 | |||
|
|
|
|
|
 |
ATI All-In-Wonder X1900 Review January 31, 2006 |
|
 |
|
| |
Summary: First announced last week, ATI's All-In-Wonder X1900 graphics card leverages the multimedia prowess of previous All-In-Wonder cards with the gaming capabilities of ATI's brand new R580 GPU. And with prices starting at $500 for this 256MB graphics card, it's actually the least expensive X1900 board you can buy right now. We've benchmarked this card against three other Radeon X1K cards to see how it stacks up to ATI's other offerings. Since it boasts similar clocks to the X1800 XL, we were curious to see what kind of performance improvement R580's 48-shader architecture brings to the table. Find out inside!
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 20 ) |
As good as the media PC has become however, things are about to get even better. In our opinion, the media PC is on the verge of a huge revolution. Microsoft, AMD, Intel, ATI, and many others are betting on this too, devoting millions of dollars towards developing and marketing new media-centric devices and software. This was showcased most prominently at CES earlier this year with the launch of Intel’s Viiv initiative at the show.
[image]
| <% print_image("01"); %> | <% print_image("02"); %> |
But Intel isn’t the only one with a new media device promote, as last week ATI introduced the All-In-Wonder X1900.
Origins of the All-In-Wonder X1900
Normally when ATI introduces a new GPU, it takes ATI’s multimedia team a few months to integrate the new GPU into their All-In-Wonder line. The launch of the All-In-Wonder X1900 however marks the first time ATI’s desktop and multimedia divisions have launched new hardware on the same day.
The All-In-Wonder X1900 leverages all the key technologies found in the Radeon X1900, including ATI’s new R580 GPU with 48 pixel shaders and Avivo technology, with the multimedia capabilities All-In-Wonder cards are well known for.
But the All-In-Wonder X1900 doesn’t share the same performance as the X1900 XT and X1900 XTX cards that were announced a week ago. While all three cards are built on the exact same R580 GPU, ATI clocks the graphics core inside All-In-Wonder X1900 cards at a more sedate 500MHz. That’s 125MHz slower than the Radeon X1900 XT.
The card also ships with its memory modules running at 480MHz, a figure which is over 200MHz shy of the X1900 XT.
[image]
| <% print_image("03"); %> | <% print_image("04"); %> |
| ATI lineup comparison | Page:: ( 2 / 20 ) |
In case you were wondering why 480MHz instead of 500MHz for the All-In-Wonder X1900’s memory, ATI stated that they were shooting for the board’s memory modules to run at an even 500MHz, but had to settle for 480MHz in order for the board to make it to market on time. It’s here where things get a little interesting, as our pre-release engineering sample board shipped with a different cooling unit than the cooler that’s going to be used on shipping, retail All-In-Wonder X1900 cards. For shipping All-In-Wonder X1900 cards, ATI borrows the exact same cooler that was used on Radeon X1800 XL/All-In-Wonder X1800XL boards. In contrast, the heatsink on our board was actually a little bit smaller than the heatsink ATI uses on final All-In-Wonder X1900 cards, but the fan used on our All-In-Wonder X1900 board was larger and runs quieter. It’s because of this that we actually prefer the cooler used on our board, particularly for use on a multimedia card, as you’ll want your PC to run as quietly as possible when watching movies/TV on your PC.
Our guess (and we stress the word guess) is that ATI couldn’t squeeze the extra 20MHz out of the new All-In-Wonder X1900 cooling design, despite the use of a new heatsink/fan unit, so rather than use the smaller cooler they decided to stick with same cooler that’s been used on Radeon X1800 XL and All-In-Wonder X1800 XL cards in the past. After all, ATI’s probably got a ton of them lying around since the X1800 series cards are no longer in production. By sticking with the old cooler, it also allowed ATI to get the All-In-Wonder X1900 to market on launch day.
Again, this is all just a guess on our part, but it makes a lot of sense. The 20MHz deficit shouldn’t make much of a difference in performance anyway.
[image]
| <% print_image("05"); %> | <% print_image("06"); %> |
Another interesting “guess” we made in our Radeon X1900 article last week is that today’s All-In-Wonder X1900 card may provide a preview of what’s to come with ATI’s vanilla Radeon X1900, if such a card were to be announced in the future. Remember, right now ATI’s only announced three Radeon X1900 products: the Radeon X1900 XT, Radeon X1900 XT CrossFire, and the Radeon X1900 XTX. As of right now, there is no Radeon X1900 card.
