Which Xonar we're talking about?

I'm more interested in XP with the majority of my games only implementing upto EAX3

EAX5 will improve even older titles.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-10-30, 15:31:

Which Xonar we're talking about? As long as it has XP drivers I'm open to recommendations of any (or none) of the variants. […]
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Which Xonar we're talking about?
As long as it has XP drivers I'm open to recommendations of any (or none) of the variants.

I'm more interested in XP with the majority of my games only implementing upto EAX3

EAX5 will improve even older titles.

This is true of creative cards as they are "native EAX " cards so to speak

I'm just not sure how true this is of DS3D GX as emulation is now involved and even reviews at the time admits it wasn't perfect across the relatively few EAX5 games let alone older titles.
In fact the only time I can see EAX3 tested here and according to that the difference is negligible
https://techgage.com/article/creative_eax_vs_ … s_ds3d_gx_20/5/

The ultimate XP sound cards would be the Auzen/Auzentech Prodigy and HD cards. (Still Creative X-FI)

Those Asus Xonars are rebranded C-Media Oxygen HD chipsets. Good but no proprietry stuff I think.

EDIT this test looks like what you are after.. XP and Vista:
https://techgage.com/article/creative_eax_vs_ … s_ds3d_gx_20/4/ Ah you found that 😀

Some details:
https://techreport.com/review/14500/asus-xona … -dx-sound-card/

"Perhaps the greatest weakness of the Oxygen HD audio chip used in the Xonar DX is its relatively pedestrian positional 3D audio credentials. The chip natively supports EAX 2.0—a technology that dates back to the SoundBlaster Live! and is restricted to 32 concurrent 3D voices. Creative’s latest X-Fis can handle up to 128 concurrent 3D voices at higher definition sampling rates and resolutions. The X-Fi also performs positional audio calculations in hardware, while the Oxygen HD has to offload them to the host system’s CPU.

The popularity of multi-core processors (and more importantly, games that leave multiple cores unused) has lessened the need for hardware-accelerated 3D audio, but there’s still a big gap between EAX 2.0 and 5.0. Asus bridges that gap with a software feature it calls DirectSound 3D GX 2.0, which is capable of emulating EAX 5.0 functionality that had previously only been available with Creative’s X-Fi cards.

DS3D GX presents the Xonar as an EAX 5.0-compliant audio card, and then intercepts EAX calls, re-routing them to the Xonar’s own audio processing engine. That engine does its best to approximate EAX effects, and it can handle up to 128 concurrent 3D voices with enhanced reverb effects for “most” DirectSound 3D games. Positional audio calculations are still performed on the host system’s CPU, but DS3D GX at least brings the Xonar beyond EAX 2.0’s 32-voice limitation.

Creative is quick to point out that DirectSound 3D GX doesn’t deliver “genuine” EAX 5.0 effects, and Asus readily admits as much. However, Asus also says users will be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the two—a claim we’ll explore when we dive into listening tests a little later in the review. "

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-10-30, 15:31:

EAX5 will improve even older titles.

That sounds interesting. Can you give some examples?

I know the X-Fi does better resampling and that benefits some early WinXP games which used 22kHz sound samples. Or do you mean the CMSS 3D stuff?

Or do you mean the CMSS 3D stuff?

Yes, CMSS on X-Fi will provide much better positional audio. But apparently EAX 5.0 can enhance older titles due to better precision, environment occlusion and additional 3D voices being present in hardware. It's purely subjective, but games like System Shock 2 will sound better on X-Fi.