There's a wealth of riches out there in sound cards these days. Where once you could make two real choices (either SoundBlaster or Gravis), now there's a multitude of viable options. Which is great, except of course that choosing what's exactly right for you isn't easy.

We'd have to say that as far as gaming goes, which is the area in which sound really counts, the 3D sound standard of the moment is EAX. A3D still has a future without a doubt, and it produces wonderful true 3D sound, but it has lost ground since last year against the competition. With that in mind, both the Fortissimo and SonicFury look very attractive cards, as does the SB Live! Platinum, but that's a separate issue, given its price.

As a low cost card, the Fortissimo is excellent value for money and offers a good range of features, including EAX. The real gem though is Videologic's SonicFury, which is a brilliantly featured card for those into games and DVD.

Creative's SoundBlaster Live! Platinum is a quality card as you would expect, and the Live Drive really adds to its functionality - for those serious about sound this offers all the inputs and outputs you could possibly want. Of course it supports EAX too.

Overall the best buy has to be the SonicFury, given its superb range of features. If you want to go cheaper then the Fortissimo is supremely tempting, although if it's a total budget price you want then there's nothing wrong with the plain and simple Pine offering in terms of value for money for gamers.