Auzentech X-Fi Forte Available Now

[safan80]

http://www.guru3d.com/news/auzentech...available-now/

click the link at the bottom for pics!

By Hilbert Hagedoorn, January 21, 2009 -

Santa Clara, CA — Auzentech, Inc., a provider of quality consumer electronics products, is pleased to announce the official release of the Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 soundcard.

The Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 is the first Low Profile native PCI Express® audio card that Auzentech has designed especially for gamers and audiophiles. Compared to the X-Fi™ chipset reference design, the Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 has improved circuitry and components. The Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1 marks the first time the Creative X-Fi™ Native PCI Express chipset has been available in a low-profile board, as well as the first time it has been available in a a third-party soundcard.

* Low Profile Audio Card
* Developed around Creative X-Fi Native PCI Express audio processor
* Support for Dolby Digital Live for Windows XP and Vista
* Support for DTS Neo:PC & DTS Interactive for Vista
* Low-profile and standard-profile brackets included.

More info here.

I added my picture of the Forte vs the original creative X-fi FPS.

you guys might want to check the manual for the card take a look at page 6

HD Audio Front Panel
Connect Intel® HD Audio compliance Front panel cable, and can use Microphone input and
Headphone output. Can also be connected to the X-Fi I/O drive.

[IcY18]

How does this compare to the ASUS Xonar Essence STX, besides price $200 vs. $150 (Forte) ?

[safan80]

How does this compare to the ASUS Xonar Essence STX, besides price $200 vs. $150 (Forte) ?

I've read that the Xonar has some issues in games.. the biggest thing that I don't like about the Xonar the software doesn't auto switch between the headphones and speakers... there's also a lot of complaints on Asus' forums about the Xonar cards.

check out the Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater HD
http://www.auzentech.com/site/produc...theater_hd.php

edit: what's with the header on the card? SLI sound cards.

[tiro_uspsss]

edit: what's with the header on the card? SLI sound cards.

I want to know this to

[IcY18]

Hmm, well the Essence is a new Xonar card so i'll hold judgement.

[safan80]

Hmm, well the Essence is a new Xonar card so i'll hold judgement.

it's bound to have lag like the other Xonar cards since it's still not native pci-e. I suggest you look at the asus forums and see how their drive support is going.

[rusty]

why would one buy creative ? Creative support is total sh...t on any level.

[safan80]

why would one buy creative ? Creative support is total sh...t on any level.

3rd party driver support has grown since the Daniel_k incident. Daniel_K even returned and is doing driver releases again.

[RealTelstar]

3rd party driver support has grown since the Daniel_k incident. Daniel_K even returned and is doing driver releases again.

True. I use them on w7, but i still hear pops and clicks. Moreover, in vista x64 now the secret rabbit code in foobar stopped working properly. Creative has huge issues with sample rate output.

As somebody said above, my last creative card. Auzen, maybe. Also check my thread in general hardware/sound about comparison between the forte and the Essence stx.

[safan80]

True. I use them on w7, but i still hear pops and clicks. Moreover, in vista x64 now the secret rabbit code in foobar stopped working properly. Creative has huge issues with sample rate output.

As somebody said above, my last creative card. Auzen, maybe. Also check my thread in general hardware/sound about comparison between the forte and the Essence stx.

my first gen x-fi has no pops with these drivers in vista x64 or windows 7 x64.

http://forums.creative.com/creativel...read.id=135215

[Donnie27]

why would one buy creative ? Creative support is total sh...t on any level.

Auzen X-Fi™ Forte 7.1

Pro.
safan80 is right and YouP_Pax drivers work well as well. Asus Xonar is software based and will always cause lag or latency. See it as the CPU emulating a Sound Card LOL! Its pretty good for a HTPC sound card.

I've not needed Creative's support in a long time but when I did, I got it. I didn't get support from AMD, Intel, Asus, Gygabyte, IBM, Power Color, Seagate and a host of others. I'd not have a computer if I held screw ups or rip-offs against them all and boycotted=P.

Con
Costs too much.

[iddqd]

Asus Xonar is software based and will always cause lag or latency. See it as the CPU emulating a Sound Card LOL!

Care to elaborate? I haven't used a discrete sound card in at least 8 years, but this makes me curious. Sounds like it's not any better than bog-standard onboard AC'97.

[16floz470ml]

This review is older but it is relevant. http://techgage.com/article/asus_xon...1_sound_card/5

It shows that the Xonar will eat up about 10% of your cpu.

[Donnie27]

Care to elaborate? I haven't used a discrete sound card in at least 8 years, but this makes me curious. Sounds like it's not any better than bog-standard onboard AC'97.

The Zonar uses a re badged CMedia chip that's similar to the RealteK on board sound chips. These act more like a Chipset than a Processor like the one X-Fi uses. Comparing a Zonar to a X-Fi is like comparing a Realtek 10/100 NIC (software) to an Intel Pro 10/100/1000 NIC (hardware).

The Forte, just like the Prelude before it makes up for 95% of Creative's short comings. It ships with Great DACs that on board can't touch and excellent hardware as well. Caps, Gold Connectors, pretty good layout and etc.. makes it hard to beat. IMHO, it will take more than Zonar to beat it.

[Solus Corvus]

The Zonar uses a re badged CMedia chip that's similar to the RealteK on board sound chips. These act more like a Chipset than a Processor like the one X-Fi uses. Comparing a Zonar to a X-Fi is like comparing a Realtek 10/100 NIC (software) to an Intel Pro 10/100/1000 NIC (hardware).

