Is EAX Dead?

[Cigarjohn]

Question for my gaming techs.

Will be building a new gaming rig. Waiting for all my stuff to come in from Newegg, Amazon, Koolance and EVGA.

Anyway, my question is if EAX is dead or still required in today's latest games?


I was holding off on purchasing my sound card until I do more research. For now, I'll be using the Asus Maximus IV Extreme Z board's sound options.


I was looking at the Asus Xonar Xense, Azuntech X-FI Theatre HD or waiting to see what Creative has to offer with their new SoundCore 3D cards with Digital Signal Processing features. I guess the next generation in sound cards.

Asus uses the AV100 and 200 chips while Creative uses the newer 20K2 chips.


Asus uses a version of EAX called the DS3D GX2.5:
GX 2.5 supports EAX gaming sound effects and DirectSound 3D hardware enhanced functions for more games on Windows XP/Vista/7. (DirectX/DirectSound 3D compatible) while Creative uses their EAX HD Version. I noticed that Asus doesn't use any on board ram like Creative or Auzentech.

I would say that the physical components on the Asus and Auzentech boards are higher quality than on a Creative board (according to many reviews that I have read).

So, my fellow tech bro's and gals, what are you opinions on my post and what are you using.

Please help me to make a good decision here.


I really don't care about headphones in gaming too much unless its a clan offered game. I have been using a Creative S750 7.1 speaker system for 6 years now and love it. And will continue to use my speaker setup up in my gaming. I'm also using the Creative Audigy 4Pro as my sound card. Its on its last leg. Its time to upgrade with my new computer build.


Peace.

 

[CrushedDiamond]

Pretty much yes when Vista/7 came out it killed most audio acceleration by forcing OpenGL on most games, BUT the quality can still be greatly enhanced by a dedicated sound card. EAX is dead but older games still use it so it doesn't mean you'll never use it plus cards studio panels allow more then basic software enhancements etc etc

 

[Cigarjohn]

Pretty much yes when Vista/7 came out it killed most audio acceleration by forcing OpenGL on most games, BUT the quality can still be greatly enhanced by a dedicated sound card. EAX is dead but older games still use it so it doesn't mean you'll never use it plus cards studio panels allow more then basic software enhancements etc etc

Thanks for your input. Greatly appreciated.

Now to decide what card to get or wait to see how the new Creative SoundCore 3D ranks.

Peace.

 

[mad pistol]

The soundcore sounds like a cool card (no pun intended), but we'll have to see if it truly make a difference or not. It is definitely going to be a step up, but considering how good computer audio is already, we'll just have to see how big of a step that is.

 

[Cigarjohn]

The soundcore sounds like a cool card (no pun intended), but we'll have to see if it truly make a difference or not. It is definitely going to be a step up, but considering how good computer audio is already, we'll just have to see how big of a step that is.

Thanks for your reply. Greatly appreciated. We'll just have to see what Creative has in store for us with this DSP stuff. I heard that they have already implented the 20K2 chip in some of Gigabytes Sniper series of mobo's.