Creative intros first Sound Blaster X-Fi PCIe cards

Creative Technology on Friday announced two additions to its PCI Express Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty sound cards with the Professional Series and Champion series. Creative claims the products are the first ever native PCI Express hardware accelerated sound cards. Both cards feature Dolby Digital encoding and single-cable connection for 5.1-channel home theater hook-ups, as well as EAX 5.0 effects and CMSS 3D positional audio support.

Either of the 24-bit, 109dB signal-to-noise ratio cards has been designed to fit either a 3.5 or 5.25-inch drive bay. Compressed audio is cleaned up through the X-Fi Crystalizer technology that Creative says restores lost details. A dedicated 64MB of X-RAM memory enhances supported games.

Four line-out connections, as well as an optical input and output is featured in either Windows Vista-compatible card, while a mic-in connection enables ASIO recording support. Both PCIe cards feature THX, DTS-ES and Dolby Digital EX sound decoding software.

The Champion series differs from the Professional as it adds an internal 5.25-inch I/O drive that allows front-panel connections to headphones or headsets, volume control, pair of RCA jacks and a game mode button that allows quick access to the card's gaming functions.

The Professional-series cards will be available online and at Creative stores in Singapore by the end of June, priced at an equivalent of about $160. The Champion Series card will launch one month later, with a suggested equivalent retail of about $220. A US release is expected later this year.

Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series