My thoughts on Creative’s X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

sygnus21 · May 12, 2009

My thoughts on Creative’s X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

I decided to get this card because my new system build would have required a PCI-Express soundcard since the i7 system I “was” going to get included an Intel DX58SO MB which is lite on PCI slots.

Reading reviews about the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro were impressive but nowhere did I see anything comparing it to my X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro which has similar features including X-RAM and the Fatal1ty Pro name tag, so I was a little skeptical of the sound performance over the X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro.

Well…I’ll use one word to describe sound performance of the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro over the X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro – WOW!

As has been noted time and time again, this is an audiophile’s soundcard and the difference in sound between the X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro and X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro is very noticeable, especially in music where the highs and lows are concerned (Treble & Bass). The X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro simply blows the X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro away in this area.

I have an old Altec Lansing ACS641 speaker system that I run in stereo, that is two satellites and a powered subwoofer and have never heard them perform so well with The X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro soundcard installed. Imaging is impressive.

Most stereo setups will have the sound centered, which is good, but a really good stereo setup will center the voice and bass while creating a left and right soundstage (example: guitar left, piano right, vocals center) and this card does this with flying colors! It’s as though you have a soundstage before your very eyes and can see where the musicians are playing. Mind you, this is in stereo!!!

The sound is equally impressive as the bass notes delivered by the Titanium are cleaner, deeper, and don’t sound like thump thump thump; the highs are crisp but not shrill sounding or exaggerated – cymbals sound like…cymbals! Mids are excellent. And again, this is on a 7 year old computer speaker system! Sorry but my X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro never sounded this good. Never!

Gaming on this card is equally impressive as the soundstage just opens – you seem to have sounds coming from all around you …again…even on a “two” speaker setup!

I read somewhere where someone noted that frames per second actually increased with this card. I did a 3DMark06 benchmark and my score did increase about 150 points with the card installed, but…

And as good as this card sounds on speakers, it sounds even better on my headphones (Bose TriPort, Sennheiser PX 100), especially with Creative’s X-Fi CMSS 3D enabled. Again, outstanding soundstage presence, and the sound isn’t heavy or fatiguing. This card simply rocks.

Now the big plus!!! For those of you who have been trying to figure out a way to hookup your case’s front/top mic/headphone headers to your “Creative” soundcard, worry no more…the Titanium Fatal1ty Pro allows this. Simply hook up your AC’ 97 or Intel High Definition Audio (HDA) connector to the back of the soundcard’s slot labeled “Front Panel” and wolla…your front case mic/headphones now work with the soundcard! Even muting the speakers!!! (If configured through Creative’s “Volume Panel”).

I did this with my Antec P182 case’s standard 10pin Intel HDA connector and everything worked!

Previously the only way to get front header support was to get creative’s I/O drive…at an added cost. It’s nice to see creative come around in this area, especially since this has been standard practice on integrated soundcards on motherboards for years. Thank you Creative!

As for software – you basically get the same software supplied with any other X-Fi product, plus Power DVD (version 7) – Key Features and software.

I’ve owned quite a few Creative soundcards from the AWE 64 Gold, to the Live series, to the Audigy series to the X-Fi products, and this card is a huge step forward.

Creative definitely made up for that debacle with the X-Fi soundcard functionality issue in Vista and the Daniel K incident.

This is a great product by Creative and definitely worth the upgrade over existing Creative cards including the X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro, especially if you love music!

Just my two cents.

boogiem0nst3r · May 13, 2009

how exactly did you connect this to the front panel?

the wires aren't labelled, the only way i found to do this (but dind't do it yet..not sure if i want to shell out $20 for just a wire...)

was with this adapter Creative Labs X-Fi/Audigy Sound Card to Front Case Port Adapter Cable Products Model: SB-FP-AC97 [SB-FP-AC97] : Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come

if you know of a bette rway, then let me know...

