Audio is always a hard one to analyse and record due to the fact that the results I am to hereafter report are quite subjective. Unlike graphics cards, sound cards do not output viewable results such as Frames Per Second (FPS) etc. There are no applications to document results.
The sound card I am to analyse may be quite difficult to benchmark but the headset has attributes such as the comfort and usability that I can report, so this is a little easier. Nevertheless, the outcome from testing should still give you a good indication as to whether this bundle is going to offer high-quality feedback.
The testing of both the Creative Titanium Fatal1ty soundcard and headset will be tested in games, music and movies to ascertain the overall performance. This testing will be done over a period of 3 hours.
Test Set-up
Intel Core i7 920
ASUS P6T Deluxe
12GB GeIL EVO ONE DDR3
Sapphire HD5870
CM HAF 932 Full Tower Case
Software
Windows 7 64-bit
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Colin McRae DIRT 2
Windows Media Player 12
PowerDVD
Installing the card under Windows 7 64-bit is fairly straight forward. It just needs to be physically installed. Windows 7 already has drivers ready. I did try installing the drivers off Creative’s driver database, but had quite a bit of hassle getting them to install. Checking various forums around the web reveals that Creative drivers are generally quite troublesome and they aren’t highly favoured at all.
Gaming
With both devices being predominantly gaming orientated, this particular testing stage is important. To test, I fired up some of my favourite games – Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Colin McRae DIRT 2. Using both the sound card and headset in collaboration really does boost audio quality. As a simple test I used onboard sound and the difference in quality was significantly better. There are that many features to take advantage of, I enabled X-Fi CMSS-3D when playing these games which amplifies the sound, providing yet more realism by simulating virtual surround. Coupling both Creative products together gives your audio platform that edge. The tones are crisp, fluid and I couldn’t compliment it any higher.
Music & Movies
Both our products on review may be primarily gaming devices but it's to music and movies we now turn. Gamers generally don’t only use their systems for gaming but music and movies too. Movies and games use similar tones so in this aspect, both devices work brilliantly. This duo adds some phenomenal atmosphere, almost as though you’re in the cinema. Even hooked up to a set of 2.1 speakers the Fatal1ty Titanium soundcard shines, providing some superb bass tones. With regards to music, both Creative products work well together and offer some quality audio feedback. A pleasing improvement over onboard sound.
