I wasn't aware of this. What kind of issues to expect? I grabbed the card, maybe i should use it in my second build.

OM606 wrote on 2025-09-12, 21:38:

I wasn't aware of this. What kind of issues to expect? I grabbed the card, maybe i should use it in my second build.

It sometimes manifests as crackling/popping during audio playback. But not all motherboards are affected by this, it likely depends on which PCI bridge chip is used.

Just try it and see how things go. Plenty of people here had success with PCI X-Fi cards on Ivy Bridge and even Haswell systems.

Has anyone gotten Race Driver Grid to use hardware sound acceleration with an Audigy RX? The option to turn it on is greyed out in my menu. I wonder if that's another situation where the game only does EAX 5.0 with no fallback to 4.0 or lower.

Barley wrote on 2025-09-13, 03:01:

Has anyone gotten Race Driver Grid to use hardware sound acceleration with an Audigy RX? The option to turn it on is greyed out in my menu. I wonder if that's another situation where the game only does EAX 5.0 with no fallback to 4.0 or lower.

Try installing OpenAL and EAX Unified if you haven't already done so.

But yeah, some later titles are EAX 5.0 or nothing. Check the game's readme file to see if that's the case.

American McGee's Alice in action with an Audigy RX without EAX reverb:
https://youtu.be/J1LXC_zm7Eo
and with (?) EAX Reverb:
https://youtu.be/xZNRnSXRRA4

sharangad wrote on 2025-09-13, 10:16:

American McGee's Alice in action with an Audigy RX:
https://youtu.be/J1LXC_zm7Eo

Out of curiosity, did you open the console to check if Reverb was on, as per the screenshot that @DrLucienSanchez posted here?

I've installed the PCI X-Fi in my system and out of the 4 games i've tested i already have issues with Quake 4. The sound is crackling horribly. I'm also having very poor performance under this and Doom 3, i don't know if it is related but nothing else have changed since the last time i played these two. I can't say i hear a difference in Bioshock either vs the Audigy RX.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-13, 11:07:

sharangad wrote on 2025-09-13, 10:16:

American McGee's Alice in action with an Audigy RX:
https://youtu.be/J1LXC_zm7Eo

Out of curiosity, did you open the console to check if Reverb was on, as per the screenshot that @DrLucienSanchez posted here?

No it's off. I'll try enabling it.

OM606 wrote on 2025-09-13, 11:46:

I've installed the PCI X-Fi in my system and out of the 4 games i've tested i already have issues with Quake 4. The sound is crackling horribly. I'm also having very poor performance under this and Doom 3, i don't know if it is related but nothing else have changed since the last time i played these two. I can't say i hear a difference in Bioshock either vs the Audigy RX.

If you had any older versions of Creative's drivers installed previously, you'll need to clean those out to avoid conflicts.

Check this post by @mgtroyas who had similar issues a while ago. He was able to resolve them by using a different driver version.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-13, 11:07:

sharangad wrote on 2025-09-13, 10:16:

American McGee's Alice in action with an Audigy RX:
https://youtu.be/J1LXC_zm7Eo

Out of curiosity, did you open the console to check if Reverb was on, as per the screenshot that @DrLucienSanchez posted here?

Reverb's enabled here:
https://youtu.be/xZNRnSXRRA4

I think the reverb strength isn't being override for EAX2 apps in the RX drivers.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-13, 12:03:

OM606 wrote on 2025-09-13, 11:46:

I've installed the PCI X-Fi in my system and out of the 4 games i've tested i already have issues with Quake 4. The sound is crackling horribly. I'm also having very poor performance under this and Doom 3, i don't know if it is related but nothing else have changed since the last time i played these two. I can't say i hear a difference in Bioshock either vs the Audigy RX.

If you had any older versions of Creative's drivers installed previously, you'll need to clean those out to avoid conflicts.

Check this post by @mgtroyas who had similar issues a while ago. He was able to resolve them by using a different driver version.

The Quake 4 issue is resolved with the latest official driver! Thanks, i'll continue testing.

OM606 wrote on 2025-09-13, 12:49:

The Quake 4 issue is resolved with the latest official driver! Thanks, i'll continue testing.

Glad to hear it. You may want to check my guide for tips on how to optimally configure the X-Fi for WinXP gaming.

Since you have a PCI card, ignore sections 2 and 3. However, sections 4, 5 and 6 are still applicable, even for PCI X-Fi models. In particular, you want to install both OpenAL and EAX Unified, as some games won't run correctly without them. Lastly, make sure that your X-Fi is running in Game Mode, otherwise some of its EAX functionality may be limited.

