Always had a bit of distaste about Creatives monopoly with EAX, but it doesnt seem like anyone else is really trying..
You could prolly put out a pretty powerful chip that would could do alot of good hardware processing via DS3d or OpenAL (dunno tho, only assuming)..
I guess there arent much options for gaming audio, pretty much every other card isnt doing alot of acceleration, and nothing else supports the later EAX extentions..
The twisting of id softwares arm with EAX and Doom III really put me off creative too..
But the X-Fi sounds very promising, if the reviews are positive when it comes out, and it doesnt cost a wheelbarrel of cash, ill prolly get one..