|  Articles | Sound Blaster X-Fi Issues Explored | Sound Blaster X-Fi Issues Explored | Published on December 26th, 2006
Software
During this test we noticed that X-Fi’s driver is written
horribly. Instead of coding a driver, Creative took a lot of code parts
and integrated them into a single driver. Therefore, it creates a lot
of memory usage and may affect the performance of your computer. When
we inserted the CD and launched the installer we saw that Creative is
adding so many applications – in my opinion, most of these
applications are totally useless and are not suited for an enthusiast
or a gamer -- musicians maybe, but that’s too much I guess.
When we choose only the Audio Console and the drivers only –
without all the applications that we don’t really need -- the
installer still showed that 131MB are required to install it. Why the
hell do I need to use 130MB on a small audio console and audio drivers?
We have enough free space on our hard disks these days, but still,
131MB for an audio driver only and a small console is way too much.
Well, let it be, we installed the drivers and check this out:
X-Fi’s drivers added three new applications in our Startup Folder
and from what I saw, one of them is totally useless (Updreg.exe). You
think that’s all? Well, think again! Except for these three new
executables on the Startup, X-Fi’s drivers added not one, not two or
three, but SIX new device level services to our system. Every service
is handling a different feature. And now you can see that instead of
writing one single driver for all the audio needs (Like Realtek is
doing) they are writing many parts and spamming your system with their
services/executables. And what does this all mean?
It takes away from your system resources due to unoptimized and
unprofessional coding from Creative’s side. The screenshot above
just shows the usage of the three executables; we still don’t
know how many resources are being used by all six of the services-based
device drivers. Creative is trying to aim their products to gamers and
enthusiasts, but their driver is simply horribly and unprofessionally
coded. Why do we need to lose so many resources – just to run a
single audio card? Why? There are many solutions out there with almost
the same features that don’t spam our systems with tons of
services and crapware/bloatware.
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