Warp2Search posted a story today talking about new Performance Beta drivers from Creative for users of the Audigy and Audigy 2 series of sounds cards for Windows XP and 2000 which offers, obviously, a performance increase - such as, Sound Blaster Audigy performance increased by 10%-15% for EAX ADVANCED HD.

The drivers appear to be modified by Tom's Hardware France and are not yet official, so download at your own risk. I am downloading off the server which seems to be getting a thrashing, post your results in the comments section below!

This release is ideal for high-end gamers who want even better performance than they currently enjoy. This release has been tested by Creative Labs for gaming use ONLY. No other functionality has been tested. It should be noted that the Sound Blaster applications provided with your card may not function after installation of this driver. For mixer and speaker configuration the standard Windows apps can be used.

 

This release will be followed up with a final official driver update that will integrate the performance features with the core driver and application set. The beta release is designed to stop functioning on the 1st of August 2003 by which time the final release previously mentioned will be available.