Videologic has made the switch to EAX with its latest sound card, the SonicFury, as previously the company's top of the line card carried the A3D brand. The SonicFury only offers A3D 1.0, with the latest EAX sound supported instead, along with Sensaura as well.

There are plenty of new features about this card aside from this switch to a different 3D sound standard. It boasts not just four but six channel sound - i.e. it supports Dolby 5.1, which DVD freaks will no doubt be pleased to hear. It does this via a socket called the versa-jack, which is a fifth input alongside the usual two lines out (front and rear), line in and mic in.

The versa-jack can be used as a 5th or 6th channel for Dolby 5.1 surround, or just a straight digital output if you've got a separate piece of hardware to handle your Dolby surround, hence the 'versa' (minus the 'tility') tag. The versa-jack can also be used as a 4 channel line in for quad recording, should you need it!

Like the Pine card, the SonicFury is powered by a Crystal audio processor, although it's the massively more powerful CS 4630. It's billed as an intelligent DSP which can improve MP3 playback, and offers 64 voice hardware wavetable support.

How does it sound? Very nice indeed, with the EAX shining through in compatible games. The Windows sound control panel is worth a mention as well, being very easy to use and feature-stacked.

A massive software bundle comes in the box: it's literally too large to list fully. Highlights include the Yamaha SoftSynthesizer XG Studio, PCDJ Phat and FutureBeat song creation software, Acid Xpress multitrack audio sequencer, Siren JukeBox and MusicMatch.

This is one darned nice sound card for both games players and DVD buffs, given the excellent six channel sound capabilities.