Creative Announces World’s First Native PCI Express Hardware Accelerated Sound Cards

The worldwide leader in digital entertainment products for PC users, Creative has announced the launch of a pair of world’s first native PCI Express hardware accelerated sound cards – PCI-E Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series and PCI-E Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series.

“We’ve developed the PCI Express models of our Sound Blaster X-Fi gaming sound cards to meet the specific requests that we’ve received from end users,” said Steve Erickson, VP and GM of audio and VLSI for Creative. “We have re- architected our X-Fi processor so we can deliver even more performance and provide the best audio available on the PC today. You’ll know why it’s worth the upgrade to PCI Express the second you hear it. We’ve also added Dolby Digital encoding, for connection to a home theater system for an awesome gaming experience. We created an entirely new I/O drive with an innovative design that can fit either a 3 1/2″ or 5 1/4″ drive bay. Plus, the Sound Blaster Titanium series cards are optimized for Windows Vista with UAA- compliant hardware.”

According to the company, the new PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series sound card (priced at $149.99) which features Dolby Digital encoding for single-cable connection to home theater systems can provide ultra-realistic EAX 5.0 sound effects and positional 3D audio. Besides, the Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series sound card (priced at $199.99) includes all of the features of Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series and adds an internal I/O drive for quick front panel headphones and headsets connection that will fit into 5.25 or 3.5 external drive bay.

Features Of PCI-E Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series and PCI-E Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series Sound Cards:

• Creative X-Fi processor specifically designed for high-speed PCI Express slots in modern PCs
• X-Fi Crystalizer technology, which leverages audio algorithms to intelligently and selectively determine how to restore the highs and lows from sound effects, instruments and vocals and voices that were damaged or diminished during the MP3, AAC, game audio or other compression processes
• X-Fi CMSS-3D technology, to create virtual surround sound through speakers or headphones in games or music. In games, you hear your opponents in their exact location. With music, the sound expands so it completely surrounds you
• Dolby Digital support for compelling 5.1 surround sound through a home theater system
• Creative ALchemy to restore EAX and surround sound in DirectSound game titles running under Vista
• Certified UAA compliance for maximum Windows Vista compatibility
• X-RAM dedicated audio memory to boost performance in select games
• THX Certified surround sound for cinematic movie audio playback
• PowerDVD software with DTS-ES and Dolby Digital-EX decoding
• 24-bit audio quality and 109db SNR audio clarity
• ASIO recording support with latency as low as one millisecond with minimal CPU load

Both of the new Creative’s PCI Express sound cards are now available for pre-order at Amazon.com/pcguts, Creative.com and Frys.com.