Excellent. But will it make coffee?
Written: Jun 11 '00 (Updated Jul 06 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: TV Tuner, MPEG Decoder, TV Out, 3D
Cons: none
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| andruzzo's Full Review: ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 128 Pro, (32 MB) AGP Video Card |
ATI is, hands down, the leader of the PC graphics market...and for
good reason. They sell exceptionally high quality cards for cheap
prices.
One of my first video cards was an ATI VGAWonder. For its time it
was a super card. It had more memory than most of its competitors
and it was faster and better supported. Then I moved away from
ATI for a few years and had a top-of-the-line Matrox.
Recently, I put together another personal system for myself but this
time, after much researching, chose the ATI All-in-Wonder 128 Pro with
32MB of memory.
There is nothing bad that I can say about this card! It is a wonderful
piece of technology. It is what every graphics card should be and
should offer. It has, a TV tuner, built-in. It has an MPEG decoder
built-in. It has a 3-D processor built-in. It even has video
capture capabilities, built in!
I can literally sit at my computer and pop-up a small window in which
I watch TV. The built-in TUNER is cable ready! I can watch TV in a
window, or I can go full-screen, or I can set ANY size window, or I can
even have the TV image as my background. Furthermore, it decodes
the close-captioning signal and can also be programmed to RECORD
TV programs (assuming you have enough space.). You can even connect
your VCR to it and watch movies.
Another great function is that you can connect the card to your TV
and display your window's desktop on your TV, without the need for a
monitor!
Best of all, it has an MPEG decoder built-in. This means that if
you install a DVD-ROM drive on your computer, the ATI card will decode
the MPEG signal of the DVD, without bogging down your processor. This
way you can watch DVD movies on your Windows desktop...in full screen
or in a window. And of course, you can even connect the TV out and
watch the same DVDs on your big screen TV!
In addition to all that, it even has 3D capabilities to speed up
game play for the Quake fiend in you. I for one have a Monster Voodoo II
add-on 3D card, and I'm glad to say that the ATI does not interfere
the least bit with the Monster.
Also, ATI's customer support is impeccable. All drivers are supplied
and their web-site always has the latest updates and drivers. I've also
successfully run X-Windows under Linux with this card. Unfortunately,
the TV functionality is not available as of yet for Linux, but it is
reassuring to know that if you have a dual boot system which also runs
Linux that you will be able to use this card.
This is truly one great card to have in your computer. It may not
be the card for business environments or for high-end CAD or 3D graphics
designers. But for general home users, it is definitely THE card to
have. You won't find such a great variety of functions and support
for this price! Buy it and you'll be happy that you did!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
andruzzo
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Reviews written: 26
Trusted by: 9 members
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