I would recommend taking a look at the software and fine tuning a few elements so that you can enhance the tones coming out of all channels - although this isn't a requirement. The bundled software allows you to indulge in many options within THX TruStudio Pro and EAX.

X-Fi HD sounds absolutely awesome on a surround sound system - bass has been tightened, giving a lovely crisp finish to a variety of tones. Once again, within this category of audio I wasn't disappointed.

Movies and music are obviously at the very pinnacle of Creative's intentions with the X-Fi HD. Sound, effects and music within the titles I tested (Medal of Honor Beta, Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2) were very crisp, precise and clearly impressive. You may think that the Rampage III Formula comes with a SupremeFX X-Fi anyway but in reality, underneath the cover is a Realtek chip running an X-Fi codec. Games that support EAX will combine well with this sound card, I can confirm that over the standard onboard sound that I get with the ASUS Rampage III Formula the X-Fi HD is far superior. THX TrueStudio Pro and Crystalizer play important roles within the X-Fi HD. The above benchmarking results may not mean anything to you but most users will want to know what the audio feedback is like compared to onboard audio within games, movies and music.Ĭreative are strong foes to beat when it comes to 3D audio. THD is high compared to normal, but < 1% is considered high fidelity and inaudible to the human ear the best out of the 3 devices tested is the X-Fi HD. Noise level and Dynamic Range performance are both below average - HD USB being worst of set Testing the right channel, the X-Fi HD was the best, beating onboard by less than a dB and the Fatal1ty by nearly 4dB. As can be seen in the table on the left channel the X-Fi HD was the furthest out by 5.65dB. Rightmark's Audio Analyzer measures both channels of a stereo output and gives their tolerance in dB. The results of onboard audio, X-Fi Fatal1ty, X-Fi HD in RightMark Audio Analyzerįrequency response is a measure of the outputted audio's range.

Creative sound blaster x fi hd review