ATI's All-In-Wonder X1900 Performance And DVD Decoding Quality
by Josh Venning on February 10, 2006 8:45 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
The Card
As we've already mentioned, the All-In-Wonder X1900 is based on an X1900 with lower engine and memory clocks. Essentially, the AIW X1900 has about the same clock speeds as the X1800 XL version of the AIW, with just a slightly lower memory clock (960MHz vs 1GHz). What makes the AIW X1900 much faster though is the 48 Pixel Pipelines as opposed to the AIW X1800 XL's 16. Still, the much lower clock speeds of the AIW X1900 will give it significantly lower performance than the regular X1900s, as we will see later on.
As you can see, the familiar purple and gold look is back, but despite the card's name, it bears hardly any resemblance to a standard X1900. The HSF, much flatter than even an X1800 XT, looks identical to the one on the AIW X1800 XL. All of the standard AIW connections and dongles are included, with FM and Cable TV connections above the dual link DVI-I output. The Remote Wonder is back, but has been modified to be much slimmer than previous models. Also, the software bundle includes both Adobe Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements (Photoshop was not included with the recent X1600 based All In Wonder 2006).
Features
The features included with the AIW X1900 are about the same as those of other All In Wonder cards. Because we've covered these features in previous reviews, we will be only offering a recap of what is available. For a more detailed look at the features, take a look at the features section of the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL article.
Obviously, the multimedia features center around the AIW ability to record and play back video from different sources. Along with a standard set of players included in the multimedia center software, there is also the Gemstar GUIDE Plus+ that lets you download program schedules and record upcoming shows in a TiVo-esque way. The Thruview feature is here as well, which allows you to watch video that's opacity has been decreased, allowing the user to perform other tasks like writing email or web browsing at the same time. There is a CD player, DVD player, FM radio tuner and a standard file player all included, as well as the launchpad tool bar that will start up with windows for access to all of these.
The AIW X1900 is very easy to install and setup as well. This has been a consistent trait of all the AIW cards we've tested and is part of why we like these cards so much. Having the ability to record and archive your favorite shows or movies (as well as home movies) and also play the latest games at high resolutions without having to switch cards is a pretty nice feature.
As we've already mentioned, the All-In-Wonder X1900 is based on an X1900 with lower engine and memory clocks. Essentially, the AIW X1900 has about the same clock speeds as the X1800 XL version of the AIW, with just a slightly lower memory clock (960MHz vs 1GHz). What makes the AIW X1900 much faster though is the 48 Pixel Pipelines as opposed to the AIW X1800 XL's 16. Still, the much lower clock speeds of the AIW X1900 will give it significantly lower performance than the regular X1900s, as we will see later on.
As you can see, the familiar purple and gold look is back, but despite the card's name, it bears hardly any resemblance to a standard X1900. The HSF, much flatter than even an X1800 XT, looks identical to the one on the AIW X1800 XL. All of the standard AIW connections and dongles are included, with FM and Cable TV connections above the dual link DVI-I output. The Remote Wonder is back, but has been modified to be much slimmer than previous models. Also, the software bundle includes both Adobe Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements (Photoshop was not included with the recent X1600 based All In Wonder 2006).
Features
The features included with the AIW X1900 are about the same as those of other All In Wonder cards. Because we've covered these features in previous reviews, we will be only offering a recap of what is available. For a more detailed look at the features, take a look at the features section of the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL article.
Obviously, the multimedia features center around the AIW ability to record and play back video from different sources. Along with a standard set of players included in the multimedia center software, there is also the Gemstar GUIDE Plus+ that lets you download program schedules and record upcoming shows in a TiVo-esque way. The Thruview feature is here as well, which allows you to watch video that's opacity has been decreased, allowing the user to perform other tasks like writing email or web browsing at the same time. There is a CD player, DVD player, FM radio tuner and a standard file player all included, as well as the launchpad tool bar that will start up with windows for access to all of these.
The AIW X1900 is very easy to install and setup as well. This has been a consistent trait of all the AIW cards we've tested and is part of why we like these cards so much. Having the ability to record and archive your favorite shows or movies (as well as home movies) and also play the latest games at high resolutions without having to switch cards is a pretty nice feature.
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ayersmj - Saturday, February 11, 2006 - link
I am looking to build a Media Center PC. I need a card that has a YPbPr input and can be paired with a SB audigy to record the signal coming off my Directv HD Reciever. Tivo doesnt have a PVR yet that can work with this and I was kind of hoping to build one myself. Would this card allow me to do this? If not, what do I need. The MIT MyHD cards will not work as they do not have either a DVI input or a YPbPr input.Thanks.
PeteRoy - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
Hey put the old way of showing benchmark figures, this is too confusing and hard to read!Pastuch - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
"If performance continues to increase at the rate that it has been, we aren't sure how game software will be able to keep up. We are always happy when we see advancements in technology, but the huge sizes of some of these high end cards make us think better efficiency might be good direction for graphics hardware to move toward."I'm so tired of reading comments like these! Look at the benches of Fear and try to tell me that graphics power is in abundance. You have to buy a $600 graphics card to play the game at a decent framerate on pretty much any LCD monitor sold today. Even if you buy a low end 17 inch LCD you are going to be running 1280x1024 because that is your monitors native resolution and anything less results in a much poorer picture.
With the number of features built into most motherboards I cant see any problem with filling the extra space with graphics cards. You dont need 5 PCI slots. The charm of the ATX standard is and always has been adaptability.
P.S. The price of graphics cards is totally rediculous these days. The cheapest 7800gtx 512mb you can buy in Canada is $899 on sale! The x1900xtx can be found for around $680. I hope Nvidia doesnt continue this crazy pricing in their spring release.
flashbacck - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
Where does one get the ATI DVD decoder? Does that only come with the AIW cards?LoneWolf15 - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
It's taking ATI an awfully long time to figure out how to put the Theater 550 on All-In-Wonder cards in place of the Theater 200. Until they can do it, and thus give us hardware MPEG-2 encoding when recording video, I'd rather pay to have both a video card, and a separate tuner card (like my Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150) in my system. The All-In-Wonder X1900 is supposed to be the Cadillac; why are the video recording features more akin to a Chevy?Questar - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
Is this your attempt at a troll, or are you just uninformed?This card has MPEG 1/2/4 hardware encoding. ATI has had hardware encoding on the AIW card for over a year.
http://www.ati.com/products/radeonx1900/aiwx1900/f...">http://www.ati.com/products/radeonx1900/aiwx1900/f...
LoneWolf15 - Monday, February 13, 2006 - link
Gee, thanks for your insulting reply. It is possible to be informative without being insulting, you know.LoneWolf (the "troll" who owns a Radeon X800XL and an ATI TV Wonder PCI)
Questar - Monday, February 13, 2006 - link
How can you own an X800XL and not know it does hardware mpeg encoding?Questar - Monday, February 13, 2006 - link
Oh, I get it, you didn't get the AIW version.Hmmmmmm....
ianken - Monday, February 13, 2006 - link
None of the ATI cards do HW based MPEG2 (or any other sort) of encoding. At least not yet. ATI has demoed their AVC codec, of which the released version of the demo does not actually use the hardware and produce horrendous quality becuasr they skip most of the AVC codec features to attain high speeds.To see this all you need to do is compare CPU load of teh AIW -vs- the ATI 550 Elite and see that the AIW is not using hardware of any kind.