ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 32MB DDR

Conclusion

The main problem with previous All-in-Wonder products has been their subpar 3D performance, a fact that has deterred some buyers. The All-in-Wonder Radeon finally brings the All-in-Wonder product line up to par, with very good performance for the price.

That brings us to our next point. Just what is the price for the 32MB All-in-Wonder Radeon? Well, it should be arriving at shelves near you with a sticker price of $329.99. Luckily, ATI has provided a mail in rebate worth $30.00 to help ease the purchase and put the final price of the 32MB All-in-Wonder Radeon to the magical $299.99, placing it only about $25 over the price of a ViVo (video-in/video-out) 32MB Radeon. Quite nice, considering the added benefits of the All-in-Wonder products have usually come at a more hefty price premium.

Is the All-in-Wonder Radeon right for you? As always, that depends. Some people out there reading this will know that the All-in-Wonder Radeon is just the card they have been waiting for, finally matching 3D performance with a TV tuner. A student going to college may be a perfect example, as the All-in-Wonder Radeon not only allows you to play Quake with the best of them, it also allows you to watch your favorite episodes of South Park right on your computer.

In addition to those out there who know that the All-in-Wonder Radeon is the perfect video card upgrade for them, there are also those who know that the last thing they need in their system is a television. Be it because they don't have a coaxial connection for cable in the computer room or that they do not feel that using your monitor as a television is all that appealing, these users would be much better off going with the regular Radeon.

The vast majority of people out there really will not know how much they will use the All-in-Wonder features until they try it. The problem has been that ever since ATI released the Rage128 Pro cards that incorporated the Rage Theater on them, the line between the All-in-Wonder cards and the regular cards has been getting finer. Now, with many Radeon cards coming with ViVo features powered by the same Rage Theater chip found on the Radeon, the All-in-Wonder only adds TV tuning to an already impressive card.

True, TV-on-Demand and Guide+ are nice, but many users will find the novelty worn off in a short time. Sure, it is nice to play with for a while, but changing channels with your mouse soon becomes old. And as far as placing your computer next to your TV, that too becomes old. The truth is that the standard television can still not replace the monitor and as a result of this using an All-in-Wonder Radeon system in your family room would require not only your standard TV but also a computer monitor within a cables length; something that is not quite socially acceptable yet.

As far as the Radeon's driver stability, there are clearly still some issues to work out. In order to experience to what extent these problems range, I have been running a 64MB Radeon in my personal system for the past week now. No driver issue I ran into prevented me from playing games all together, however I did encounter some problems that prevented resolution changing as well as producing a few random crashes. It is clear to me, after running the card in my system, that there are still some issues to be resolved on the Windows 2000 side of things. As far as the All-in-Wonder Radeon, I ran that in my system as well and encountered quite a few problems. ATI was quick to assure me that the drivers I was testing with were still beta and did keep their word by releasing new beta drivers even during our short testing period. Expect the stability of the All-in-Wonder cards to be about the same as the regular Radeons when they ship, meaning that there will still be some driver issues, but many not as bad as previous products.

There is no question that the integration of the computer into the home has come leaps and bounds since its introduction 27 years ago. The PC has quickly been invading every room in the house, with the family room being one of the few remaining computer-less rooms. Does the All-in-Wonder provide a solution to this problem? Yes. Is it a replacement for a good TV, VCR, and DVD player? We don't think so. But then again, for only $25 more, you can find out for yourself.

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