DesignTechnica Reviews the ATI All-In-Wonder X600 Pro

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review2242.html' target='_blank'>http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review2242.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"ATI’s All-In-Wonder X600 Pro improves upon its predecessors in many ways and falls short in others. By combining gaming and multimedia benefits into a single card, owners of PCI-Express based systems can have the best of both worlds for an affordable price. ATI has improved the dongle which you use for audio/video connections by allowing it to physically screw into the card to make it more secure. There are also plenty of audio and video connections to make the casual user very happy. Hardcore gamers or multimedia buffs will want to upgrade to the X800 XT All-In-Wonder card which includes support for component video output, a faster processor and their Remote Wonder remote control."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/20050117_1834141.gif" /><br /><br />If you're looking for a decent 3D card for gaming, and one that incorporates a TV tuner and many input/output options, the All in Wonder cards are always a good bet. I've owned several All in Wonder cards, but lately I've opted to specialize: video cards just for gaming, and a TV tuner just for...TV tuning. ;-)

[Kent Pribbernow]

Sweet! This puts me in the mood to upgrade to a new PC. My old first generation P4 (1.7ghz) is getting long in the tooth, as is the vid card; a Radeon 9700 (standard, not Pro). Bleh!

I'm still torn on which board makers offers the better platform right now for all around digital media and gaming support (especially gaming); ATI or nVidia? Perhaps you should post a poll on this subject?

[Jason Dunn]

I'm still torn on which board makers offers the better platform right now for all around digital media and gaming support (especially gaming); ATI or nVidia? Perhaps you should post a poll on this subject?

nVidia. 16 pipelines, shader 3.0 - it's a better performing, more future-proof card.

[Kent Pribbernow]

Thanks for the tip. Whenever I ask this question in gaming forums an argument ensues between ATI &amp; nVidia fanboys.

[SubFuze]

While I'm really a fan of ATI cards, I'd have to agree that nVidia is usually on top. Even when ATI bests nVidia's tech. (which they've done several times), they can't seem to get the drivers right and while in theory their cards should be faster, they usually aren't. That being said, I'm really not *that* much of a gamer and don't need the absolute top performer, so for my money the All-in-wonder line works nicely for me (speaking of which, I'm long over due for an upgrade- I'm currently running the first AIW Radeon in my primary system :oops: I'd like to upgrade and drop the card into a cheap PVR/media center PC...).