Bij de 3D Wars is een preview gepost van de Vortex2 SQ3500 soundkaart die begin volgend jaar gereleased zal worden. Hieronder een stukkie:
One of the more interesting features of this new sound card will be the fact that it has a Vortex2 chip on it and has the ability to upgrade the card by adding Turbo DSP modules (made by Motorola). This will produce a more efficient use of A3D in the end. Aside from that, this will be the first sound card to have full support for A3D along side of all of the other major APIs. There will also be a new geometry-based reverb effect in the processor as well. This is a great feature to have for any gamer. Next on the list is the Dolby Digital Hardware Decoding. For those DVD on your PC lovers out there, this option is a very nice touch. It will add that extra bit of realism that you may here in movie theatres. Coming over to the software end, we have quite a bit of newer features to the SQ3500. For starters, the Aureal drivers will allow users to rather customize the way they want to hear sounds (a bit like making your own 'environment' with a SB Live). There will also be a 576-voice wavetable synthesizer, which is another great feature for gamers out there. The standard Aureal software, such as the player, Future Beat 3D, drivers, etc. will all be present in this package as well. Aureal has also stated that three new games will accompany the sound card in retail and will use all of the new effects of the SQ3500.
