Creative Sound Cards

Seen this enough here and elsewhere with people not knowing or understanding the differences between the different cards. For example have seen too many instances of someone recommending regular X-Fi drivers with the Xtreme Audio. With that said here we go,

1. Audigy SE/LS/Value, X-Fi Xtreme Audio and the Sound Blaster 24 bit

All of these cards are virtually identical hardware-wise, and for the most part the drivers are interchangeable. The only thing the Xtreme Audio has over the others is that it gets to use some of the X-Fi software (and supports Entertainment mode only). Drivers for all of these cards can be found on Creatives support pages,

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Creative Worldwide Support > Sound Blaster

http://support.creative.com/Products/Products.aspx?catid=1
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the Audigy and Live 24 bit can be found by using the "If your product is not listed above, please click here." link at the bottom of the page. Alternatively you can also try/use the Daniel_k package,

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SB P17X Series Support Pack 2.0 (07/31/2009) - Aud... - Creative Labs

http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound-Blaster/SB-P17X-Series-Support-Pack-2-0-07-31-2009-AudigySE-Value-LS/td-p/533291

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Filefront mirror - Download P17X_SupportPack_2_0.exe

http://www.filefront.com/14952823/P17X-SupportPack-2-0.exe/
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that has been modified to work with all the above cards (single installer and driver) as well as return the use of some of the applications that used to work in XP (and Vista if the card was bought recently enough and came with Vista drivers on the CD).

2. The Audigy 1, 2 (all, including the 2 Value) and 4 series. These cards again all use the same driver and can be found through the saem link as above. And again there is also the Daniel_K driver set,

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SB Audigy Series Support Pack 3.6 (11/09/2009) - Creative Labs

http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound-Blaster/SB-Audigy-Series-Support-Pack-3-6-11-09-2009/td-p/540934
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Filefront mirror - Download Audigy_SupportPack_3_6.exe

http://www.filefront.com/14930847/Audigy-SupportPack-3-6.exe/
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and will not work with any of the cards from #1.

3. Original X-Fi series and the new Titanium series. Again latest drivers as well as some of the applications can be found on Creative's site, as well as the daniel_K set,

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SB X-Fi Series Support Pack 2.0 (05/15/2009) - Creative Labs

http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound-Blaster/SB-X-Fi-Series-Support-Pack-2-0-05-15-2009/td-p/527485

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Filefront mirror - Download XFI_SupportPack_2_0.exe

http://www.filefront.com/14952787/XFI-SupportPack-2-0.exe/
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Again like the regular Audigy drivers, these will not work with the Xtreme Audio.

4. That leaves the original SB Live series of cards. There is not now and never will be any support for these cards from Creative, and I really wouldn't expect them too considering most of these cards are from the Windows 95/98 era. For anyone with one of these cards the only option you really have (applies to Vista as well) is yet another Daniel_K modified driver set,

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SB Live! series Support Pack 1.5 (08/09/2009) - Creative Labs

http://forums.creative.com/t5/Sound-Blaster/SB-Live-series-Support-Pack-1-5-08-09-2009/td-p/533861
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Filefront mirror - Download SBLive_SupportPack_1_5.rar

http://www.filefront.com/14932269/SBLive-SupportPack-1-5.rar/
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See post #10 for how to install these drivers manually.

Updated link for #2.