Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

[Sir. S.A.S]

Re: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

I don't think it normally increases performance in BF2. Maybe if you kept the settings at software, but most people use Ultra High with the X-Fi and it neither reduces fps nor increases it. You just get 128 3d voices and EAX effects

me and my mates at school both seen performance increase when set to ultra high. As i said it has a sound processor the same power as a P4 3.2ghz, so you can have all settings maxed out and the pc wont mind.

[Papi4baby]

Re: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

I had the same issue with mine, i use to run it on high, for a while, and eventually i went to UH, is been there, but is working fine now. I dont know how it got fix but it did.

[Berrern]

Re: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

I don't think it normally increases performance in BF2.

It depends.
If you have a hard pressed PC, struggling to run BF2 at the minimum settings with on-board sound, an X-Fi upgrade could help. This is because, as mentioned, the X-Fi has a very powerful sound processor - which will put less strain on your CPU (which does the sound processing with on-board sound).

As for the problem we're discussing.. I had some performance problems too with my X-Fi when it was new.
It COULD be that you've gotten a bad card. The first batch of X-Fi's produced had a compatibility problem with NF4 chipsets.

Here's a few things you should try (in this order):

• Uninstall your on-board sound drivers first. When you are asked to reboot, reboot and go directly into your BIOS. Turn off the AC97 module (which is the on-board sound).
• Upgrade your drivers to the newest Beta drivers from Creative (2.09.0000).
• Upgrade your OpenAL driver:
  - Download the latest one here:http://developer.creative.com/articl...&top=38&aid=46
  - Install it, it only takes a second.
  - Go to your Battlefield 2 root folder, and make a backup copy of the file BF2OpenAL.dll. Now delete the file from the root folder.
  - Go to C:/Windows/System32 and find the file called openal32.dll. Copy it (do NOT move it!) to your Battlefield 2 folder. Go to your BF2 folder again and rename the file from openal32.dll to BF2OpenAL.dll.

I have done all these, and they helped me - you should definitely give it a try!

PS: I've never heard of the Crystalizer degrading performance, I wouldn't believe that until I actually see some proof/article.

[AFEDslayer]

Re: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

I recently baught one of these cards, i love it. No problems atall so far. And i still have my onboard enabled and still no probs.

[lonegunm4n]

Re: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

I'm thinking about grabbin' one.

[sackynut]

Re: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

i notice a performance inscrease from integrated audio at high, to x-fi at high. but no performance inscrease at Ultra High. the sound card isnt supposed to give you higher FPS, it is supposed to give you much better sound quality without sacrificing performance. people have lost sight of that.

[lonegunm4n]

Re: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

i notice a performance inscrease from integrated audio at high, to x-fi at high. but no performance inscrease at Ultra High. the sound card isnt supposed to give you higher FPS, it is supposed to give you much better sound quality without sacrificing performance. people have lost sight of that.

they figure since your lightening the load on the CPU, that you should see some sort of a performance gain. Which actually is the case, because you sometimes can gain .5 to 2 fps.

[sackynut]

Re: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

thats possible. but then remember this:
it depends on 1. the CPU you currently had, and the integrated sound. if they both sucked, then yes you will see some performance gain probably.

and 2. whenyou get the x-fi you run the audio at Ultra-High settings, which takes up more ram for the high quality audio, lessening your ram can mean lessening performance. but then thats why you haver the x-fi. it all makes up for itsself.

[lonegunm4n]

Re: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

true, in the end it all evens out.

[FusioN[90thSFG]]

Re: Creative X-FI Xtreme Music card....

well I tried new drivers today... worked for about 20 mins then it all screwed up again... im pretty much out of options now..