A CARD FOR ALL REASONS!
Written: Apr 03 '01 (Updated Jul 12 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great DVD playback, good 2D/3D performance, good analog video capture
Cons: No digital video capture and uses 32MB of slower 166MHz DDR RAM
The Bottom Line: Overall, this is still (7/12/01) the best video card currently available!
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| ryansridge's Full Review: ATI ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON, (32 MB) PCI Video Card |
For a couple of years I’d been looking for a way to input analog video from a camcorder onto my PC’s hard drive in MPEG-2 format. Dazzle had come out with a new product, the Digital Video Creator II, but the fine print said that some Athlon based PC’s were not compatible with it. Since my PC uses that processor and my email requests for clarification were unanswered, I gave up on Dazzle. Creative also had a new Video Blaster MovieMaker but it didn’t have video output capabilities.
I had always liked the ATI All-In-Wonder concept, but knew that their 3D graphics performance was lacking. After reading several articles about the new All-In-Wonder (AIW) Radeon , I felt that it was the card I’d been waiting for. I was able to find a good deal on it at Compuers4Sure ($222 including a $20 off $200 coupon) and ordered one.
The installation was relatively painless. I was surprised when I went to connect the monitor and found no VGA connector. The card comes with a flat panel connector and you have to use the supplied adapter for standard monitors.
The first thing I noticed after rebooting with the new card was that the 2D graphics were not nearly as sharp as they were with the previous Voodoo 3 card. They weren’t bad, just not as good. Next, I bench marked it using Win Mag’s Win Tune and as expected the Open GL and Direct 3D benchmarks were greatly improved. At 1024X768 and 32 bit color on the AIW card, the Open GL score went from 15.1 MPS (mega pixels per second) to 147.95 and Direct 3D went from 47.55 to 183.8 MPS. Not bad considering the Voodoo card was at the same resolution but only set at 24 bit color.
I then connected the S-video output from a camcorder to the AIW and was able to capture MPEG-2 video with no dropped frames. I was worried about this because the literature had said that a 700MHz CPU or higher was recommended and I was only using an Athlon 600. I’ve since also experimented at capturing video from a VHS VCR using composite video in with good success. I’ve read that some AIW Radeon users have had problems with audio capture, but so far I’ve had none.
I’ve now used the AIW Radeon card for almost two months and am overall quite pleased with it. I’m not really a gamer so its 3D performance is of little use to me, but it’s nice to know that it’s there. I did ask my son to load Quake III and play it on my PC just to say that it worked; it worked (pretty good I guess).
One feature that I really appreciate about this card is its top notch DVD playback. Unlike software DVD decoders, it uses very little system resources (approx. 3% on this PC) so consequently I can browse a movie and do other PC tasks simultaneously. From what I’ve read, it’s not a true hardware decoder, but very similar. Most reviews that I’ve seen give it very high marks and I have to agree. It may just be my imagination, but DVD’s do appear to have much more detail, better color saturation and play smoother than before. The AIW also includes a video CD player, an audio CD player and a File Player that is comparable to Windows Media Player.
Possibly some of this card’s better features are ones that I am currently unable to use. It has a TIVO type device for recording television programs onto your PC’s hard drive and Guide Plus+ which is an interactive internet program guide. I’m not able to get cable or antenna television reception because of my location and therefore can only speculate that since the other AIW features work as advertised that these should also.
Ulead Video Studio, version 4.0, a video editing suite; Merlin VR, version 1.0, which bills itself as a “High Speed Real-Time 3D Modeler; and Mediator 5, a multimedia authoring tool are the software titles bundled with the AIW Radeon. I’d be lying if I told you that I had done any “high speed 3D modeling” or “multimedia authoring” (or that I even knew for sure what those terms meant), but I have used the Ulead program a little and it is straight forward enough and easy to use (so far).
I recently downloaded the newest driver for this card and that led to my first encounter with ATI’s customer service department. I thought I had done everything right when installed the new driver (I even printed out and followed the instructions), but when I finished the install and rebooted, all I got was a blank screen. I tried to uninstall the new driver in safe mode but got an error message each time I tried. I couldn’t even install a generic VGA driver. I had not heard good things about ATI’s customer service, so when I got several busy signals I was beginning to ponder “worse case scenarios.” Fortunately, on my last try, a friendly and competent voice brought me back from PC despair and I was back up and running within minutes.
One of the unexpected benefits of the new driver was much better 2D performance! I’m now totally satisfied with the ATI All-IN-Wonder Radeon video card. It offers good 2D performance, very good 3D performance, a good software package, enhanced DVD playback, a built-in TV tuner, TV-ON-DEMAND and good video capture capabilities at a fraction of the price of individual components. It was even rated the number one graphics card by PC World Magazine (April 2001 issue)!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not perfect and could be improved by adding an IEEE 1394 (firewire) port and more or faster memory (64 MB of 183 MHz DDR would have been nice), but for right now it probably is the best all around graphics card.
One last bit of advise is that if you do decide to purchase the Radeon All-In-Wonder, be sure to get the full retail version since it includes all the software CD's, audio/video cables and adapters.
Specs/Features
AGP 4X/2X (PCI version will be available)
32 MB 166 MHz DDR (double data rate) SDRAM
Maximum refresh rate: 200 Hz
S/PDIF Digital Audio 5.1 Output
OpenGL and DirectX Support
Maximum resolution : 2048 X 1536
Video capture formats: MPEG 1 and 2, AVI
Inputs: S-video, composite video, stereo audio, amplified TV antenna/cable TV
Outputs: S-video and composite video
Supports DVI flat panel monitors or VGA monitors
Onboard TV tuner
Guide Plus+ interactive TV program guide
TV-ON-DEMAND
DVD, CD and video CD players
Update (7/12/01): The All-In-Wonder Radeon has now been rated #1 by PC World Magazine for three months in a row! They've also rated it a "Best Buy", and it's won a Maximum PC "Gear of the Year" award, a SharkyExtreme "Extreme Hardware" award, and a C/Net "Editors Choice" award!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 222
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ryansridge
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Member: D. McCandless
Location: Rural Pennsyltucky
Reviews written: 51
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