ASUS XONAR D2X GETS EAX 5.0

[helmutcheese]

But EAX doesn't work on Vista right?

You been under a rock for past 12-18 months ?

Most modern games are OpenAL, this run in Vista with no issues with full EAX.

Older DirectSound (still used) needs to be ported to OpenAL to get EAX to work in Vista, thats what Creative ALchemy does.

 

[james.miller]

Well they do not have 5.0, or even 4.0 or even 3.0.

This is 2008, who wants EAX 2.0, I think I had that back in 2001.

Did you even read the Techreport link ?.

I have had 1st hand lack of support from both Asus and Creative, so I laugh at the hate Creative love Asus threads now appearing, they are both bad when it comes to keeping customers happy.

The Asus card could sound good, even better than a X-FI inc the artifical emulated EAX, but its still a FACT its not a EAX 5.0 card so anyone buying it thinking it is having the wool pulled over their eyes.

helmut, ive had an x-fi and a xonar. really, just stop it. the xonar is the better card period.

ye i found it by accdent last night, ill link u in sec if i can still find it,

xfi won btw i just purchased it because of that review and many others

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/preludeandxonarsoundcards/index.php

that review does not test eax5.0 on the xonar.

 

[marscay]

I know the score with Asus, used them since 2001, all ok if nothing goes wrong, if it does your in for a long RMA process if you even get a reply.

And all I want is for peeps to not buy the Asus thinking it has EAX 5.0 or otherwise because it is not, again its an emulation.

If your happy with that cool, but Asus should really be stating this on the box, not false claims.

lmao the whole industry is built upon false claims, why single out asus?

it's a great card and better overall than anything creative offer even if EAX 5.0 is emulated (i bet 99/100 people couldn't tell the difference anyway), between this and the prelude there's no need to look at anything else for the high end sound card market unless you want a more budget priced card.

 

[Uriel]

If it sounds like EAX5, and doesn't drag framerates down to unplayable levels, why would anyone care whether it's emulated?

ePSXe does a much better job of running Final Fantasy VII (playstation version) on my PC than the native Windows version does. I know which I'd rather play.

 

[helmutcheese]

helmut, ive had an x-fi and a xonar. really, just stop it. the xonar is the better card period.



that review does not test eax5.0 on the xonar.

@ james.miller, DO NOT tell me what to do on this forum m8.

I NEVER said anything about 1 card being better than the other, I even stated the Asus may even sound better with its emulated effects.

I DID STATE the FACT the Asus does not have REAL EAX 5.0 Period.

 

[james.miller]

helmut ive lost count of the number of times you've been wrong and people such as myself have had to correct you. ive also lost count of the number of times ive seen you act like a 5 year old when you're told you are wrong....is this another example of your behavior? Helmut, dont tell me what to do. i dont take orders from stroppy children. it deosnt matter what you did or didnt say, the xonar is the better card so you can stop with your 'it could be but..' theories and leave it to the people who have used both. I wouldnt have to say anything if what you were saying was correct

I DID STATE the FACT the Asus does not have REAL EAX 5.0 Period.

no what you DID STATE was that it didnt have EAX period, before you were corrected.

The Asus cards do not have EAX in the real sence, its an emulation (sounds as near as it so wont matter)....
....The FACT remains the Asus does not do REAL EAX anything never mind 5.0, this may not matter 1 bit soundwise but its still something that may lead peeps to buy on the strength of.

what i repeatedly told you is that they stated eax5.0 compatibility which is exactly what they set out to do. nobody is pulling any wool here but as said above, it happens all the so why are you singling out ASUS anyway? for your information, HELMUT, i had an asus motherboad, the p5w-dh deluxe, and it fell apart on me. literally. that didnt stop me buying a xonar d2. Another thing about stating what it does on the box?.......... it says eax2.0.

If it sounds like EAX5, and doesn't drag framerates down to unplayable levels, why would anyone care whether it's emulated?

yep, i think thats about the long and short of it!

 

[helmutcheese]

Wrong, Are you totally dumb and cannot read ?.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14447

Did you even read the Asus admission on Tech Report, it does not have EAX 5.0 now get over it.

Now you started the crap above

Quote " helmut, ive had an x-fi and a xonar. really, just stop it. the xonar is the better card period."

So dont go getting at me, you do not tell me or anyone what to say or not to say here.

In any thread I see someone asking/talking about this card having EAX 5.0, I will post it does not and emulates it.

I will do that to save someone buying it for wrong reasons.

