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images/news/hardware.jpgRemember Creative Labs? What once was the default choice for sounds cards now is being beaten, at least by licensees; in any event, consumers are simply less willing to pay a couple hundred bucks for a sound card, prompting Creative to turn to cheaper offerings like the X-Fi MB.
Now, apparently, Creative is taking on some of its rivals in a more direct manner. Last week, Asus began shipping the Xonar DX, an $89 sound card with an output signal-to-noise ration of between 112 to 116 dB.
However, Creative had a problem with this statement, made by Asus: "With Windows Vista's new audio architecture, many gamers are unable to take advantage of multi-channel sound, DirectSound; and EAX 5.0 sound effects in PC games. The Xonar DX solves all these problems. With DS3D GX 2.0 technology, the Xonar DX supports the latest EAX effects and DirectSound out of the box. Gamers can dive into a truly engaging sonic experience."
According to Creative, Asus did not license the EAX technology, meaning that the claims Asus made are false. Creative sent out its own statement, according to reports: "Asus is misleading its customers by suggesting that its sound cards now support EAX 5," the company said. "Asus sound cards do not support EAX 5, nor do they support EAX 3 or EAX 4. The new Asus drivers are falsely reporting EAX 5 capabilities in order to get these games to ouptut 3D audio on Asus sound cards. Furthermore, the several hundred games that support EAX 3 or EAX 4 for delivering in-game effects will not provide those effects from Asus sound cards."
So what's really happening? According to Asus, the Xonar DX hardware is redirecting EAX 5.0 calls back to its own hardware. "Our implementation is not a 1:1 reproduction of EAX 5.0. Rather, DS3D GX allows users the choice to universally access gaming audio effects that would otherwise be locked behind specific X-Fi cards and ALchemy-patched game titles," Asus told TGDaily. "While we do respect the capability of a dedicated DSP processor to offload the CPU work, we believe performance differences will continue to diminish based on the power of today's popular CPUs."
Whether or not a redirected hardware call is itself legally permissible will be something Creative's legal team will have to decide. So far, neither side has taken further action.
ExtremeTech
Now, apparently, Creative is taking on some of its rivals in a more direct manner. Last week, Asus began shipping the Xonar DX, an $89 sound card with an output signal-to-noise ration of between 112 to 116 dB.
However, Creative had a problem with this statement, made by Asus: "With Windows Vista's new audio architecture, many gamers are unable to take advantage of multi-channel sound, DirectSound; and EAX 5.0 sound effects in PC games. The Xonar DX solves all these problems. With DS3D GX 2.0 technology, the Xonar DX supports the latest EAX effects and DirectSound out of the box. Gamers can dive into a truly engaging sonic experience."
According to Creative, Asus did not license the EAX technology, meaning that the claims Asus made are false. Creative sent out its own statement, according to reports: "Asus is misleading its customers by suggesting that its sound cards now support EAX 5," the company said. "Asus sound cards do not support EAX 5, nor do they support EAX 3 or EAX 4. The new Asus drivers are falsely reporting EAX 5 capabilities in order to get these games to ouptut 3D audio on Asus sound cards. Furthermore, the several hundred games that support EAX 3 or EAX 4 for delivering in-game effects will not provide those effects from Asus sound cards."
So what's really happening? According to Asus, the Xonar DX hardware is redirecting EAX 5.0 calls back to its own hardware. "Our implementation is not a 1:1 reproduction of EAX 5.0. Rather, DS3D GX allows users the choice to universally access gaming audio effects that would otherwise be locked behind specific X-Fi cards and ALchemy-patched game titles," Asus told TGDaily. "While we do respect the capability of a dedicated DSP processor to offload the CPU work, we believe performance differences will continue to diminish based on the power of today's popular CPUs."
Whether or not a redirected hardware call is itself legally permissible will be something Creative's legal team will have to decide. So far, neither side has taken further action.
ExtremeTech
further proof of creative's position as major bungwipes 
