| | |  | | Home » Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series PCI Express Sound Card | | | | | | | Description: | | Get the Pro Gamer's Choice for Sound- Realistic EAX® 5.0 sound effects that pull you into the game
- Accurate 3D positional audio - even with headphones
- Accelerated audio for unbeatable game performance
- Clearer voice chat for better voice communications
- Works with PCI Express equipped PCs
Chosen by professional gamers, the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series sound card delivers the ultimate PC gaming audio experience. You'll hear realistic EAX® 5 sound effects and 3D positional audio that's so accurate you can locate opponents by sound - even over headphones. Plus, get unbeatable performance in your games with hardware accelerated audio and X-RAM.
 |  | Realistic EAX® 5.0 sound effects in games
Hear crackling gunfire and earth-shattering explosions, EAX® 5.0 delivers sound effects that pull you into the game. | | |  | | Accurate 3D positional audio with X-Fi CMSS®-3D
Locate enemies by sound alone - you'll get amazing surround sound, even with normal stereo headphones. |
|  | | Dolby Digital Live encoding
Connects to your home theater system through a single digital cable (available separately) for compelling 5.1 surround sound. |
Hardware accelerated performance
Get unbeatable performance in your favorite games with hardware accelerated audio that blows motherboard audio away.
X-RAM
Boost performance even further in games like Quake 4, Battlefield 2, Prey, Unreal Tournament 3 and others that take advantage of X-RAM.
Clearer voice chat
Plug in your headset or microphone and hear the difference. With high quality inputs and hardware audio processing, your teammates will hear you loud and clear.
Cinematic surround sound from DVD movies
Watch your DVDs in cinematic surround sound with PowerDVD software featuring DTS" and Dolby Digital®-EX decoding.
 | | Perfect for music
Make all of your music sound better with Xtreme Fidelity audio technology that restores the detail and clarity to compressed music files like MP3s. |
Record your own music
PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium has fantastic inputs and low-latency ASIO drivers for great music recording.
Which Sound Blaster is right for you?
Compare them all to find the Creative Sound Blaster that best suits your needs.
Looking for more connectivity?
If you're seeking the ultimate gaming experience with advanced connectivity options, the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series sound card includes the same feature set as the Pro Series plus a Gaming X-Fi I/O Drive that features additional connectivity options, a recessed front panel volume control, and backlit buttons.
Sound Blaster X-Fi is Fatal1ty's Choice for Audio!
 | | "When I'm competing I need top-notch performance and the most realistic sound to help me know where my opponents are and Sound Blaster X-Fi really delivers for me...there is nothing faster or better."
Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel is the best-known professional gamer in the world with 38 1st place wins in nine years of tournament play. |
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 11.18 inches | | Product Width:
| 2.4 inches | | Product Height:
| 7.87 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.0 pounds | | Package Length:
| 10.7 inches | | Package Width:
| 8.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 2.8 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.05 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 84 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 84 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 23 found the following review helpful:
 Great Sound, Finicky Drivers, Almost Perfect Sound CardDec 28, 2009
By Wavey Davey
I've had a Sound Blaster "Fatal1ty" Pro sound card installed in my custom-built Core i7 920 series CPU-equipped PC since April, 2009, so at this point have been 'around the block' with the product, and feel well qualified to comment about what makes it tick, where there are issues, if any, and give an overall view of how it functions.
I am running the card in PCI-Express Slot No. "0" in an EVGA E760 Classified motherboard, the Single-Lane slot (1X) which is right next to Slot No. 1 where my first EVGA GTX 285 1GB SC video card is located. I am running two 285's in SLI Mode, along with a D-Link "Extreme N" PCI-Express network card, plus an Areca 1680IX-8 PCI Express SAS to eSATA/SATA/SAS RAID Controller, so each and every slot is filled, (or negated by the twin-lane video cards) the entire bay packed full of the finest equipment $$ can buy. Cooling and keeping the integrity of the various cards is "assignment No.1" when you are running this much equipment in a PC, and placement of the various cards is strategic, and specific to each one's needs, it goes without saying.