-vinh

fieseler · May 13, 2009

I have the older xfi fatality pro card & my bro has the titanium version both are good cards, but ive never really compared them. Origionally i thought they were the same card, just one was pcie x1.

stormy13 · May 13, 2009

Not sure about the rest of the components on the Titanium cards (DAC's, capacitors, etc), but the X-Fi chip itself has been updated from the EMU20K1 to the EMU20K. One reason why the Titanium's have a separate driver package over the older models.

sygnus21 · May 13, 2009

boogiem0nst3r said:
how exactly did you connect this to the front panel?

the wires aren't labelled, the only way i found to do this (but dind't do it yet..not sure if i want to shell out $20 for just a wire...)

was with this adapter Creative Labs X-Fi/Audigy Sound Card to Front Case Port Adapter Cable Products Model: SB-FP-AC97 [SB-FP-AC97] : Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come

if you know of a bette rway, then let me know...

-vinh

Only the Titanium Pro allows this

sygnus21 said:
Now the big plus!!! For those of you who have been trying to figure out a way to hookup your case’s front/top mic/headphone headers to your “Creative” soundcard, worry no more…the Titanium Fatal1ty Pro allows this. Simply hook up your AC’ 97 or Intel High Definition Audio (HDA) connector to the back of the soundcard’s slot labeled “Front Panel” and wolla…your front case mic/headphones now work with the soundcard! Even muting the speakers!!! (If configured through Creative’s “Volume Panel”).

I did this with my Antec P182 case’s standard 10pin Intel HDA connector and everything worked!

Previously the only way to get front header support was to get creative’s I/O drive…at an added cost. It’s nice to see creative come around in this area, especially since this has been standard practice on integrated soundcards on motherboards for years. Thank you Creative!

stormy13 · May 13, 2009

boogiem0nst3r said:
if you know of a bette rway, then let me know...

-vinh

Make your own,

Connecting the SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS to the Front Panel

Almost all Audigy's and first generation X-Fi's have the J1 connector on them (you can thank Dell and the others for that), and the pinouts are the same on all of them. If you can source the parts locally, shouldn't cost more than a few dollars to make it yourself.

sygnus21 said:
Only the Titanium Pro allows this

Not entirely correct. The Xtreme Gamer (the half height version) was I believe the first Creative card with the HD audio front panel connectors on them (and possibly the Xtreme Audio, but no one likes to talk about those cards

).

P.S. Almost forgot, very nice review.

sygnus21 · May 13, 2009

fieseler said:
I have the older xfi fatality pro card & my bro has the titanium version both are good cards, but ive never really compared them. Origionally i thought they were the same card, just one was pcie x1.

stormy13 said:
Not sure about the rest of the components on the Titanium cards (DAC's, capacitors, etc), but the X-Fi chip itself has been updated from the EMU20K1 to the EMU20K. One reason why the Titanium's have a separate driver package over the older models.

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - TechSpot

making use of a slightly modified chip called EMU20K2 that adds native PCI Express support among a number of improvements and fixes over the previous generation of cards.

Spot on

@ fieseler

As I stated in my review, there is a clear difference in sound between the X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro and the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro. The X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro simply blows the X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro away, especially in music.

sygnus21 · May 13, 2009

stormy13 said:
boogiem0nst3r said:

if you know of a bette rway, then let me know...

-vinh

Click to expand...

Make your own,

Connecting the SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS to the Front Panel

Almost all Audigy's and first generation X-Fi's have the J1 connector on them (you can thank Dell and the others for that), and the pinouts are the same on all of them. If you can source the parts locally, shouldn't cost more than a few dollars to make it yourself.

sygnus21 said:

Only the Titanium Pro allows this

Click to expand...

Not entirely correct. The Xtreme Gamer (the half height version) was I believe the first Creative card with the HD audio front panel connectors on them (and possibly the Xtreme Audio, but no one likes to talk about those cards ).

