C0deHunter wrote on 2025-12-31, 17:30:

In F.E.A.R. Gold, I only have 'Enable EAX 2.0' option, how come EAX 3.0 (or even EAX 4.0 for that matter!) is not listed?

A couple of things to note here. First, Creative's branding of EAX 3.0 and EAX 4.0 was sometimes confusing. They often used "EAX Advanced HD" as an umbrella term when referring to either of those versions, and some games adopted that approach. The only way to know for sure if a game uses EAX 4.0 is when that's clearly stated in its options, manual, readme, or website. With regards to F.E.A.R. specifically, we have this page on Creative's old site which confirms that the game does indeed use EAX 4.0.

At a guess, EAX 2.0 was left as a separate setting in the options menu of F.E.A.R. because most on-board audio hardware of the time could only handle that. To enable EAX 4.0, an Audigy or X-Fi card was needed, which allowed their owners to also tick the "EAX Advanced HD" checkbox. Again, this varies from game to game. There was no clear standardization to how EAX versions were handled in the options menu of different games.

In short, don't expect games to clearly show the EAX version that they use in their options menu. Some do, but it's usually the exception, and not the norm. In most cases, you will have to find that info by looking at the game's readme file, manual or website.

Thanks for amazing explanation! OK, in F.E.A.R., I can clearly see that there is a Enable EAX 2.0 (and immediately below it) Enable EAX Advanced HD toggle , so I guess it means the EAX beyond 2.0