X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity

According to Creative, the Xtreme Fidelity Engine is like having the power of a second 3.4GHz processor (more than 10,000MIPS) built into the PC that was dedicated just to audio! That's enough additional power to process more than 10 Billion instructions per second!

Like the GPU in a video card, which is designed to process only graphics, the X-Fi processor is design for only one purpose - processing audio data in real-time This in turn frees up CPU resource for other instructions improving overall system performance. Dissecting the X-Fi processor core we discover that X-Fi consists of 51,100,100 Transistors, 1,613,658 Logic Gates, has a .13-micron @ 1.2V core, a clock frequency of 400MHz, and processing 10,340 MIPS. The X-Fi engine consists of four key elements:

• The Audio Ring Architecture
• Super Sample Rate converter (S-RSC)
• A "Quartet" DSP
• On-board RAM up to 64MB

• Sample rate conversion plays an important role in digital connectivity, 3D audio modeling, music synthesis and the ability to play and mix multiple sounds recorded at differing sample rates. SRC is process by which audio's sampling rate gets changed without affecting the pitch of the audio.  The X-Fi Sample Rate Converter engine is incredibly powerful at over 7,000 MIPS equivalent processing power and has a new and unique hybrid architecture that produces outstanding audio quality. In fact the quality of the sample rate conversion is so high that it is effectively transparent. An audio clip could actually be converted many times with no detectable degradation.

• This all-new patent pending DSP architecture has four hardware threads, which why it is named the "Quartet" DSP. The Quartet architecture is also SIMD, (Single Instruction Multiple Data), which included two SIMD execution data-paths, doubles the X-Fi throughput and efficiently support stereo and complex data types.

X-Fi audio processing technology featuring some powerful new enhancements such as 24-bit SoundFont, EAX Advanced HD 5.0, SuperRip, ASIO 2.0, Dolby Digital EX, and DTS. What sets X-Fi apart from competitors are the two audio processing technologies: 24-bit Crystalizer and CMSS-3D.

X-Fi technology uses a "mode" architecture is to harness and focus all the incredible power into three key audio uses (Gaming, Entertainment, Audio Creation). With three programmable optimization modes to choose from this technique eliminate user the hassles of spending hours of time configuring for sound quality when playing games, listen to music, or audio project. Each mode behave differently from one another but it's guarantees to enrich sound quality, even from low-quality to high-quality audio. 

Here is a chart to distinguish the three mode optimization features: 

Creative will launch the Sound Blaster X-Fi line with four products: Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro, Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS, Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum, and the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music. Each product has its own set of extras and features. ASI now stocks all 4 of Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity line cards (see chart below):