Sound Blaster’s new X-Fi Xtreme card is an Audigy in disguise, though it does use the PCI-E bus.  The card isn’t a complete waste though, the Guru of 3D found that the new chip does offer some improvements to the Audigys of old, but it is a far cry from a X-Fi.  As a bonus, the card even gives a good reason to upgrade to Vista.

“Bordering on false advertisement, Creative’s latest X-Fi isn’t an X-Fi at all, it’s a new rev of the Audigy series using the X-Fi drivers and gliding on the PCI Express bus. The EAX gaming enhancements are gone, however, in favor of the more usable Crystallizer and CMSS3D functions. The X-Audio does provide a good value with decent performance, stability, and last but not least, is does sound good. Perhaps there’s something wrong with it? Well, don’t let the skillfully androgynous chick on the box fool you. Let’s read on and find out what’s really under the, er, hood.”

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