The Sound Blaster card is a piece of work! I have a set of Logitech Z-5300 (predecessor to the Z-5500 setup, today's top line speaker system) speakers, that would be five (5) 28W RMS Satellite speakers, and a 240W RMS sub-woofer driven by discrete amps, with peak power approaching 600W at full song, a most impressive sounding speaker system. The Fatal1ty card drives the speaker system in 5.1 mode (Dolby 5.1 it is more commonly known as), and the sound is full, clear, clean, and can be deafening at any setting past "5" on the Logitech controller. I never have it past 3-4 normally, as that is PLENTY of volume!
The speakers are hooked up to the Black, Orange, and Medium Green colored ports of the sound card, ie 3 speaker wire output, not 4. Orange and Medium Green are apparently left and right primary channels plus the sub-woofer, while Black is main power, ground, and discrete channels (surround sound), or so I have discovered experimenting with various connections. The Light Green/Grey port is not used with my setup...if you had a 4 speaker cable setup you would utilize the Light Green/Grey port for the 4th channel in a Dolby 7.1 setup, for example, but my system is not that sophisticated...it has left, right, left rear, right rear, middle and sub-woofer channels, which is all there is to a 5.1 speaker setup.
Key to establishing good sound in any setup with the Fatal1ty sound card is disabling the onboard sound from the motherboard, and by that I mean you must go into BIOS and disable it, not just "turn it off" via the Sound Control Panel in Windows. Presently I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OS. Previously I ran Vista Ultimate 64-bit, with equally fantastic sound output, no issues at all to speak of but the onboard sound having to be defeated 100% for the Fatal1ty card to function correctly.
I also use the Fatal1ty sound card as a "sound in" device for audio recording. I master tapes and records with a DAK PC-2800 Mixer, and the sound card functions as the "line in" through the Blue port of the card, ie that is where you plug in the "line in" from the mixer. One must go into the Sound Control Panel in Windows and choose the "Line in" function to be able to do mastering, and disable the microphone and any other possible "line in" connections for the mixer to function properly, and the same goes for any other type of "line in" into the Fatal1ty card...you must go into the CP and choose the correct input before your "line in" device of any type will function.
As for how the card functions doing mixing, it does great, no issues whatsoever! I don't have distortion, carry-over sound, non-discrete interference, none of the typical maladies that can plague a sound card as the "line in" device, with this card, it just works, as long as you go into the CP and choose the correct input for what you are doing. You can, of course, have the speakers and the "Line in" function hooked up simultaneously without issues also, so no problems there either. In fact, I use a set of Audio Technica headphones, plugged into the Orange and Green ports of the card (leaving the Black port for the speakers alone), and a Rolls HA43 Pro headphone amp so that I have unexpurgated sound control during mixing, ie CLARITY! It all works seamlessly with the Fatal1ty sound card, no problems at all.
What are the difficulties with this setup, if there are any at all? I can think of some issues that plague the system, and you must observe these shortcomings and not go against them or you'll have problems:
1) You cannot "adjust" the Mode of the Creative Sound Control Panel "live"...ie going from "Game Mode" to "Entertainment Mode" with iTunes open, for example, is impossible...you may crash the computer, or you may crash iTunes or the Control Panel may turn white and crash (!), not a pleasant situation ***ADJUST MODE With ALL SOUND Applications TURNED OFF!***
2) The Equalizer in the Creative Sound Control Panel isn't very precise, and will conflict with the Crystalizer (3D Crystalizer) Sound Control Panel if you're not careful, and the discrete control panel segments in and of themselves must be CAREFULLY adjusted, especially if you want to avoid distortion and conflicts within the various panels in the CP ***DO NOT MAX OUT The Various Sound Controls and Expect good sound!***
3) When you are updating the Control Panel (ie going from one software variation to the newer iterations, ie v6.1.5 to v6.1.9)it is a bit complex, and involves a restart to take effect. It is best accomplished by UNINSTALLING the Creative Control Panel completely with Windows uninstaller tool, or the Creative uninstaller tool, then running the updater function, installing the new version "fresh" and 'virgin', so to speak (this reminds me of the nVidia control panels for video cards!!) *** DO NOT install one version OVER the previous version, you will have a mess on your hands!! ***
4) It is said that you may run the Digital (optical) connection concurrently (at the same time) as the analog speaker connection, with good results, but I for one do NOT recommend this tactic, as I have seen poor results from attempting to do this...you can try, and maybe you will succeed without distortion or other problems, but take a good warning where a warning is due, and use analog by itself, and digital (optical connection) by itself, NOT TOGETHER!
