. Although it works fine except for the problems noted above on my current Nforce2 board. So I have been holding out for a driver fix, and my wallet is a bit dry with xmas coming up...

[Everlost_MI]

Good review. I went with the X-Fi XtremeMusic version of the card since I didn't need/want the drive bay piece. The card kicks the hell out of my old Sound Blaster Live! card. The X-Fi XtremeMusic is going for $80 after rebates at Circuit City right now.

[Thin_J]

I think I'm going to hang on to my Audigy 2 ZS for a while longer before I upgrade.

It doesn't seem like there's a big enough difference between the X-Fi and the ZS to justify the price.

[ghost]

I grabbed the XtremeMusic variant when it first came out, after my old Live card died (yeah, shocked me too...it just stopped, no matter what machine i put it in) and it was the only thing Best Buy had at the time. Damn, is it impressive. I kinda wish I had grabbed the Platinum version though...I could use that drive bay.

[Ajguy]

I had heard that the X-Fi cards could create 3D spave in headphones for any application with 3D audio, much like Dolby Headphone. Can anyone with the card tell me how well this works? Being in an apartment building with room mates who sleep during my prime gaming hours, I'm curious to see how good the 3D effect is, since this is a major selling point to me.

[51|RandoM]

It works as well as you can expect, by using CMSS.

Oh, one other heads-up, the card can have a nasty problem on initial install, on some bios. If your machine won't boot to windows at all and/or shows a humongous pci adapter list in bios before boot, pull the card out and update your motherboard bios to the latest version. This happened on some older nf4 bios, not sure what others were affected.

[RandomViolence]

Maybe it's because I haven't experienced 5.1 sound for my PC yet (and am not likely to for a while) but I haven't seen a good reason to step up from my Live! Value card I bought however many years ago. These DACs and high SNRs are cool, but do they really add that much?

[Evil_SPanKY]

RandomVoilence - I run 5.1 now for my PC's, and when I jumped from a Live to an Audigy, WOW is all I can say. Its not only the channels and such that are added, but the actual surround quality from the newer versions of EAX are incredible in comparison to the older Live series of cards. If your not in surround mode, I cant say if it will be much difference.

Also, Nice review Bapenguin. 2 Questions you may be able to answer for me (or not, such is life).

1. Did you experience any Nforce 4 related issues? As stated above, I have heard about issues with this chipset, that either requires you to send you card back to Creative to replace a chip on it, or a BIOS update by the motherboard manufacturer. Not all motherboard makers have released the BIOS updates yet though, so you may be required to send it in to Creative. This is something I wont accept, on a new device. Also, do you know if Creative has began shipping the newer revision/modified cards to retail, to alleviate this problem at the source?

2. I have an Audigy 2 ZS card, would this be a worthy upgrade for someone in my shoes? Is it enough over the Audigy in performance, sound quality? I use it primarily for gaming, not audio creation if that makes it any easier to answer.

Anyway, yeah for inhouse reviews!

[bapenguin]

Originally Posted by Evil_SPanKY

RandomVoilence - I run 5.1 now for my PC's, and when I jumped from a Live to an Audigy, WOW is all I can say. Its not only the channels and such that are added, but the actual surround quality from the newer versions of EAX are incredible in comparison to the older Live series of cards. If your not in surround mode, I cant say if it will be much difference.

Also, Nice review Bapenguin. 2 Questions you may be able to answer for me (or not, such is life).

1. Did you experience any Nforce 4 related issues? As stated above, I have heard about issues with this chipset, that either requires you to send you card back to Creative to replace a chip on it, or a BIOS update by the motherboard manufacturer. Not all motherboard makers have released the BIOS updates yet though, so you may be required to send it in to Creative. This is something I wont accept, on a new device. Also, do you know if Creative has began shipping the newer revision/modified cards to retail, to alleviate this problem at the source?

2. I have an Audigy 2 ZS card, would this be a worthy upgrade for someone in my shoes? Is it enough over the Audigy in performance, sound quality? I use it primarily for gaming, not audio creation if that makes it any easier to answer.

Anyway, yeah for inhouse reviews!

My board is an NForce 3, so I can't comment on the issues. As for the quality difference, I had an Original Audigy before, not an Audigy 2 and the X-Fi is definitley a pretty big jump in quality. Whether or not that it's that big of a jump over the Audigy 2 ZS I can't say for sure.

[mpsmith]

Damn. So in order to use the XFi BF2 setting you have to have the Fatal1ty or better? Damn that sucks. Especially since I don't want to buy anything that has that kids stupid name on it.

[Evil_SPanKY]

Originally Posted by bapenguin

My board is an NForce 3, so I can't comment on the issues. As for the quality difference, I had an Original Audigy before, not an Audigy 2 and the X-Fi is definitley a pretty big jump in quality. Whether or not that it's that big of a jump over the Audigy 2 ZS I can't say for sure.

Well, since there are not that much changes between the Audigy 1 and 2 chips, from what I have read, the differences should be almost as large as in your case. Thanks for the responce.

I may have to consider this sound card then for my main gaming rig.

[51|RandoM]

It wasn't that big a difference in audio quality for me(switching from a 2 zs), as far as gaming goes.

Looking at the different features and what they do, there is probably a bigger bump in the other two modes.

[mightbe]

So... expensive...

*mourns the loss of nVidia's soundstorm solutions*