Review: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder

I'm not going to cover performance in this article. 12 pages of my writing is enough for anyone. It's a stock clocked 9800 Pro in all regards, and we've covered 9800 Pro in a couple of articles at HEXUS now. Check out Tarinder's look at the Connect3D version, here if you want to see how fast it is playing games. It's quick, but you knew that already right?

I did notice that the All-In-Wonder was seriously adverse to high bus speeds on my Athlon XP test rig however. Anything over 220MHz and 3D would stop working entirely, giving massive graphics corruption. Turning off fast writes didn't help, and other 9800's I have don't mind 220MHz+ either. But I suspect it wont be an overclockers card, so it's not too much of an issue.

Usage Conclusion

Using it for its intended purposes, as a competent PVR, DVD player, television and general media player, the All-In-Wonder excelled. EASYLOOK was the reason, I wasn't fond of the 'regular' interface to any of the MMC applets, the supplied skins are just horrendous. But they are functional, if butt ugly. I can't knock points off for actually using it, just aesthetics.

RemoteWonder is simply excellent, and really rounds off (and is needed) the package. Good hardware, good remote, good interface, all adds up to an excellent package overall. It really excels at the given tasks, something I was sceptical about to begin with.

Up against other PVR systems on the PC, like NVIDIA's Personal Cinema, I can't really comment, since I haven't seen any other PVR solution on the PC up close. But, I can say that any other PVR setup on the PC would have to excel to tempt me away from an All-In-Wonder solution, having experienced one now.

It would be interesting to see what Personal Cinema or SnapStream are like, in terms of equivalent TiVo-like functionality. If either company are listening, feel free to fire a review sample my way.

EASYLOOK and RemoteWonder are the highlights, for sure. That leads me onto the downsides however.

Cost. For the intended target audience, who want the All-In-Wonder feature set, I can't see a compelling reason for the 9800 Pro version. The 9700 Pro version still exists, and does everything the 9800 Pro version does. It's just a tad slower at 3D, but if you want an AIW, do you care? Even an 9000 AIW, 7500 AIW or rare 8500DV could be good value for you, if the AIW feature set is what's attracting you. With MMC8.5, they should all do EASYLOOK as far as I know, and all are compatible with RemoteWonder, even if they don't ship with one. You can buy it seperately.

As the ultimate combination of 3D speed, 2D quality and the All-In-Wonder feature set, it has no peer, and probably wont have for quite a long time.

I wish I could have covered Pinnacle Studio 8 SE, since it has Radeon specific features in terms of applying shaders to the capture stream, but no copy shipped with the review sample. Apologies for that, I'm sure it's of as high a standard as the rest of the package however. My only other wish is that I had the time to do CPU usage comparisons while operating the AIW features, sadly time didn't permit.

Overall

I love this card and its features. But lots of that love is down to the fact it's a review sample and no money left me to get hold of it. It's going back soon, and I've been asking myself recently, "Would I pay money to acquire my own one?". The answer is yes, I think I would. I'd get the 9700 Pro version to save money, but the All-In-Wonder features have me in their grasp.

TV on my desktop, recording of my favourite shows that I can convert later to DivX, excellent TV-Out and the best 3D performance money can buy. It might be a lot of money, but if you want one, you'll find it.

ATI's board partners should all be considering the 9800 Pro All-In-Wonder as part of their ATI lineup, and indeed, a few are shipping it now. Sapphire to name but one.

It has its flaws. The EASYLOOK dual display issue, the cost, the bad skins. But they don't do that much to detract from things. Time for the return of the Editor's Choice award?

Now to tell ATI I've moved house. After watching last nights Richard and Judy though. And ER tonight.

Score