The Creative Sound Blaster Fatal1ty Titanium Professional Sound Card sure beats the dickens out of the OEM onboard sound system in the motherboard, this much is certain! Don't ever let anyone tell you the onboard sound is equal to a setup like this card, because they are full of BS or worse, if they claim this to be a fact. I have seen this subject debated in forums far and wide, and reality is this: a full-featured, and perfectly good functioning sound card is capable of feats with discrete sound application that the onboard sound is just not capable of reproducing. Bottom line? Your $125 (or so) is well spent with a card like this, ie you really can't go wrong if you observe those simple caveats above, and use your head with respect to the Creative Control Panel.
I wanted to give this sound card 5-stars, but because of the small detractions for the issues above, it earns 4-stars in my review, not 5-stars.
There is one further complication that I didn't mention because everyone pretty much accepts this to be the gospel, and very well-informed people don't bother with even trying to deal with it: Creative "Tech Support" is basically NON-EXISTENT! Oh sure, you can write them and get "advice" from the tech department, but that's sort of like a complete waste of time. Please, if you need support with respect to any of the sound card's features, you are best served by one of the forums dedicated to solving problems with these cards, and NOT Creative Tech Support, because IT SUCKS! *** BIGTIME!!!***
I have had exemplary performance from my Fatal1ty sound card, and I don't see where there is any problem with a normal, rational person from getting the same, so don't be afraid of this sound card because of anything in this review. The problems are reasonable problems, and can be effectively dealt with by being prudent, and careful with those features above that need special treatment. Other than that, I highly recommend the Creative Fatal1ty Sound Card 100% over onboard sound...there just is no comparison.
Wavey Davey - 12-27-2009
35 of 45 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent Sound Card!!!Sep 28, 2008
By G. Loera
"Med Student"
This is an awesome product. Simple to install. Lots of features. Nice looking. Amazing sound (specially the surround sound created for headphones). Runs all my games with crystal-clear clarity, excellent effects and positional audio without a glitch.
This is not my first Sound Blaster, so I already know that the included drivers CD is outdated and loaded with bloatware. So, for those having problems with the card I suggest that you leave the included CD unopened and instead head to Creative's web site to grab the latest x-fi driver for your card, the latest control panel and the latest alchemy version. Install them in the following order:
1. Driver.
2. Control Panel.
3. ALchemy (Vista only).
Forget anything else included in the CD unless you really need it or want to try it.
I did that and I didn't have to activate anything. The activation is only needed if you plan to use the included software and I think it is because of some Dolby and DTS codecs but I'm not sure. With just those 3 things right now my X-Fi is running perfectly fine under Windows Vista 64-bit edition. I haven't found any incompatibility yet.
***UPDATE***
So far so good. I just wanted to include a few extra tips for those having problems.
I have a motherboard with Intel chipset (MSI X48 Platinum) and I haven't had any problem, but I've heard that people with nForce motherboards are having sound problems so I would like to suggest the following actions:
1. Download the latest BIOS file for your motherboard (if available) and update it. (See your manufacturer's web site for more information on this and be careful. You could brick your motherboard if it's not done properly.)
2. Download the latest chipset driver for your motherboard. It's gonna be either from Intel, from nVidia, from AMD or from VIA. Check their websites for instructions.
3. Download the latest Windows updates.
After you have done that then you can head to Creative's web site and grab the needed files. Finally install them in the mentioned order:
1. Driver.
2. Control Panel.
3. ALchemy.
The previous recommendations can also work for people having problems with this card, but who don't own a nForce motherboard.
23 of 29 found the following review helpful:
 Snap Crackle PopFeb 11, 2010
By A. Zimmerman
Sound card started crackling the day I got it due to the Nforce motherboard.
This should be explicitly warned by the company. This is happening to everybody, and not just with the Nforce mobo.
