Creative Labs X-Fi: The Last PCI Sound Card?

Could this be the last of a breed? The Creative Labs X-Fi could in fact be, the last of the PCI sound cards according to this article from ExtremeTech.

Last Gasp or Holy Grail?
It’s been sixteen years since the original ISA-based Sound Blaster card arrived on the scene. That card sported an 11-voice FM synthesizer and 8-bit monophonic digital audio capability. We can recall plunking down an extra twenty bucks to buy the Wing Commander II voice pack, which took up three floppy disks all by itself, and only worked on the Sound Blaster (or “100% compatibles”). Since then, Creative has weathered competition from an assortment of competitors to dominate the market for PC add-on sound cards.

Unfortunately for Creative, they happen to be dominating an ever-shrinking market. As CPUs have become more powerful, the capabilities of host-based audio have improved over time. While it’s true that a good PCI sound card enables extra audio effects and lower CPU utilization in games, that’s not a great benefit to non-gamers. On top of that, motherboard and chipset manufacturers are rapidly adding features to their products, including Dolby Master certification, clean multichannel audio and even 3D positional sound. The final straw may be Microsoft’s move away from hardware accelerated audio in their upcoming Windows Vista operating system. [Read the rest]