Creative Labs SB0790 PCI Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card Reviews

Review by Christopher M. Hill for Creative Labs SB0790 PCI Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card
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Despite being sold as an X-Fi card, this particular model does not use the X-Fi chipset. In fact it uses a variation of the Audigy 2 SE chipset. This is further confirmed by the fact that this card uses different drivers than the rest of the X-Fi line, and is not recognized as an X-Fi card in games. The main problem with this is you cannot uses any of the X-Fi features in games like you would expect. Try using this card in Battlefield 2142 and you will see what I mean.

Creative Labs should be ashamed of themselves for this blatant act of marketing fraud. When someone buys a Ferrari, they are expecting to get a Ferrari, not a Honda with a Ferrari emblem on the front. But that is exactly what Creative Labs has done here. They are marketing this sound card as a high-end brand (X-Fi) when it is really a crippled version of the previous product line (SE model Audigy). They must have a glut of unsold chips and they thought they could pull a fast one on consumers with this cheap card.

I for one will be very cautious before I consider purchasing Creative Labs products in the future. Buyer beware!

Review by Alex Luzardo for Creative Labs SB0790 PCI Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card
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THIS CARD WORK WITH WINDOWS VISTA, BUT ITS FEATURES DOESN’T WORK, YOU CAN’T HAVE ALL POWER OF THIS CARD IF YOU HAVE WINDOWS VISTA. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO WASTE YOUR MONEY, DON’T BUY THIS CARD.

Review by jacknaz for Creative Labs SB0790 PCI Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card
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I got this my old sound card could not work on Vista, but although this is on the Vista list of compatible hardware you might as well use your motherboard sound than buy this card thinking it works on Vista.

Sure, you get a driver for Vista on the Creative site, but the software doesn’t work! I am going back to xp and my turtle beach card and great software and donate my x-fi to the goodwill. Creative admits that the card is not Vista compatible (“if it doesn’t say so on the box, it is not compatible”). All you get is sound, no mixer or console, and it will not work with recording software such as Total Recorder on Vista. And with their loopy update it won’t install on xp.

Review by Michael G. Lustig for Creative Labs SB0790 PCI Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card
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This card works in Vista if you download the Vista driver from Creative’s website; however, none of the Creative applications work at all. I expect that this will be fixed in the future but who knows how long that will take.

The Digital I/O module is a good add-on. See my review there for installation instructions.

Review by Chong Yip for Creative Labs SB0790 PCI Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card
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Just bought this card as an upgrade. The sound quality is significantly better than what my motherboard offers. The software comes with the card doesn’t really works with Vista, at least for my case, Vista Ultimate 64bit. I have to go online and download about 100MB of updates to get the driver, player and the audio console to work.

I’m very disappointed that the console launcher, which is the equalizer and sound effect control, is not working. I can’t believe this $50 plus sound card doesn’t have a WORKING EQ.

UPDATE: I just did a little research on Creative’s website, and I notice they are SELLING X-Fi driver/apps CD for Vista. Unfortunately the CD does not work with Extreme Audio, and it’s out of stock. I have the idea what I should do now…