P.S. Almost forgot, very nice review.

Meaning you could hook your PC Case's AC' 97 or Intel HDA wired 10-pin connector directly to the card so that the cases's front/top heaphone/mic jacks worked??? Hmmm....

And thanks for the props on the review

stormy13 · May 13, 2009

HDA yes,

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/29-102-006-04.jpg

picture of the connector on the Xtreme Gamer. And this from the X-Fi user guide,

Connectivity
Interfaces

[*]4-pin power supply header for connection to the system power supply unit, supplying power to the X-Fi I/O Console*

[*]2 x 20 pin AD_EXT header for connection to the X-Fi I/O Drive*

[*]2 x 5 pin Front Panel Header for connections with Intel HD Front Panel Audio standard header (For SB073X series only)

[*]One AD_Link (26 pin) connector for linking to the X-Fi I/O Console*

The SB073X series is the Xtreme Gamer.As far as the difference between the HDA and Ac'97 connection,

just a couple of wires that need to be changed. That is from my motherboard manual with my motherboard having the option in the bios to set whether the header is used as HDA or AC'97. Don't remember which board it was for (it was a recent Gigabyte board, but don't remember which one) that had the instructions on which wires to change in the jumper block.

sygnus21 · May 13, 2009

stormy13 said:
just a couple of wires that need to be changed.

There's no wires or BIOS changes (don't know why you need a BIOS change, unless you're dealing with on-board sound) to be done. Just simply plug your computer case wire to the soundcard. That's it. And as mentioned, the card even has the area marked "Front Panel". None of my other cards had this option without some sort of mod or re-wire.

That's the point I'm making about the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - no mods, just plug and go!

Here's the Antec P182 case's audio ports layout wiring. It's basically one long cable connected to the audio ports on the front case at one end, and split in two at the other to use either the HDA or AC' 97 connector. I chose the HDA connector and things work, so I saw no need to try the AC' 97 connector. And using either connector connects the same front ports.

Here's the P182's wiring diagram for the audio ports...

Here the P182's audio cable...All I did was plug that cable into the back of the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro soundcard - no mods, no re-wiring

Here's the P182's front audio ports (Mic, Headphones)

I'm going assume this is the standard wiring layout used on many PC cases made today?

boogiem0nst3r · May 14, 2009

look at this picture. which is the adapter i posted above.

then this picture below, which is the back of the card

now look at this picture you posted, which helps prove my point

12835d1242260610t-my-thoughts-creative-s-x-fi-titanium-fatal1ty-pro-p182-audio-ports.jpg

to the left, where it says 10 X 6 4 2..with X is where 8 is suppose to be. on my HDA or AC97 wire in my case, the X is filled in...while on the sound card all 10 pins are present, which means i can't insert anything anywhere because of the 8 position being blocked

so how did you plug it in?

Ayporos · May 14, 2009

stormy13 said:
boogiem0nst3r said:

if you know of a bette rway, then let me know...

-vinh

Click to expand...

Make your own,

Connecting the SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS to the Front Panel

Almost all Audigy's and first generation X-Fi's have the J1 connector on them (you can thank Dell and the others for that), and the pinouts are the same on all of them. If you can source the parts locally, shouldn't cost more than a few dollars to make it yourself.

sygnus21 said:

Only the Titanium Pro allows this

Click to expand...

Not entirely correct. The Xtreme Gamer (the half height version) was I believe the first Creative card with the HD audio front panel connectors on them (and possibly the Xtreme Audio, but no one likes to talk about those cards ).

P.S. Almost forgot, very nice review.

I have an X-Fi X-treme gamer and I can indeed confirm it has onboard connector plugs to hook up your front pannel I/O, which is what I did, and my headphones+microphone work just fine from it.