Spending money on another motherboard should be unnecessary.
No fix has been implemented. The official thread even lies regarding the nHancer "solution".
30 of 39 found the following review helpful:
 The only Creative product that I hardly have trouble with!Sep 07, 2009
By Rick S
It is no secret I am not a huge fan of Creative Labs, but I needed something better than my on-board P6T Deluxe motherboard audio. I have a pretty nice setup (Core i7 920 @4 Ghz, 2x 4870 in CrossfireX, 6 MB OCZ Platinum Memory), I installed this card, installed the drivers, and it has worked well (for the most part)ever since. Not that it has had NO problems, but compared to past audio cards I have owned from Creative (SB-16, Live, Awe32, Audigy, Audigy 2, X-fi Extreme-music, and now this)it has given me the fewest headaches. In fact, the Sound Blaster Audigy I had killed the motherboard of the computer it was installed in. It also corrupted the Windows installation of my father's computer (this is when i discovered it was the culprit) and his motherboard refused to work right after we installed it and proceeded to take it out. It would restart by itself, we thought it was the power supply so I gave him an old one (overkill for his setup). It still behaved the same and never did that before we tried to install the sound card! But, anyhow...
The good: (I have never tried this sound card on Windows XP, but I have it running on my dual-boot Windows Vista 64-Bit and Windows 7 64-Bit)
-It sounds awesome on the speaker level output (line out). I have it hooked up to a Pioneer 7.1 channel receiver, 5 Sony speakers (not the best but sound amazing in my room!), and a Yamaha sub-woofer. Kills the on-board sound quality and definitely has been good for listening to my PC games.
-It makes use of a PCI-Express Slot, looks cool, and is shielded from EMF interference.
-I make sound fonts and without shelling out more money, Creative Labs is the only way to go for a (mostly) stable Sound Font editor that is free but only works with their cards. This is the main reason I bought this card.
The bad:
-I do not like Creative Labs, they pioneered the original sound card standard, (the original Sound Blaster was the best card of it's time, arguably), but they have steadily become more greedy and I do not like the way they set their products to expire as Microsoft comes out with a new operating system. A man named Daniel K. proved that Creative Labs was disabling stuff on purpose, one person did what a whole team of well-paid software engineers supposedly could not, he hacked the drivers to restore functionality and confirmed software blocks. The worst part was Creative blamed Microsoft for their problems, yet other vendors have had no trouble making their products run on Vista with all features intact (strange, to say the least!). This planned obsolescence is something you have to expect from Creative Labs! If you say a product has features and advertise them on the box, it should have those features no matter what. Creative will disable stuff in their drivers and blame Microsoft for it, a really despicable act! Your product has problems? Microsoft and/or you are to blame for said problems!
-This card is not cheap, for this price there are other products that sound better and are around the same price or cheaper. The Asus Xonar and (some consider it THE card to get for audio quality) the Auzentech X-fi Forte. The latter is an X-fi but has better audio components (does everything this card does with better drivers and better audio hardware (Opamps). It is simply superior in every way and the price is around the same). Instead you get to see your favorite gamer, Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, on the cover! You probably paid for him to be on there, too!
-There is a huge difference in audio quality between the analog and digital outputs! The analog output sounds MUCH better than the digital output on my receiver, like night and day better. There is definitely better hardware on the analog side than the digital. So, you either enjoy Dolby Digital or DTS sound with the digital output and deal with inferior sound quality. Or, you run the analog output and end up with superior sound quality, yet no DTS or Dolby Digital capability. Lame that you have to trade-off either way, this disappointed me to no end.
-Creative Labs still cannot seem to figure out the audio stack on Vista, I have experienced crashes, some "Device in use" errors, and this card officially gave me my only BSOD on Vista! The mode switcher behaves strangely. It is better to right-click the Volume Panel and switch the mode that way. Drivers are still bloated yet comprehensive, but the amount of stuff you have to run just to have an audio card and use all of the features are amazing! Still, for this price and the fact Vista has been out quite a while, everything should work right out of the box.
