New PCI Express Titanium X-Fi announced

PCI-E is all very well. No doubt more data can be processed. However, have you seen the latest motherboard configurations? The XFX 780i and 790i Ultra and the latest Asus series of 3-Way SLi Motherboards. The PCI-E x1 slot required by the X-Fi, sits in between 2 PCI-E x16 Slots. So, if you choose to go for the GX2 Graphics Card, the PCI-E x1 is immediately redundant. You can't put anything in it. So let's say, that you've got the latest high-end tri-SLi MOBO but choose to go for a lower model Graphics card (yes, you'd really do that wouldn't you!) i.e. a 9600 GT XXX instead of a chunky GX2 or GTX. Although the GT's are comparatively thin, the cooling fan on the graphics card will have very little air to suck in; because the X-Fi and the Graphics card will sit in parallel with millimetres of space between them. So you'll have to direct the airflow in-between the cards, some how. Otherwise your graphics card will overheat, and overheat the motherboard chipset. It's the same with all high-end Mobo's. So, if the Titanium series of cards are designed for the Hardcore Gamer, why didn't they take into account the design of High-end Mobo's that gamers go for?

Comment by kalcyph at 3:34pm 29th May 2008

I cna blmae ti on a hagnovre. Hic!

Comment by crazyceo at 4:27pm 19th May 2008

Glad to see a high end PCI-E X-fi at last. This could mean the beginning of the end for PCI slots seeing as we've have PCI-E TV cards and RAID card for a while now. I hope they release non-fatal1ty models as they do demand a premium and most people just want a card with the latest EAX and 7+channel support.

Comment by combatus at 2:04pm 19th May 2008

This should have been available at the launch of Vista, not now, after a damning backlash from the users for poor treatment of Daniel_k. No mention of wether this card needs a power connector. I certainly will not be spending any more cash on Creative products.

Comment by carlg75 at 6:00am 19th May 2008

We stick with windows it runs everything ;)

Comment by Lightning_Pete at 10:39am 18th May 2008

...working linux driver...

Comment by conholster at 10:32am 18th May 2008

my spelling is crap today...can't even blame it on a hangover :o

Comment by EdArch at 1:46pm 17th May 2008

does the pricemean that some of the components are actually made of titanium? probably not but then again I was disappointed when I examined my Audigy 2 'platinum' lol the features seem ok, dolby encoding would be useful, however I prefer the external boxes to the drive bay setup as it's less fiddly setting up and using in general. I wonder if the PCIE means the card is faster/more powerful? Not sure how that would be assessed but the higher throughput of PCIE should mean better quality edocing/decoding and output. If they make a version with the external I/O ox then I would conisder buying that, but I'll see what the price is like as my 2nd PC only has onboard audio (and my Audigy 2 platinum pro still works just fine :)

Comment by EdArch at 1:46pm 17th May 2008

the damage has been done and most people will not buy creative products due to the "daniel " incident. i sure wont be buying this card. creative should have made a card like this from scratch with everything working on it, i.e - optical output for digital signal, a proper headphone and mic in jack instead of the dire " mic 2 " and " large connector jack adapter " to plug in a set of headphones. although revising a product is not a bad thing, eg - intel with there tick tock method, creative have taken far to long to fix the problems which plagued the original xfi cards. okaaay, anyone want to hazard a guess when that dts encoding update will be released? terrible aftersales from creative regarding updates/drivers and also tech support is useless when you mail them. you would think they could identify a 2 pin header on my xtreme music card, wouldnt you. well, they couldnt. the response i got was " you do not need to use these pins ". bunch of jackasses tbh, just answer my question which i asked please. needless to say i never wrote back and will never be buying from them again.

Comment by dshantalla at 3:36am 17th May 2008

my Remington Titanium has a nice yellowy chromed finish :p

Comment by rickykemp at 10:37pm 16th May 2008

i allways find it hilarious when companies fit their products with a name involving 'titanium'. they almost allways write titanium in silver, sometimes even covering the box in silvery graphics. titanium is a yellow metal!!

Comment by yougotkicked at 10:09pm 16th May 2008

Why do I think Return To Castle Wolfenstein everytime I see the Fatal1ty logo...?

Comment by G_Man_007 at 9:15pm 16th May 2008

i think its just going to be an extreme audio with a heatsink sprayed black with eax5 and some fixes

Comment by fatman122 at 8:26pm 16th May 2008

have they managed to fix all the problems they are having with the x-fi series cards in this new card, such as the pc freezing with high pitch noise coming from your head set/general pc crashing.. I do not get any crashing or freezing once the card has been removed.

Comment by dmc_dc at 6:36pm 16th May 2008

I am sick of companys like creative assuming everyone will be buying a Sound Card and pay extra just because they attached the alias for a pro gamer on it. I do game, but I would be buying a pro sound card for audio recording, not to try and assume someone else's identity. I have X-fi Extreme Audio, it is very resource heavy so I think it one won't be an exception, even if they did paint it black and red colour.

Comment by Wolfinton at 5:32pm 16th May 2008

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