VideoLogic SonicFury

Believe it or not, producing sound can place quite a strain on your system. VideoLogic's solution is the SonicFury, based around a powerful digital signal processor or DSP. Unlike other chips which are designed for one task, a DSP can be reconfigured and optimised for the job in hand.

Playing MP3 files on a 600Mhz Pentium III fitted with VideoLogic's old SonicVortex 2 card actually occupied 10 per cent of our CPU's time. Switching to the new SonicFury, this dropped to one per cent. In Quake III Arena we measured five per cent faster performance too.

The SonicFury also boasts three sets of stereo jacks driving up to six speakers. With two pairs of speakers, you'll be able to enjoy games with full support for Environmental Audio, along with Sensaura MacroFX.

If you've got a suitable multi-channel software DVD player like InterVideo's WinDVD 2000, the SonicFury will also decode the full Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and use the third audio jack to carry the additional centre and sub-woofer channels.

This saves you buying a separate Dolby Digital decoder, although a digital output is also offered for connection to an external decoder. VideoLogic is preparing a version of its DigiTheatre package with just the speakers as an accompaniment to the SonicFury.

The Dolby Digital decoding worked well and is a neat solution for anyone who fancies acquiring additional speakers for the full digital surround experience.

The SonicFury offloads audio tasks from the main CPU, speeds up your system and, along with the software bundle, makes a decent audio upgrade.

See also:

Philips Acoustic Edge Soundcard

A newcomer to this market produces an excellent card for DVD and games.  13 Sep 2001

Terratec DMX Xfire 1024

Quality audio and plenty of connectivity on a card that is set on stealing Creative's Live! crown.  15 Nov 2000

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