Hello,

I've just bought an Audigy 5/RX PCI-E soundcard, but when I tried to use an EAX supported game ( I set it in Alchemy) there are no EAX effect, and dsounlog.txt has a line: DirectSoundCreate : Failed to initialize Creative ALchemy, falling back to dsound.dll. Can you help me to make it work?

I've installed Alchemy 1.45.20 & OpenAL and set EAX effect in control panel to 'No effects'.

Lord Myn wrote on 2025-09-19, 15:45:

Hello,

I've just bought an Audigy 5/RX PCI-E soundcard, but when I tried to use an EAX supported game ( I set it in Alchemy) there are no EAX effect, and dsounlog.txt has a line: DirectSoundCreate : Failed to initialize Creative ALchemy, falling back to dsound.dll. Can you help me to make it work?

I've installed Alchemy 1.45.20 & OpenAL and set EAX effect in control panel to 'No effects'.

You need alchemy universal. The versions on Creative's site are for either xfi or pci audigy. They haven't added the rx's device ID to the app.

[EDIT]
https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file … hemy-universal/
this will do it. BTW you don't need to install openal, it's part of the drivers.

Alternatively you can get the full set from here and use universal, there's a newer version here.
https://archive.org/details/creative-alchemy-all-versions

Thank you, I've tried it (the second one, because I just have to patch my existing version), works like a charm!

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-13, 05:57:

Barley wrote on 2025-09-13, 03:01:

Has anyone gotten Race Driver Grid to use hardware sound acceleration with an Audigy RX? The option to turn it on is greyed out in my menu. I wonder if that's another situation where the game only does EAX 5.0 with no fallback to 4.0 or lower.

Try installing OpenAL and EAX Unified if you haven't already done so.

But yeah, some later titles are EAX 5.0 or nothing. Check the game's readme file to see if that's the case.

Just wanted to clarify. This is on Windows XP. So EAX Unified would not work, right? I do have OpenAL installed.

I will try with an X-Fi and report back.

Barley wrote on 2025-09-19, 17:33:

Just wanted to clarify. This is on Windows XP. So EAX Unified would not work, right? I do have OpenAL installed.

I will try with an X-Fi and report back.

EAX Unified works on WinXP as well as Vista/Win7 (and up).

It's necessary for some games like Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness and Splinter Cell: Double Agent. They won't have any EAX effects unless it's installed. Originally, it shipped on the disc with the aforementioned games (and some others). The version that I linked to was taken from the Splinter Cell: Double Agent disc.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-09-19, 18:30:

Barley wrote on 2025-09-19, 17:33:

Just wanted to clarify. This is on Windows XP. So EAX Unified would not work, right? I do have OpenAL installed.

I will try with an X-Fi and report back.

EAX Unified works on WinXP as well as Vista/Win7 (and up).

It's necessary for some games like Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness and Splinter Cell: Double Agent. They won't have any EAX effects unless it's installed. Originally, it shipped on the disc with the aforementioned games (and some others). The version that I linked to was taken from the Splinter Cell: Double Agent disc.

Hmm, when I tried installing it, it said it was not a valid Win32 application. Not sure where I got it from. I'll try your link.

***EDIT*** User error. I was trying to install ALchemy Universal. Makes sense that THAT would not work on WIndows XP.

***EDIT 2*** I installed EAX Unified, but it still did not enable hardware sound acceleration for GRID. Will go back to my original plan of trying an X-Fi Titanium.

@sharangad
I have the normal version of Creative ALchemy and that does work with Audigy Rx. If memory serves, ALchemy looks for X-Fi or Audigy string in device name. Although I still have X-Fi MB3 installed concurrently, which isn't used currently.

UCyborg wrote on 2025-09-19, 19:29:

@sharangad
I have the normal version of Creative ALchemy and that does work with Audigy Rx. If memory serves, ALchemy looks for X-Fi or Audigy string in device name. Although I still have X-Fi MB3 installed concurrently, which isn't used currently.

Which version of Alchemy have you got?

The versions of alchemy currently available on the Creative website do install on the rx (apart from x-fi releases) , but when attempting to run ds3d apps an error appears in the log file land eax isn't selectable in game. I don't know whether this is specific to certain versions, but the version listed under rx downloads (I *think *) definitely doesn't work.