Infact, I thought you had improved youself, but a Leopard never changes it spots.

ONCE again, I will for your benefit say, I never said anything about 1 card being better than the other so please for God sake change that stuck record.

 

[DanSolo]

Now now girls its only a soundcard

 

[helmutcheese]

Correct, but facts are facts m8, esp if it saves someone buying something they ideally did not want due to misinfo.

And also others stating I said 1 card was better than the other when I did not.

 

[james.miller]

do you even know what compatible means? you need to grow up helmut. all it means is that it the GX engine can (when they get it working lol) read the eax5.0 calls and translate them into something the soundcard can work with. they have never stated hardware eax5.0 acceleration.

unless you know otherwise?

In any thread I see someone asking/talking about this card having EAX 5.0, I will post it does not and emulates it.

if it emulates it and produces sound effects it is compatible, do you understand that? but of course, you cant argue with reason so you go for the insults.

/ the problem with having somebody on ignore is that you know, you KNOW, they will always post some trash that somebody needs to correct. when its about hardware they dont even own or have any experience with im sorry, but somebody will put you straight. if i know more about a subject than you i will do just that. as ive told you before. deal with it or let more experienced people answer the questions. it doesnt help when you come on here slamming ASUS for some problem you had with them that has nothing to do with the xonar. like i said i did too, but i feel no need to mention it here. now do us all a favour and let us discuss this like adults, if you can. thanks a lot.

 

[james.miller]

thats fine by me. you wont argue when i correct you then. just remember the first of our posts that turned this in to an 'argument' rather than a discussion:

I aint, ASUS admit it, is artifical Diamonds the same as real Diamonds ?. NO
The FACT remains the Asus does not do REAL EAX anything never mind 5.0, this may not matter 1 bit soundwise but its still something that may lead peeps to buy on the strength of.

actually i dont need to point out the irony in your posts, or the way you blatantly misread others. ill just leave it for everybody else to read and have a good laugh.

happy ignoring and for everybody else, sorry and back on topic

 

[james.miller]

*********************************************************************************








could anybody with a xonar d2, d2x or any other varient please download rightmark 3d sound here: rightmark 3d sound

run the cpu utilization program and say here what it says in the right hand pane about the eax availability, fir for speaker outpus under the directx header (in the left pane), and then for XonarD2 Audio Device under the openAL header . could you also run the 3d sound programs and state here whether you can run anything newer than eax2.0 sound effects. please follow this format:

card name : (ie d2, d2x ect)
operating system :
CPU Usage Util EAX5.0 availability for dirextX:
CPU Usage Util EAX5.0 availability for OpenAL:
3d sound working for anything above eax2.0 : - [Y]/[N]

im trying to find out just what is and isnt working. thanks for the effort guys





*********************************************************************************

 

[marscay]

helmut ive lost count of the number of times you've been wrong and people such as myself have had to correct you. ive also lost count of the number of times ive seen you act like a 5 year old when you're told you are wrong....is this another example of your behavior? Helmut, dont tell me what to do. i dont take orders from stroppy children. it deosnt matter what you did or didnt say, the xonar is the better card so you can stop with your 'it could be but..' theories and leave it to the people who have used both. I wouldnt have to say anything if what you were saying was correct

no what you DID STATE was that it didnt have EAX period, before you were corrected.

what i repeatedly told you is that they stated eax5.0 compatibility which is exactly what they set out to do. nobody is pulling any wool here but as said above, it happens all the so why are you singling out ASUS anyway? for your information, HELMUT, i had an asus motherboad, the p5w-dh deluxe, and it fell apart on me. literally. that didnt stop me buying a xonar d2. Another thing about stating what it does on the box?.......... it says eax2.0.


yep, i think thats about the long and short of it!

just forget about him, he really is a child with no realisation of how much bo**ocks he talks.

i was talking about electromigration on the wolfdales a few weeks ago but resident expert (lmao ) couldn't help but dismiss everything i said.....lo and behold a few ppl on these very forums have experienced it themselves.

you know the old saying about arguing with idiots.

 

[james.miller]

lol yes, it goes something like 'james.miller should stop bothering with those people' lol.

 

[helmutcheese]

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500 — 12:23 AM on April 8, 2008

QUOTED :

" 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 "

 

[james.miller]

im going to start RTM'ing posts now. add something useful or dont bother with this thread. id like to know more about DS3D GX, thanks

helmut, you left out this bit:

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.

why did you leave it out? you arent telling the whole truth, are you?

