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Turbo charge your gaming experience with Xtreme Fidelity audio! The Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer sound card delivers faster audio performance and intense, realistic sound in all your games. Headphone surround sound is better too - so good, you'll swear you're listening to multichannel speakers - and your games will sound richer as you hear all of the crisp, clear highs and bone-crushing lows you've been missing. It's Sound Blaster...on steroids! XTREME FIDELITY GAMING
Get the speed you need when every second counts. Win big with a powerful, completely new audio processing engine that boosts real game performance by up to 15% over motherboard audio and still gives you the fullest audio effects possible!  That’s a big claim. Let’s find out. I last bought a soundcard when the Audigy range came out. I was impressed with the cards, it seemed a good range, though plagued by issues and poor customer service. Since then I have jumped between onboard and an Audigy card when ever it suited me. Mostly it was down to getting a better airflow, or just simple testing. Specification, | Feature | Description | | Technical Specs | | 24-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion of analog inputs: | 96kHz sample rate | | 24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of digital sources: | 96kHz to analog 7.1 speaker output | | 24-bit Digital-to-Analog conversion of stereo digital sources: | 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 | | ASIO 2.0 support: | 16-bit/44.1kHz, 16-bit/48kHz, 24-bit/44.1kHz 24-bit/48kHz and 24-bit/96kHz with direct monitoring | | Enhanced SoundFont support: | Up to 24-bit resolution | | Audio Performance (Rated Output @ 2Vrms, Typical Value) | | Signal-to-Noise Ratio (20kHz Low-pass filter, 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 filter): | 0.004% | | Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/96kHz input ): | 10Hz to 46kHz | | Frequency Response (-3dB, 24-bit/192kHz input): | 10Hz to 88kHz (Stereo only) | | Connectivity | | Speaker and Headphone connections: | Stereo to 7.1 (Line Out via three 3.5mm mini jacks) | | Flexijack: | Line In / Microphone In / Optical Out¹ via shared 3.5mm mini jack | | Auxiliary Line level Input: | 4-pin Molex connector | | Front Panel Header | Intel HD Audio Compatible (2x5pin) |
I knew that onboard sound had CPU load implications but I always had a good enough CPU to handle it! I had been hearing a lot about the XF-I range - good and bad, so I thought it was time for an upgrade. For testing I have pitted this card against the onboard audio of my motherboard, a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 (rev. 1.0). This has the Realtek Azalia audio chip onboard, and to my knowledge it’s not too bad. I wasn’t going to test against my Audigy as this is a very old card, and to be honest, an unfair battle as it is 2 generations behind.  After reading up I knew to download the drivers and not install the drivers on the CD that would no doubt come along with the card. That said, nothing much came with the card – CD and card. I know its OEM, but it came to me in nothing more than a cardboard box! Some oversize bubble wrap and that’s all. It did come in a static bag though. More the fault of the supplier and not Creatives’ The card itself is a low profile card. Which is good. The test computer is housed in a Lian-Li PC V1000. The motherboard tray in this case is upside down. Meaning the card at the top is the sound card, and just below it, an Nvidia 8800 GTS 640Mb card. This provides better airflow around this area, compared to the Audigy, though no match for on board sound and no card at all! Next, the card.
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Hardware 
