Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Fx for gaming?

Is the Audigy FX good for gaming?

For the past 2.5 years, I have used only a laptop (bought new in 2017). It has realtek audio.
Prior to that, I used a Creative Titanium HD on my old PC. For both PC and for laptop, I used the same Beyer DT-880 headphones (250 ohms).
My impression going from Titanium HD --> realtek (laptop) is
(1) some constant background static. It's usually only perceptible during silence, but it's there. There is no background static noise with the Titanium HD.
(2) audio is more dull.
(3) In gaming, all sound is at the same level as my ear (in game). This was very confusing at first. Sounds above and below me (in game) are always next to me.
Personally, I consider this "unacceptable" for gaming, but I live with it.

Currently, I am putting together a new PC. Normally, I would buy a high-end sound card, but I like the fact that
the Audigy FX is half-size (and it's cheap too). It won't block the fan on my graphics card. I like this "feature" a lot.

I read that the Audigy FX has a realtek processor. Since gaming is very important to me, I am very concerned about this.
I read that the Audigy FX supports SBX Studio Pro.

What kind of 3D gaming audio can I expect with the Audigy FX and with SBX Studio Pro?
Will it be the same as gaming with realtek audio? or better?

By the way, I am planning to buy new DT- 880 headphones (600 ohm) because they are cheaper now and because my current headphones are in bad condition.
I hope the built-in 600 ohm headphone amp is good enough. I hope the 106 SNR is better than my 2017 laptop with realtek audio.

It's a pretty low end card, I doubt there would be much benifit over what the audio on your motherboard would do on a custom PC. No real need for a sound card if you're just using headphones. The audio on a custom gaming PC is going to be way better than a laptop. You can also get motherboards that have more robust audio capabilities built in these days.

IMO there is no point in getting such a cheap sound card as it won't really be an upgrade over what the motherboard will have.

You don't have any experience with the Audigy FX nor with the SBX Pro Studio, do you?
Creative's website says the Audigy FX supports SBX Pro Studio.
Creative's website says the Audigy FX supports 600 ohm headphones.

youtu.be/ZuwKhRKr_y0?t=255
On my laptop (realtek audio), the plane sound would be ear-level, which is very confusing, and to me, is unacceptable.

The Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Fx should be A lot better than onboard sound with most laptops
Are you doing a ITX build ? if not you can always place a high end soundcard I a second full-size PCIE slot it will function fine
I'd recommend looking into a external DAC/amp you can get better sound, more power ,and use no space inside your case

I use a Creative AE5. I had a Soundblaster Z before it and neither one crowded my GPU
Both of those cards have "scout mode" to enhance sound placement for FPS games not my thing but mite be of use to you

Grand Theft Auto with Audigy FX. Helicopter sounds good to my ears.
youtu.be/VP6i5b-G28k?t=232

EAX: Audigy FX (software) vs X-Fi XtremeGamer (hardware). Both sound good to me.
youtube.com/watch?v=2gMYV3qZl54
The first one is Creative's Host OpenAL (HOAL) pure software implementation of EAX, running on an integrated Realtek ALC892 chip. Headphone virtualisation was enabled in the Realtek audio control panel. HOAL is included with both newer Creative cards that are not actually using Creative hardware, like Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Fx (actually a Realtek ALC898 chip on a card)

EAX is an old things like windows xp old, it's it's basically just 3d audio emulation which is a very basic feature now days.

Generally the virtual surround is only useful for a few games. And most modern games already have headphone-mode hidden in their settings.
Hardware acceleration of soundcards has been dead for a decade now. It was last seen in Windows xp.

I would get something like Creative G5 or G6 from Creative-store B-stock sale (G5 is dirt cheap at 60€).
Or forget about headphone surround and get SilverStone ECP01 and use it with FX-Audio DAC-X6. And if you really want surround on some games, just use Razer Surround software.

I wouldn't expect this cheap card to be an upgrade over onboard audio on most modern motherboards. There's also plenty of gear with an okay SNR but comparatively poor SINAD (and ENOB as a result), FR, and or linearity issues and internal sound cards are hit or miss with drivers. I'd wager the SINAD for this card is probably sub 90dB given how other sound cards perform (we want a SINAD of ~98dB minimum since most audio files are 16bit/44.1kHz and 16-bits can get ~96dB of dynamic range without noise shaping. A SINAD of 98dB gives an ENOB of ~16-bits).

Gaming isn't some special audio workload either. Those DSP features (e.g. simulated surround sound) Creative provides aren't really useful since most modern games already have their own DSP engines for positional audio (pretty sure it's basically standard at this point).

24bit/192kHz is useless as well unless you do professional audio work and need the extra headroom 24 bits gives you or are recording audio with sounds between 22.05kHz-96 kHz (outside of our hearing range) which a sampling rate of 192kHz can capture but 44.1kHz can't.

Also whoever is in charge of marketing at Creative should maybe learn that ohms aren't a unit of power.

I'm guessing you have around $200 to spend since you said you were willing to shell out the money for a "high-end" sound card. I always recommend an external setup over a sound card because the well engineered external ones outperform similarly priced sound cards. They also usually use USB's UAC drivers which means they are essentially plug and play, saving you the headache of dealing with sound card drivers.

For $200, the usual recommendation is the Khadas Tone Board + JDS Labs Atom. The Khadas Tone Board doesn't come with a case though (it's an add-on board for a Raspberry Pi-like PC-on-a-board) so you might want to spend a little more to get a case for it or go for the Topping D30 which comes with a case, though it performs a bit worse (SINAD of 107dB compared to the Tone Board's 110 dB. It's insignificant honestly and you won't hear a difference). Both should use the UAC2 driver which comes with Windows 10 (but not 7. Not sure about 8).

Why?

Why would I want to "forget about headphone surround"?
Why would I want to use Razer Surround software?
Why not buy the Audigy FX which uses Creative's surround?

I do not spend money without good reason.
If the Audigy FX can satisfy my wants/needs, then I have no good reason to spend more money (Audigy FX is currently $35 new on amazon, used price is less).
Tell me what is wrong with the Audigy FX or I will buy the Audigy FX.

The only redeeming factor of the FX is the Creative headphone surround, that's it. Otherwise it's pretty much just better isolated onboard sound.
If you really love the Creative implementation of the HRTF-algorithms and how they sound, go for it. But don't just blindly throw yourself at blatant marketing terms, check out YouTube videos comparing the different headphone surround implementations (Razer Surround, Dolby Headphones, etc.).

Also, G5 also has the usual Creative headphone surround implementation like the FX. Except that it's external instead of internal soundcard. And currently you can get the G5 for 60€ in Creative store in Europe. Not sure about Murica.