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VideoLogic SonicFury Review - By Mark "Frugal" Bush Page 2 of 2

	The drivers replace the standard Windows mixer controls with a far superior configuration utility that is accessible via a control applet or the volume control icon in the task bar (this has been changed from yellow to blue by the drivers). As you can see from the following screen shots, they include a comprehensive set of configuration options. Performance The Cirrus Logic Crystal 4630 SoundFusion DSP that is the heart of the Sonic Fury is a pretty impressive chip. On paper it is not as fast as the SBLive but in practice it competes well due to its ability to reconfigure itself for whatever task it is performing. The performance in games was definitely on a par with the SBLive that was in this machine prior to the review. Sound quality with the SonicFury was very impressive in every application and game that I used it in with my 4 point surround speakers. Thanks to the digital output from the versajack it is possible to connect it up to a subwoofer and center speaker to take advantage of Dolby 5.1, alternately the versajack can be used to output a digital signal to a home theatre system for the best possible experience. Watching DvD’s with this baby hooked up to a home theatre system really is an impressive experience. One of the things I really like about this card is that it has support for all the major 3D sound API’s. Too many of my current games use A3D which isn’t supported by my SBLive. This isn’t a problem with the Sonic Fury as it supports EAX and A3D as well as Directsound 3D and some API’s I wasn’t even aware existed. Operation Flashpoint sounds far better through this card than it did through my live. The same is true of many of the other games I’ve tried. Compatibility with this card seems pretty good too, this is a biggy for me as I have a Via chipset and run mainly Windows 2000, this is a combination that my SBLive was never quite happy with, fortunately the Sonic Fury seems quite at home with this set up. This fact alone makes this a worthwhile upgrade for me. The gameport was rock solid with no evidence of spiking on any of the axis. Conclusion This is a very good all round card with both a comprehensive set of features and an impressive software bundle. It offers excellent sound quality, which is enhanced by the ability to hook it up to a home theatre system. Would I recommend this card? Well put it this way, my main PC will have a SonicFury in it for the foreseeable future. Mark “Frugal” Bush Test System specs Celeron II 566 @ 850mhz Abit VH6 Motherboard 256MB PC133 Ram 3dfx V5500 Maxtor 60 GB UDMA HD Please comment on this article in the Article Feedback Forum Previous page

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