Dunno how I missed this article when it was posted a few days ago... The Extreme crew take an in-depth look at Creative's next generation of audio chip. All's I've gotta say is that the table on page two says it all. Whoa.

"Even so, the company is pressing ahead with an aggressive new architecture called X-Fi, with which the company intends to deliver "Xtreme Fidelity." The X-Fi is poised to bring huge tracts of audio processing horsepower to the PC, delivering new levels of audio effects in games, and enabling very versatile digital audio workstations."