The cheapest gaming sound card is worth getting just to avoid audio incompatibility issues

We take a look at three gaming sound cards, all priced below £100, and offering a variety of attractive features including Dolby Digital support and optical S/PDIF outputs. Now that EAX is on the wane, are Creative's cards still the best bet for gamers?

Asus Xonar DX is the inexpensive version of the full fat PCI-Express Xonar D2X. Now featuring an extended emulated EAX in addition to Dolby features and high quality components, does this make the Xonar DX the ultimate soundcard?

Finally, an enthusiast's soundcard that supports PCI-Express is available, some four years after the interconnect's inception! We throw on some cans and take the latest Asus Xonar D2X with its funky lights and black EMI shield for a spin.

Asus has hit the sound card market with all guns blazing, but should the mighty Creative start sweating as another computing behemoth lands the heavyweight Xonar D2 into the PC audio market?