Buy it now!
Written: Dec 18 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Versatile, easy to use and install, great speed and quality
Cons: no website driver update
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| ttsui01's Full Review: ATI ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON, (32 MB) PCI Video Card |
Rarely do I ever feel so excited by a video card. I have long considered ATI's All-in-Wonder line of graphic cards when it came time to upgrade. The original All-in-Wonder 4MB and 8MB were poor video cards with weak 3D support. At that time, the best way to go were 3dfx and nVidia. My how times have changed...
3dfx just got bought out by nVidia. GeForce 2 is becoming the deFacto video card for hardcore gamers. ATI is slowly losing its tight grip on the desktop and PC manufacturers. The All-in-Wonder Radeon 32MB AGP card is a great product to make a comeback with, if only ATI would lower the price further.
This graphics card combine everything you need into one AGP card. You have a very quick 2D core, ensuring quick rendering of your normal daily applications. The Radeon 3D engine is one of the best at 32 bit color level. Even though its 16 bit rendering is a bit slower than GeForce, it is still fast enough so that you can play the latest 3D games without any lag. It has hardware based Transform & Lighting which future games can take advantage of. 32 MB of DDR RAM is more than enough to handle the most graphic intensive games. Hyper-Z technology reduces the memory bandwidth bottlenecks by rendering only things you can see and not waste time or bandwidth. Hardware DVD decoder is included to ensure smooth DVD viewing.
To tell you the truth, I think video cards are hitting the same ceiling CPUs are hitting now. People are no longer buying the latest and greatest video cards based on speed alone. They want the best bang for their bucks.
The inclusion of a TV Tuner can only adds to the versatility of this video card. A lot of people pay extra for video capture card when a simple TV Tuner can do the same function. This video card captures videos (from TV or camcorder) and encode them to MPEG 2 in real time!!!!! Normal video capture takes up at least 10-100 times the disk space. By encoding the videos directly to MPEG 2, you save the space and the hassle of having to encode videos separately. The software also allows you to record TV shows for instant playback like Tivo or ReplayTV.
I strongly encourage everyone to buy this video card. Think of all the electronic gadgets you will be replacing for a mere $225+.
Video card ($200)
DVD decoder ($50)
TV tuner ($50)
Tivo ($600)
Video capture card ($200)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ttsui01
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Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 74
Trusted by: 28 members
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