Introduction
Today we are taking a look at one of the new Creative sound cards from their new X-fi series. We recieved their Fatal1ty card which is the middle card out of three different price classes. The name comes from the popular FPS gamer Fatal1ty and we have seen alot of companies make products with this in the main role, and they have all ended up being high quality products. It will be interesting to see how well this card actually performs, and what new features it has compared to the older Audigy cards.
About Creative:
Creative (NASDAQ: CREAF) is the worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for the personal computer and the Internet. Creative was founded in Singapore in 1981 with the vision that multimedia would revolutionize the way people interact with their PCs. Famous for its Sound Blaster sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment on the PC platform with products like its highly acclaimed Zen and MuVo lines of digital audio players. The company’s innovative hardware, proprietary technology, applications and services leverage the Internet, enabling consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment – anytime, anywhere.
Check out the Creative website for more info.
Specifications:
Technical Specs
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
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
64MB of X-RAM
Audio Performance (Rated Output @ 2Vrms)
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 ) = The product:
Please click on thumbnails to get bigger pictures
This is the Fatal1ty version of the X-fi cards and we have also tested the normal X-fi card which does not hold the memory and some of the other features on it. We will get back to the other card later in the review also. If you open up the box you have ALOT of information about the X-fi APU chipset. The back and inside of the box is filled with features and info about this card.
Please click on thumbnails to get bigger pictures
The back part also gives you information about the software, which allows you to choose different modes depending on what you are doing at the moment. Included with the package is also cables, to the 5,25 unit and adapter.
Please click on thumbnails to get bigger pictures
Let’s take a closer look on the I/O console, this device fits in a 5.25 slot in the front of the case. It is not needed to be able to use the soundcard but it’s a great additon so you can easily plug in all cables and devices in the front that you need. On the right picture we have a great shot of the left side of the device. We can also see it offers you Spdif in/out and Optical in/out connectors along with a headphone jack that has a separate volume controller also.
