Boost your desktop's audio performance with a sound card from one of the premier names in computer audio: Creative Labs. The Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series sound card is designed to enhance your PC gaming experience. Named for professional gamer, Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, the card's X-Fi 24-bit Crystalizer will make your game audio more dynamic and realistic while improving both low and high frequencies giving you smoother, cleaner sound.
The card's audio processor, with help from Creative's CMSS-3D technology remixes your stereo audio into surround sound, even through stereo headphones. This is ideal for playing first-person shooters so you can hear your enemies before it's too late. There's 64MB of onboard RAM as well, freeing up demands on your PC's memory and increasing overall gaming performance.
Music and movies benefit from Creative's audio technology know-how, too. For enjoying your favorite DVDs, the card can handle decoding DTS and Dolby Digital EX duties. Add this to your arsenal of gaming weapons today, and open yourself up to a whole new level of sound
X-Fi CMSS-3D Intelligent Surround Sound RemixingX-Fi CMSS-3D intelligently upgrades your MP3 music, movies and games to surround sound using your multi-channel speakers.
EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0 delivers incredibly realistic gaming audio. Drench yourself in an exceptionally dynamic and sensational gaming world.
X-RAMX-RAM frees up system memory and improves overall gaming audio quality and performance in Battlefield 2, Prey, Quake 4, Doom3 and more game titles that take advantage of X-RAM.
Dolby Digital Live EncodingWith Dolby Digital Live support, hook up the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro to a Dolby Digital-equipped audio/video receiver or digital speaker system via a single digital connection for compelling 5.1 surround sound.
Revitalize Your Downloaded MusicXtreme Fidelity audio technology restores the detail and clarity to compressed music files such as MP3 and WMA, making all your music sound better!
Pros: I hopefully can write this review to help those of you decided whether or not to upgrade. I have owned the Audigy 2, XtremeMusic, XtremeGamer Fatal1ty, and now the Titanium. If you own the first two, and you care about premium sound, UPGRADE! I upgraded for the separated mic port, the Digital Dolby Live, and the PCI-E. If you get the "crackle" from a crummy bus system (like the ASUS P5B Deluxe), UPGRADE. This card helps alot. However, PCI-E was an improvement for my system, IT MAY NOT BE FOR YOURS. If you like the idea of a Digital signal encoded in real time, DDL does that! I have a 25' optical cable and it works beautifully. I own the Z5500's and while I have a tuned ear, the average person would still be able to tell the better utilization of the center channel and the rest of the speakers. The software and drivers are better, but still room for improvement (see below). The Auto Mode Switcher is great! The Default mode changes based on your preferences to game or program.
Cons: I tried to strip the drivers before I installed the new card to get a fresh start, but I may have done it wrong, but the card’s software was not fully functional. I had to format:( As other reviews have stated, there is no mic boost yet, but I have only had problems with that off and on. I do voice chat with my friends on Xfire, and sometimes I am crystal clear, other times I am really soft. However, probably 80% of the time I have been fine. But creative….Get a driver for a mic boost:) Lastly, with battlefield 2142, the sound card is not recognized right away. I have to redo the sound settings every time I run the game. When I do that, it says that I don’t have the hardware for the settings. However, to get around it, I still program the settings that I want, then I find a full server, try to enter it, when I get the “full” screen, the sound comes back. I have tried in both Entertainment and Game Mode, yet it still doesn’t comply. If there weren’t any cons, it’d be 5 eggs.
Overall Review: Hopefully this review helps you; I may post a video review to do an in-depth look at the card. I think the card is great. Like I said above, anyone will hear a drastic improvement from the Audigy or XtremeMusic, but the other cards not as much. If you want the DDL, a separated mic port, Optical In and Out, Front Audio and Mic capabilities, improved (but not perfect) drivers, the auto mode switchers, a 4th input for your 7.1 speakers (yep it has another line for that), and you think its worth the extra money. DO IT! I demand premium sound and I will pay the price for it. It makes you feel like you are more in the game. However, I want to emphasize that this card has THE EXACT SAME technology in it as the Fatal1ty Xtreme Gamer (except for the DDL). If you don’t’ believe me, go to creative site and pull up the specs of both cards on two separate tabs and see for yourself. Newegg’s specs are a bit skewed. So the other factors have to persuade you.