Creative vs. Asus

[Kwal]

Linus always recommends Asus sound cards over Creative sound cards. In fact, he hardly mentions Creative. I was wondering if anyone could explain which one is best, and why, because to me they're both just sound cards.

[Aphexx]

Creative is the old guard that became complacent in the last few generations letting Asus overtake them.

Creative Z series (the newly launched version) has stepped up their game, I have yet to see any true reviews but I feel they are nearly on par with eachother.

[That Norwegian Guy]

Creative is very standard. Components are plastic wherever they can get away with it, the electrical components are more often than not lower grade, but most importantly, their power routing is usually not shielded from the audio processing part of the cards.

Like Aphexx said, Creative have become complacent because they have for a long time been alone in the market as a sound card mft. with a gaming image. But truth be told, it has always been an industry that has preyed on consumer ignorance, because an old ECHO audio card intended for musicians would still be better for gaming, but those actors have just not taken advantage of the market. I wouldn't be surprised to meet someone who thought Creative were the only audio card manufacturer. Truth is, there are dozens of them.

[Helltech]

Creative isn't as good as they used to be. They were top dog only because of lack of competition, I've used many creative products, and after recently switching to Asus I will never go back. The Creative driver support is just abysmal.

[frink]

Creative isn't as good as they used to be. They were top dog only because of lack of competition' date=' I've used many creative products, and after recently switching to Asus I will never go back. The Creative driver support is just abysmal. [/quote']

Definitely agree.

Driver support on Creative sound cards are horrid. I had a Sound Blaster external soundcard and the "made for Windows 8" driver did not work or blue screened me at random occurences. I've given up on sound cards all together, however, based on my friends experiences I would say that Asus sound cards work as advertised and do a decent job (especially for gaming).

[GoodBytes]

Even if Creative made impressive products. I would still avoid them. Driver support ends with every version of Windows, and they want you to buy their ""new"" (same as before but tweaked in some fashion) sound card. I think everyone remembers the Vista story, where Creative refuse to develop Vista drivers, despite the box saying Vista-ready, and when they finally did due to the outcry and law suits, they did a less than a half ass job, with more than half the features missing. It made a person hack the drivers and develop its won drivers. which lead Creatiev to take him to court, long story short, they are still doing this. If you have an X-Fi card, it will not work properly at all under Windows 8, despite using Windows 8 drivers. They want you to get their new sound card which truly support Windows 8. And if you have the original X-Fi sound card, which is the same chip and specs as the newer one, just ID differently, there is no traces of the old drivers on their site. So right now, if you have the original X-Fi (Xtreme Music) for example, and yuo have let's say Windows XP or Vista... and you need to re-install windows, you are screwed. No drivers. And Windows Update doesn't have them. Also, Creative does double duty in making sure there is no mirrors of the drivers on the web,

Waste of money. Instead of doing all this crap, they should spend their energy and resources in making a good product and respectable drivers.

Another problem with many Creative sound card these days is the piss poor circuit engineering. Where the sound card is very picky with the company configuration you have, especially if its a computer with technologies released after the sound card. They many stories of people where simply adding more RAM to their system make the sound card no longer work or causes issues. In my case, the sound card worked but pop and crackle as it played audio or gaming. I had to reduce my RAM amount to solve the problem, yet some don't have the problem, or some can't even get the card to work at all just because it doesn't like something in the computer.

In my case, my X-Fi freezes after a while after you wake the computer out of sleep and play music. And by freeze, I don't mean that the driver frozed or something, no. The card physically frozed! A reboot doesn't solve the problem. I have to go back of the computer, and switch the PSU power switch to cut the power of the motherboard and wait for cutting completely the power to the sound card. THEN only now I can have my sound back. My issue is due to the sound card not liking my hardware.

Now, I did post about my problem, all nicely on their support forum when I first encountered the problem, and before I did my research. I was expecting an option to do, or some beta drivers or sorts. Nope. My thread was deleted, and my account was ban by e-mail, username and IP, as reason: "Providing false problems about Creative quality products". I like that "quality product" part. Now, I did call Creative for support on the issue, which I was put on hold and hang up, and I did call about the issue of the forum, where i wanted to see if my ban was just a mistake or miss understanding. I got a lady screaming at me, on how the forum support is a privilege and not a right, and hang up the phone on me (I am starting to see a pattern now).

Well, I got the ASUS Xonar STX and I am not looking back, let alone even care about any Creative product of any shape or form ever again, and I am going on forums and tell my experience. My Xonar works above and beyond on Windows 7 64-bit and 8 64-bit.

[DrainDoc]

Asus Xonar Essence STX combined with Corsair SP2500...........WOW WOW WOW!!! If any gamer out there needs better sound then that,

you may have larger issues then wanting better qaulity sound. I'm not sure it gets much better.........for PC's that is.