Creative X-Fi, Audigy No More

So Tom’s Hardware reviewed the new Creative sound card recently, the X-Fi, and they seem to be pleased overall. This is a pretty big move for Creative, who have been relying on the Audigy architecture in their cards for the past 5 years or so. There have been significant upgrades to the Audigy lineup with the Audigy 2 and 2 ZS (which they refer to as the Audigy 3), but even the latest Audigy cards are essentially running on a 5 year old architecture. Creative has a stranglehold over the surround-sound gaming market, but they weren’t as successful with pleasing more musically inclined audiphiles. It seems like they intend to change that this time around.

This new card is significant because it seems like they’ve decided to make the best card for all audio users, gamers, music creators, and the audiophiles. The X-fi offers several modes of use which allows the user to more efficiently take advantage of the cards capabilities. This should make life easier for users who have taken to running several sound cards for different purposes. I’m excited for this new technology, but I still don’t see a significant reason to upgrade from my Audigy 2 ZS. It is a nice change of pace for Creative though; they’ve proven that they can be innovative once again–