Cheap quad cores make the difference in cpu usage between the two almost irrelevant. But what is relevant to music lovers is the quality of the sound the chip produces. In that regard the xonar matches or beats the prelude.

As for games, I just want basic effects and good positional audio. EAX is nice but I'm done supporting creative.

[iddqd]

The Zonar uses a re badged CMedia chip that's similar to the RealteK on board sound chips. These act more like a Chipset than a Processor like the one X-Fi uses. Comparing a Zonar to a X-Fi is like comparing a Realtek 10/100 NIC (software) to an Intel Pro 10/100/1000 NIC (hardware).

The Forte, just like the Prelude before it makes up for 95% of Creative's short comings. It ships with Great DACs that on board can't touch and excellent hardware as well. Caps, Gold Connectors, pretty good layout and etc.. makes it hard to beat. IMHO, it will take more than Zonar to beat it.

I see. What about HT Omega Striker? And... I guess other HT|OMEGA products? What do they use?

[kiwi]

why would one buy creative ? Creative support is total sh...t on any level.

Show me a better solution for the price

I have no major complaints about x-fi, great gaming card

[Bojamijams]

For headphones and 2 channel speakers, the STX is king. Nobody can match its SnR and THD quality. Not to mention, it actually includes an EMI shield so the computer electical noise doesn't mess with your sound. Its also powered by a separate molex instead of a noisy pci-e bus. Which Auzentech (claimining to be audiophile, as if) still don't include on any of their cards (emi or clean molex power)

For 5.1, this would be better though I still wouldn't use it as an 'audiophile' card due to lack of EMI shield.

However I've come from the prelude and the that is creative drivers is still prevalent and an issue. After 2 hours of playing any games, my audiodg.exe (or something like that) would be at about 900mb of usage. It took them 3 months to finally acknowledge this is an issue. Of course they can't do anything until Creative does it. Well I got sick of waiting and moved to the STX. There is no number to quantify how much happier I am with the STX then the prelude.

And it has NO issues with any games I play.

[NaMcO]

Wow, card looks absolutely stunning! Hope it performs as it looks.

[Bojamijams]

Btw, quad cores (and dual cores at 3.8ghz+) have no issues emulating EAX (not that anyone is going to care about this in 6 months) through software as they're all very under-utilized in most games.

[Donnie27]

Btw, quad cores (and dual cores at 3.8ghz+) have no issues emulating EAX (not that anyone is going to care about this in 6 months) through software as they're all very under-utilized in most games.

It's not processor speed, it is the speed going to the processor and then back to the sound card through the PCI BUS. The PCI Bus is still lame. Then add Digital to Analog conversion. The PCI-E version adds another problem because it is not Native and has another translation step.

The real problem is Games and some say movies as well but I've not seen that first hand. I have played games with it and sorry, I'd use a Xonar for my HTPC but no ^%#$ing way in my rig where I play games.

EAX is NOT under-utilized and the CPU can't Emu anything above EAX2, no matter how many lies Asus tells. The CPU needs SOFTWARE EAX and even adds latency to OpenAL via the same problem mentioned above. The only folks who don't care are those who are oblivious to what they're missing

[IcY18]

I play a number of games(Crysis,TF2,COD5, L4D) but i also have a generous library of music. I listen to music every minute I'm on the computer.
I feel my situation is one typical of many computer enthusiasts, they enjoy both games and music, and it seems there hasn't been a soundcard, that seems like an obvious choice, that meets both these needs.
Either Auzentech's previous audiophile cards didn't support EAX, or Creative's gaming card couldn't match the audio quality of an audiophile card.
Besides BF2142, i'm unsure of the latest games that uses EAX, and having been using an X-Fi XtremeMusic for that last couple years i don't know what it sounds like with limited EAX support.

In the end it basically comes down to which card would serve me better, the Xonar Essence STX or this X-Fi Forte, unfortunately my budget for my build has busted its hold and a $50 difference doesn't mean much at this point.

[Donnie27]

I play a number of games(Crysis,TF2,COD5, L4D) but i also have a generous library of music. I listen to music every minute I'm on the computer.
I feel my situation is one typical of many computer enthusiasts, they enjoy both games and music, and it seems there hasn't been a soundcard, that seems like an obvious choice, that meets both these needs.
Either Auzentech's previous audiophile cards didn't support EAX, or Creative's gaming card couldn't match the audio quality of an audiophile card.
Besides BF2142, i'm unsure of the latest games that uses EAX, and having been using an X-Fi XtremeMusic for that last couple years i don't know what it sounds like with limited EAX support.

In the end it basically comes down to which card would serve me better, the Xonar Essence STX or this X-Fi Forte, unfortunately my budget for my build has busted its hold and a $50 difference doesn't mean much at this point.

Look for a Auzentech Prelude use the Creative DSP and supports EAX 4, DDL DTS, anything meaningful and works great Since their prices are now lower it becomes an even better option. EBay might be an option as well.

[IcY18]

Look for a Auzentech Prelude use the Creative DSP and supports EAX 4, DDL DTS, anything meaningful and works great Since their prices are now lower it becomes an even better option. EBay might be an option as well.

This would be a better option than the Forte?

[eXa]

Do eax even mean anything if u only use 2 channel speakers or headphones?