I am impressed that Asus can make such expensive sound cards and fill them full of cheap components that seem to have no discernible function. No DSP? What is all that surface-mounted stuff? Aside from the high-explosive capacitors, of course; I recognize those.

As for EAX5 vs EAX2 - maybe if one of them supported A3D I would care. Otherwise, they're just crappy half-baked Creative marketing schemes.

Creative clashing... more specifically, Creative VP of Corporate Communications Phil O'Shaughnessy clashing...

http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/board/message?board.id=soun...

Another reason to avoid Creative, I say.

Time for the Tech Report to do some subjective listening tests on this one between ALchemy and the ASUS solution.

Seems as if Creative have done another face-plant today thanks to the same Mr. O'Shaughnessy. See:-

http://www.dailytech.com/Creative+Says+Custom+Drivers+Are+Stealing+...

Hardware accelerated audio is dead. MS is not the killer at all. They are just moving with the times. The real killer is powerful, multi-core CPUs.

ALchemy is a just wrapper (emulator) using OpenAL that tricks older applications to think that you have EAX-capable hardware. It still software acceleration at heart.

Creative should just open up EAX. They are not exactly making serious $$$$ on hardware anymore.

Good grief we really need a competitor, but in all likelihood onboard sound is going to be where I will be at for the foreseeable future; I don't use EAX much and onboard has been serving me fine for TF2 and the like. I don't see EAX being a huge advantage in, say, Starcraft 2.

"The question is whether there's really much difference between the two, and it's one we'll answer soon with a full review of the Xonar DX, which I happen to have sitting right next to me. Stay tuned."

Woot. *sets dial*

Edit: Also, I hope this card comes on top so there will be an excellent, alternative option for when the majority decide to trash their Creative cards like the *blanky blank* they are.

So how long before EAX is not used at all and every game uses OpenAL?

Giants: Citizen Kabuto was loads of fun to play 8)

Me thinks Asus is a much larger company due to the products that it offers, so it must have more resources to take on creative. if stupid creative does decide to pursue this and lose, it could well be their demise.

EAX never really has impressed me at all. The demo that came with my old Vortex 2 was far more impressive than anything I've heard from an EAX supported game on my Audigy 2ZS. IMO EAX has always been a lame excuse for positional audio.

I agree in that if ASUS can get a sleek, streamlined software solution up and running, more power to them and everyone who follows. This is coming from someone who initially had a very high opinion of the X-Fi up until all the bugs started popping up (and yes, I'm using the most recently released drivers).

As far as the worth of dedicated sound cards, I listen to music far more often than I game, and I find having a dedicated sound card produces far cleaner and sharper sound than onboard does. Now what constitutes 'clean' and 'sharp' is entirely subjective, some people probably won't hear a difference. As far as my ears are concerned, onboard doesn't give me that, but as soon as it does I'll gladly wave goodbye to dedicated sound cards.

I think this'll probably happen as soon as digital input capable speakers become the norm (as in, a $500+ receiver is no longer necessary). I'm already seeing 2.0 speakers for $99 with this capability, so its probably coming sooner than I think.

I hope asus kicks some creative ass.

what exactly is the benefit for EAX 3-5 again? I have an audigy and an x-fi and to tell you the truth I have a hard time realizing the difference. And that's on a logitech z-5500

I'm siding with Asus on this one. Creative needs to really step up their product line AND product driver support. Asus is just filling a need that the market wants.

Any spoilers on the new card? Like a first impression of some sorts.......

Indeed. Short of CPU/frequency what's the point?
Edit: meant as reply to #5