It even differentiates front pannel connected headphones from the rear I/O and recognises when I have either/or my headphones plugged in or my speakers.

sygnus21 · May 14, 2009

boogiem0nst3r said:
look at this picture. which is the adapter i posted above.

then this picture below, which is the back of the card

now look at this picture you posted, which helps prove my point

to the left, where it says 10 X 6 4 2..with X is where 8 is suppose to be. on my HDA or AC97 wire in my case, the X is filled in...while on the sound card all 10 pins are present, which means i can't insert anything anywhere because of the 8 position being blocked

so how did you plug it in?

There lays the problem. I'm not talking about any other card but the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro, which obviously has a different pin layout than some other cards.

Now looking at the below diagram, and as you noted, pin number 8 is blank and blocked. True!

Now look at the back X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro and notice the red dot... look a little closer and you'll see that that number 8 pin is missing! This is the area where you would plug in the standard 10-pin connector because, as noted, the 8 pin is missing. Also note that is says "Front Port" where the 10 pin connects.

Now...I believe this proves my point! Especially when you consider what I said here: http://www.vistax64.com/sound-audio...s-x-fi-titanium-fatal1ty-pro.html#post1042911

Also....

Again, I'm only talking about the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro, a PC case with a standard 10-pin audio port connector. No mods, purchasing of extra hardware/cables, re-wiring, or other soundcards! Only the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

Any further wiring issues with other soundcards is for another thread as this is turning into something entirely different than what I intended my post to be....a review of the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

Thanks

boogiem0nst3r · May 14, 2009

ok im going to open up my computer RIGHT now and get to the bottom of this, because

this is the card i've bought from newegg
Newegg.com - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional 70SB088600002 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Express Interface Sound Card - Sound Cards

which is EXACTLY the card you are talking about, titled "
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional"

edit:

ok just finished opening up my computer case and you are RIGHT, on the right side i can indeed plug it in. i never noticed the word front panel there before as where my computer is its always dark. plus all the guides i checked online pointed me that i needed some "extra" adapter to make it work.

thanks for sharing, save me a lot of hassle + $20!

sygnus21 · May 14, 2009

boogiem0nst3r said:
ok just finished opening up my computer case and you are RIGHT, on the right side i can indeed plug it in. i never noticed the word front panel there before as where my computer is its always dark. plus all the guides i checked online pointed me that i needed some "extra" adapter to make it work.

thanks for sharing, save me a lot of hassle + $20!

See....I wasn't crazy after all :D

And the words "Front Panel" that i'm talking about is printed on the soundcard below the pins for the 10-pin connector.

As far as needing some "extra" adapter to make it work....like I said...that's for "other" cards and not the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

May I ask what case you have? I said I believed that that 10-pin connector is standard in all PC cases made today. If so, then all you need to do is plug that cable into the X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro and your front audio ports will work with any case. Very convenient :D

Now as for my review - what do your think of the card???

Thanks

PS - I'm glad you was able to figure out what I was talking about in my previous post considering I left a very important image out while trying to clearify my point

. I've now added the image to my previous post for future reference

boogiem0nst3r · May 16, 2009

what do i think of the card?

i think the card is great for both music and games (and i nkow audiophiles would nuke me for saying this is a "music" card)

Sometimes (out of no where, ie system worked fine, then shut down, turned on next day problem occurs) i try switching audio modes, to Entertainment or Game for example, and one mode will work while the other mode doesn't work at all. Nothing's changed about my system, and this just happens. the only way to fix this is to re-install drivers (of which i use daniel k's)

i feel better about the card now that I can connect my front panel mic/headphone.

And i feel very concerned about the future of EAX as microsoft basically killed that off.

I got it off newegg for 125.99 + free shipping + came with the creative fatal1ty gaming headset for free...so not a bad "deal".

this could be my first and last discrete soundcard if there is no use for gaming sound cards in the future as its all going software i believe?

edit:

I have thermaltake v9 black edition which comes with the standard 10 pin connectors (well 9 pin if you don't count the one thats not there)

-Vinh

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