This is officially my last Creative card (I said that before I purchased this one, but I really mean it this time!). There are simply better options out there and the digital output really stinks on this thing. I have given Creative a lot of money over the years, yet each product has proven to be troublesome and bloated. They make decent hardware, but their software leaves much to be desired. I plan on selling this and getting a Asus Xonar or Auzentech Forte. I just suggest you do a lot of homework before you make your purchase, read reviews and choose what you think is best for you.
Lastly, I am not letting my feelings about the company get in the way of how I review this card. I am just informing others of my own personal experience with this card.
32 of 42 found the following review helpful:
DO NOT BUY FROM CREATIVE WORST COMPANY EVER!Aug 02, 2010
By Tim
DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM CREATIVE EVER AGAIN THEY HAVE TURNED INTO A SCAM COMPANY!
I have several decent reviews on amazon, and have been a customer for many years. Unlike these Creative Employees who rant and rave about how good it is so that your SUCKERED into buying it. However, after over 3 months of owning this POS "sound card" it has given me nothing but headaches and problems.
Hear me out, I have owned sound blaster cards in the past (when there wasn't any other sound cards anyways) but this POS "fatality" X-Fi is a bunch of BS force fed crap. Its nothing but a bunch of hocus pocus BS and false technological wording to MAKE IT SOUND AMAZING. Oh its amazing alright, I was amazed at what a POS this thing really is.
This card sounded no different than my on board sound card and only SLIGHTLY BETTER when using 5.1 Surround sound, but unfortunately CREATIVE DISABLES LOTS OF FEATURES ON WINDOWS VISTA ON PURPOSE! It disables Dolby Digital Reason along with many other features. why? who knows? Not only that, their tech support is horrible, They told me if i had a problem with the card buy a new one. What? No RMA? Returns? Warranty? Nothing??!!
Then he accused me of being a complete idiot who doesnt know how to install a sound card. I have been building computers from the ground up for years, I have a BA in Computer science and (sadly) im A+ certified and he just sat their and said, "not my problem" and then he hung up on me, and when I called back they BLOCKED my number(edit: by blocked I mean i get the permanent busy signal). WOW GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!! I think I would know a thing or two about computers and software. The WORST experience ever.
Thats not even the worst part. Want to know why I physically ripped this POS card out of my computer, BASHED it with a hammer and pissed on it? Because of a thing called the Squeal of death. Its like the blue screen of death, but the sound goes SQWEUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE at a SUPER HIGH FREQUENCY and crashes your computer! Look it up on google, CREATIVE has been having this SOD(squeal of death) problem for over 8 years! Have they fixed it? NO. It took them about 4 years to even ADMIT it was a legitimate problem until about 80% of their customers complained over the phone and on the forums.
Go look at creatives forums. No seriously Google this information if you dont believe me. Even community people like Daniel_K who started releasing Unofficial drivers to HELP FIX this problem! Do you know what creative did to their number 1 community supported fan? THEY SUED HIM!!! yup they called him a hacker because a guy from Brazil is smarter than their whole company, shamed them by proving that their was implementations in their drivers to disable Dolby Digital, 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, and about 20 other things just because you were on windows vista or windows 7.
This is almost borderline a SCAM. How can a company sell you a product that does not work? And when "under warranty" They deny any fault because I opened the box. What kind of Warrenty is VOID when you OPEN THE BOX?? sounds like they KNEW it was going to be a problem. I had NO IDEA a SOUND CARD could be such a POS that it crashes your computer.
Yet I read a similar review, didn't believe it, thought, what? that cant happen how is that possible? Well go ahead and WASTE $150 and you will see im right. Oh and dont even try to send it back to them, Amazon has great customer service, so deal with amazon but DONT deal with creative.
At the end of my rant, I feel like I have been scammed, I payed for something that was not what it was. I payed for a sound card, and it felt like more of a Virus. Once I removed this card and uninstalled all the horrible drivers that took forever in the first place, I have not had 1 crash in over a week. When I had this card I crashed 7 or 8 times a day and COULD NOT for the life of me find out why. Now i know. PS Im lighting this thing on fire in my backyard tonight (even though its smashed to pieces), thats how mad i am about this worthless piece of junk.
EDIT: 10/26/10 - I cleaned up my review so it is easier to read.
See all 84 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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