To add, I'm using a MSI GAMING M7 w/ Realtek ALC1150 on-board audio. I've never been impressed with the Nahimic audio software that seems to come with only MSI motherboards and laptops.

You need to use Creative Alchemy to enable it.

Yes, EAX will work on older games but you have to download Alchemy from Creative's web site.

For X-fi, SB Z, or both?

GiSWiG wrote:

For X-fi, SB Z, or both?

my understanding is that is OS related, not hardware

Both support it.

Cool. Get the X-fi now on the cheap, save up for the Z

Yup, both support it 😀

There is also this Recon 3D, but it was a bit of a dud. It uses similar software to the Z. All these cards support ALchemy. There are a few USB sound cards, Play! or something. So yea, basically a lot of Creative cards will restore EAX through ALchemy.

What does the sb z have over the x-fi?

awgamer wrote:

What does the sb z have over the x-fi?

Probably better drivers for Windows 10, but overall the X-Fi is considered better (has hardware acceleration, EAX is more accurate (even though a CPU can make the same effects, Creative choose not to. Maybe to sell more X-Fis, who knows), has more outputs, and some PCI cards can even decode DTS/Dolby from SPDIF In)

X-Fi also has the remarkable hardware resampler engine, which they make a Big Deal out of in some of their marketing materials. I'm thinking some sort of high quality adaptive sinc resampler with quality filtering stage. They suggested that the resampler made up over half of the processing capability of the card.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Yup, both support it 😀

There is also this Recon 3D, but it was a bit of a dud. It uses similar software to the Z. All these cards support ALchemy. There are a few USB sound cards, Play! or something. So yea, basically a lot of Creative cards will restore EAX through ALchemy.

After watching your video on the SB Z and I know you've use X-fi in other builds, what do you think? For now, I got a good deal on the basic X-fi Titanium. Would you consider a high tier X-fi or SB Z for Win 10?

The Z is a very good sound card, but it's not compatible with Windows XP I believe. So the X-Fi might be more flexible?

Both sound great, it's hard for me tell if one sounds better than the other...

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

The Z is a very good sound card, but it's not compatible with Windows XP I believe. So the X-Fi might be more flexible?

Both sound great, it's hard for me tell if one sounds better than the other...

Well, as much as I love the classics, I like the new stuff too and I use Windows 10 primarily but most of my Steam games are 'retro' so if I can run EAX in Windows 10, great! If an X-Fi for $20 can do that vs. getting a Z, then that's good too. I have a red and black theme going so the SB Z would look really nice. So I will have an XP PC that I can get another $20-ish dollar X-fi and then budget for the SB Z for later.

I have a X-FI Titanium HD (PCI-E) just to run EAX games on Windows 10. It has full hardware acceleration.

I have an SB-Z and yes, it does.

Thanks everyone. I'll stick with the X-fi for now then move up to probably the Zx

For those interested, I made a small program in C# to be able to use OpenAL, EAX and any other effect from the X-Fi DSP on any other audio interface (HDMI, Realtek).

When I moved my computer to Windows 10 I also bought a Titanium HD as it has not only better audio but also better support for this version of Windows, but I missed the surround sound from my X-Fi Titaniym Fatality Pro.
I noticed that one can use ASIO to record any output of the X-Fi, even in Game Mode, so... "ASIO Rec and Play" was born 😀

This software will record the output of the X-Fi and route it to any other ASIO interface. I am using ASIO4ALL.
I am very sensitive to latency, but I felt none.

I released it on GitHub:
https://github.com/LAGonauta/ASIORecAndPlay/releases

Enjoy 😀

So I actually just bought a X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty brand new in the box off of eBay myself for my Windows 10 system. I was using a Sound Blaster Z, but that only emulates EAX 3,4,5 it does not do it in hardware. So I hooked up the X-Fi installed the drivers and it works great and I swear CMSS 3D sounds much more accurate then SBX does. I have one question though on the mixer tab there is an option to enable EAX what exactly does that do? Does it effect EAX effects in the game or only apply EAX effects on the Microphone?

EDIT: So after some testing in both Quake 4 and Doom 3 clicking the EAX on button in the mixer definitely changes the audio. In Quake 4 it actually seems to add more effects to some explosions but can sound tinny and in Doom 3 everything becomes a bit more echoy. I am not sure if I should leave it on or off because it does appear to actually effect the ingame effects, so any advice on the proper settings would be much appreciated.