Game time: DS3D GX under the microscope
Asus claims that the Xonar's DirectSound 3D GX's EAX 5.0 emulation produces output comparable to true EAX implementations, so we just had to take it for a spin. We even contacted Creative to see if they could suggest some games that might highlight DS3D GX's limitations, but the company's few suggestions were dominated by games based on the older Doom 3 engine. EAX support just isn't what it used to be, I guess.

Creative did suggest that we try Bioshock, and since we had a few initial DS3D GX problems with the game, it made the cut. We also decided to throw a little Battlefield 2 into the mix. The game has a special X-Fi audio mode, and we were curious to see how that would pan out with the Xonar.

I spent a couple of hours playing each game on the X-Fi XtremeMusic and Xonar DX with configured for 5.1-channel analog output with in-game EAX effects enabled. Surprisingly, Battlefield 2 let me invoke the X-Fi audio mode with the Xonar DX.

After an afternoon of gaming, I came away quite impressed with DirectSound 3D GX. Creative may be correct in saying that it doesn't deliver a genuine EAX 5.0 experience, and I wouldn't be surprised if its emulation isn't an exact 1:1 replica of EAX effects. But that didn't diminish my gaming experience in the least. Bioshock is packed with aural ambiance, and the underwater city of Rapture was every bit as creepy with the Xonar as it was with the X-Fi. I couldn't detect any difference between the cards in Battlefield 2, either, even in intense firefights loaded with explosions, gunfire, and frantic cries for a medic.

nice.

Conclusions

Asus put the Xonar on a diet for this latest DX version, dropping plenty of weight to squeeze it onto a low-profile card that retails for half the price of the more expensive D2X model. Some of the original Xonar's flashier features didn't survive, including its generous cable bundle and LED-backlit ports. DTS Interactive encoding isn't supported by the DX, either, and you'll have to settle for Cirrus Logic DACs instead of Burr Browns.

Despite these changes, the DX lives up to the performance standard set by its predecessor. The card's sound quality is nothing short of exceptional, and more impressively, it was indistinguishable from that of the Xonar D2X in both blind listening tests and in RightMark Audio Analyzer's objective measure of signal quality. Gaming performance is good, too, which isn't really a surprise considering that all the Xonars share the same audio chip. The combination of Windows Vista and multi-core processor seems to have largely blunted the appeal of hardware acceleration for positional 3D audio, and Asus' DirectSound 3D GX does an admirable job of emulating EAX 5.0 effects that have long been restricted to Creative's audio chips.
Asus Xonar DX
April 2008

So Asus may have cut some of the fat from the Xonar for this new DX derivative, but they haven't gone too far. The soul of the Xonar remains intact, and with the DX's street price sitting at just $90, it's more attainable than ever. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest the Xonar DX offers the best combination of features, performance, and value of any desktop PC sound card on the market. It's no wonder, then, that we've given it our Editor's Choice award.

The Xonar DX is more than just a fantastic sound card. It also cements Asus as the most credible—and importantly innovative—alternative to Creative's dominance of the PC audio market. Enthusiasts have been waiting for such an alternative for a long time.

nice. trounces the x-fi in virtually everything.

so, that WAS some useful input there. thank you, helmut. its just a shame that wasnt your intention

 

[Chimerical]

The Xonar has a range up to 192Khz which is amazing for a consumer card and far and above what the X-Fi can do.

EAX isn't really a selling point to most people either, because they probably spend more time listening to music on their PC's than trying to hear CS:S soldiers sneaking up on them. Couple that with the fact that not a lot of people have decent 5.1 Speakers for their computers (and wouldn't need them for things like home video editing, music playback, etc.) just means, to me, that the X-Fi is defunct. The Asus card is physically better than Creative's and is better for general day-to-day use. The Xonar is better built, has better sound quality and range and is a good price for what you're getting.

People have £200 X-Fi Elite Pro's that have broken down on them; coupled with atrocious Creative support; which isn't funny at all.

Put simply, the Asus wins.

 

[helmutcheese]

Nobody said they aint good, but 1 or 2 peeps cant see the fact I was only pointing out about EAX 5.0 claims and this info backed up on a good site above twice now.

I say again Creative and ASUS have equally bad Customer Service and support, I have own both brands since 2001.

 

[james.miller]

what claims? read the quote from your own link!

 

[Parsley]

I'm stuck trying to choose between getting one of these or the Auzentech Prelude.

Definately moving closer to the Xonar though, I don't really care if it is true EAX or not as long as it sounds good.

Could anyone offer any advice?