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

Conclusion

Performance wasn't really under scrutiny. With clocks greater than a reference Radeon 9600XT, the decision to benchmark it against the similar PowerColor BRAVO revealed similar performance numbers. The core increase helps to some extent and it's generally a touch faster than a regular 9600XT.

In real-world terms, while it's not a 5900XT killer in some tests, NVIDIA's well scrutinised image quality problems with NV3x mean that the GeCube will often look better. It's not the last word in DX9 performance, but it's healthy and IQ is subjectively good to go with it.

With that understood, it's the All-In-Wonder feature set and the board's technical implementation that combine to make the GeCube one hell of a product. It doesn't need an external power source, instead it's quite happy sucking from the AGP slot. The end result? Small form factor PC owners will quite happily be able to slot one into their boxes and run it without an issue. The one slot cooler and cool running RV360 core conspire to make sure heat won't be an issue in those enclosed spaces either.

Normal sized PC owners, while not caring too much about either issue, can be happy that GeCube engineered the 9600XT in such a way.

The All-In-Wonder features add the icing onto the cake. While the GeCube doesn't ship with RemoteWonder II, it doesn't really detract from the package as a whole. The usage nuances in RemoteWonder soon fade when you start to really use the software as intended. As a conduit to PVR functionality on your home PC, while not perfect (where's the digital TV tuner or U.K. programme guide?), it's hard to do better than an All-In-Wonder product.

When that product comes with a Radeon 9600XT GPU, that ten-out-of-ten itch starts to need scratching again.

Lack of concrete pricing information stops me from explicitly rating it as such, but if it's under the £200 mark in the U.K., I'd be happy to slap the big 10 on there again.

It's nice to see GeCube hardware in the U.K., here's hoping a couple of big U.K. vendors pick the 9600XT AIW and its other Radeon-based brethren soon.