ATI All In "One"der? Definitely!
Written: Apr 26 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Nice features such as DVD and TV. Excellent 2D and 3D graphics.
Cons: Only 32 MB Ram. Incompatibilities with some VIA chipsets.
The Bottom Line: Superb 3d and 2d, as well as great DVD and TV, the ATI All In Wonder Radeon is a great video card. Highly Recommended!
|
|
|
| civic2000's Full Review: ATI ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON, (32 MB) PCI Video Card |
Having already purchase an ATI Radeon 64 MB VIVO, I was already treated to some visual goodness. I mainly use the Radeon 64 VIVO in my main machine where I play games. Since I was in the process in building a machines specifically for digital video editing, I was in the market for a video card that would handle my needs. The ATI All In Wonder Radeon was the missing piece in this puzzle!
What do you get when you add DVD with TV and throw in a little 3D goodness?? One word: All In Wonder Radeon
Installation
With all video cards, installation is quite simple. Remove all the drivers for your previous video card. Then physically remove the card itself. Plug the new card in and then load up the drivers. Its always nice to have a clean install when installing new hardware, but that is just my opinion...
Features
This card is plenty of features. Basically, the ATI All In Wonder Radeon is the same card as the Radeon 64 VIVO minus 32 MB of ram. Technologies such as Hyper-Z and Hardware T&L are available with the Radeon chipset.
Graphically, this card is amazing. When compared to Nvidia cards, the visual quality is amazing. Colors are extremely vibrant. Frame rates, although not as high as Geforce 2 based cards, are high enough for most gamers. However, the Radeon chipset truly excels in 32-bit gaming. Most benchmarks prove that the Radeon beats out most cards in 32-bit mode.
2D quality is also unparalled by any other card on the market. The quality is close, maybe even better, than the Matrox video cards, whose 2d is touted highly. At high resolutions, such as 1600 x 1200, text is still very sharp and clear. Most Nvidia cards offer poor 2d performance at high resolutions.
As with an ATI video card, DVD is superb. In fact, the Radeon chipset improves DVD decoding even further. Having been a long time ATI follower, I must say that the All In Wonder's DVD quality is even better that the company's previous chipsets. Since the DVD decoding is partly done hardware, the CPU processing is less intensive. Frames are never dropped. An added bonus is the ability to pass through a digital signal if both your soundcard and speaker system supports AC-3 decoding.
The most important feature that this card possesses is its on board TV tuner and video capturing capabilities. This is the sole reason as to why I purchased this card. Having previously owned an ATI All In Wonder 128, I was used to the TV tuner's visual quality. However, the Radeon even provided a more clear picture. Partly due to the Rage Theater chip, the TV tuner's quality is amazingly clear. A nice feature is the ability to have the TV as your desktop's wallpaper! Also, the AIW comes with TIVO like software where you can pause live television. Additionally, the AIW can record in MPEG2 format, providing a very clear picture.
The ATI All In Wonder has a plethora of outputs. It comes with a breakout box that has all the video inputs and outputs. You can hook up an S-Video signal, as well as output it to a television. Other inputs include standard RCA composite plugs.
Drivers
Suprisingly, ATI has recently produced some stable drivers. The most recent Win2k and Win98/WinME drivers are fast and stable. However, most of the problems that arise with ATI video cards are with non-Intel chipsets, specifically VIA chipsets. It isn't impossible, but a lot of tweaking is required to get it to work. On my ABIT KT7, the AIW would constantly cause my system to freeze. However on my ABIT BE6-II motherboard, the ATI AIW performs flawlessly.
Conclusion
If you are in the market for a video card that can do everything, get the ATI All In Wonder. It is perfect for students who want to have a TV in their rooms, as well as DVD capabilities. With excellent gaming and video-related features, the ATI All In Wonder Radeon is the card to get!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
civic2000
|
|
Location: West Orange, NJ, USA
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 18 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.