what's the difference. I see pretty gold connectors, the card is bigger and has worthless (to me) firewire. I have 5.1 speakers that aren't that good (i don't waste money on computer speakers when I have a great home theater sound system)...

is the CPU usage less on the ZS (i see an Audigy 2 chip on the ZS card versus just a "Sound Blaster" chip on the value card)?



few notes: getting the retail card for $40 ($65 - $25 rebate) vs $60 for the oem ZS

[Edited on October 26, 2005 at 1:30 PM. Reason : ...]

10/26/2005 1:28:44 PM

after briefly checking newegg the only big differences are hardware dolby decoding on the zs.

As far has cpu load goes, that depends on if the game you're playing supports EAX. Doom3, for example, uses software audio acceleration so you'd get no bonus from the audigy in that respect.

Just check what EAX versions it supports to make sure you're getting the latest stuff. If there is any cpu useage difference between the value and zs, i doubt its worth the ~$30-40 price difference.

I wonder if Creatives new line of x-fi or whatever soundcards will make a difference in the future. Game graphics have been improving steadily, but it seems that audio quality in games hasn't really gone anywhere. It would be great to see (or rather hear) some more advanced audio acceleration.

10/26/2005 2:29:43 PM