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Review: GeCube All-In-Wonder 9600XT 128M/TV/FM

by Ryszard Sommefeldt on 3 July 2004, 00:00

Tags: Gecube

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaxs

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Introduction

I can't stop giving ATI All-In-Wonder products 10 out of 10. Infact, in nearly four years of writing here at HEXUS, I've given out just 3 full-mark scores in nearly 150 articles, 2 of those to ATI Radeon based AIW cards. So when today's review focus arrived, I wondered if the trend could continue.

It's a common conclusion for reviewers to come to when looking at All-In-Wonder hardware. The combination of base GPU performance, features, image quality, TV-tuner, DVD playback quality, PVR functions and RemoteWonder make it hard to resist spitting out a stream of superlatives. I don't think anyone will disagree that, for their intended function, they're world class computing products.

Today's All-In-Wonder is slightly different from the others we've covered so far, so it's worth the look to see if world class is something we can say once again.

Before we dig in, a quick bit on the card's creator, GeCube.

GeCube

This is the first time HEXUS has reviewed a GeCube product (to the best of my knowledge), so a bit on the company is worth doing.

GeCube are the consumer PC brand of Info-Tek Corporation and are staid ATI partners, being a chief AIB in Asia for ATI's hardware. They've been around since 1990 in one form or another and selling graphics cards is their chief business.

Retail presence in Europe is low, but that's not to say you can't grab a GeCube card out here in this neck of the woods, it's just a little harder than picking up an ASUS. They've got their own R&D lab, engineering changes and improvements to reference designs from ATI, and they produce one of everything that ATI make in the consumer graphics space, from lowly 9000s to top end Radeon 9800XT.

Today's card sits in the middle of their product range, offering mid-range performance and consumer video and TV features for a very decent price.