But just as ATI didn’t announce a vanilla Radeon 9700 on launch day when R300 was first introduced, only to eventually produce such a part just a few months later, we wouldn’t be surprised to see ATI announce a vanilla Radeon X1900 at some point in the near future. After all, now that the Radeon X1800 XL is no longer in production, ATI’s got a huge $300+ hole in their product lineup to fill between the Radeon X1600 XT and the Radeon X1900 XT. Because of this, we don’t think it’s unwise to guess that ATI may eventually want to produce a vanilla X1900 card. And with the All-In-Wonder X1900 sharing similar clock speeds as the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL, we can see exactly just how much of a performance improvement R580’s new 48-shader architecture brings!
| Video processing hardware | Page:: ( 3 / 20 ) |
The Philips tuner was a great performer with excellent image quality, but it took up an enormous amount of space on the card. ATI’s engineers literally had to clear the entire upper half of the board’s PCB in order to fit the Philips tuner onto the card. Another downside to the old Philips tuner was that it consumed about 11% more power. ATI’s first stab at replacing the Philips tuner was Microtune’s MT2050 ASIC. The MT2050 provided crystal clear video quality, but the downside to MT2050 was its performance: changing channels with the MT2050 was considerably slower than the old Philips tuner, which was quite responsive.
Fortunately ATI was quick to respond, shelving the MT2050 in favor of the MT 2121. The MT2121 boasts the same image quality, power and space savings as its predecessor, only now it’s much more responsive. Whereas channel changing was a 2.5-3.0 second ordeal with MT2050, switching channels is now down to about 1.0-1.5 seconds based on our seat-of-the-pants testing. This is really evident when switching channels rapidly, or when using the All-In-Wonder X1900’s channel surf feature, which we’ll discuss in more depth later.
[image]
| <% print_image("07"); %> | <% print_image("08"); %> |
| <% print_image("09"); %> | <% print_image("10"); %> |
Theater 200
ATI’s battle-tested Theater 200 chip makes a return once again on the All-In-Wonder X1900. The Theater 200 performs all video decoding duties on the All-In-Wonder X1900, and has been used on all of ATI’s multimedia products dating back to the All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro four years ago. The Theater 200 chip receives the signals from the Microtune tuner chip (or whatever device is connected through the component or S-Video inputs), where it is then passed through one of the Theater 200’s two 12-bit analog-to-digital converters (many competing solutions use 9-bit ADCs). From the ADC, the signal is passed to the Theater 200’s 2D 3-line comb filter, through the video scaler, and ultimately passed on to your monitor.
The chip also handles all audio duties, performing audio demodulation and stereo decoding.
Despite all this, some critics have noted that Theater 200 is beginning to show signs of age. ATI’s newer Theater 550 Pro boasts a new motion adaptive 3D comb filter as well as a more advanced 5-Line 2D comb filter, two more lines than used in THEATER 200. Most notably though is Theater 550 Pro’s built-in MPEG-2 encoder.
[image]
| <% print_image("11"); %> |
| Board analysis | Page:: ( 4 / 20 ) |
[image]
| <% print_image("12"); %> | <% print_image("13"); %> | <% print_image("14"); %> |
Instead, shipping boards will look like this:
[image]
| <% print_image("15"); %> |
Based on the reference photos above provided by ATI, it basically appears that ATI has borrowed the PCB and cooling from the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL and used it for final, shipping All-In-Wonder X1900 cards. As far as we can tell other than the different cooler, the differences between our pre-release board and final, shipping AIW X1900 boards are pretty limited. ATI employs a massive PCB for both cards that measures nearly 10” long. With such a long PCB, those of you with small form factor systems may have a tougher time getting the All-In-Wonder X1900 to fit inside your system’s case.
On the board’s back plate you’ll find a DVI connector as well as connections for FM and TV tuning, and finally, ATI’s proprietary “I/O connector”.
[image]
| <% print_image("16"); %> |
From the I/O connector, you can connect a wealth of devices including an additional VGA monitor (for dual display support) as well as ATI’s unique input/output blocks. The input/output blocks look like dominos, each acts as a dongle that you can use to connect external devices to your All-In-Wonder X1900 card such as a camcorder or VCR. To save space, the input/output blocks can be stacked like Legos. Inside the AIW X1900’s packaging you’ll find three input/output blocks.
[image]
| <% print_image("17"); %> | <% print_image("18"); %> |
The input block provides 1 S-Video connection, 1 composite, and 2 RCA stereo audio connections, while the output connection block features 1 S/PDIF, 1 S-Video, 1 composite, and 2 RCA stereo audio connections. Arrows on the edge of the block help to distinguish the video input block from the video output block. The third block has the component video connections you’ll need for hooking the AIW X1900 card up to an HDTV, as well as the pass thru cable which you’ll hook up to your sound card for audio.
Hooking everything up sounds complicated, but it’s actually fairly easy. Just plug in the AIW X1900 card like you would normally, then hookup the I/O connector we just mentioned. From here you’ll want to hookup the appropriate input/output dongles as well as your second VGA display. Finally, plug in the coaxial connections for FM and TV tuning (an FM antenna is provide inside the box), as well as the pass through cable for audio.
Once that’s done, boot up the computer, load all drivers and software programs included on the CATALYST CD, reboot, and you’re all done! The whole process shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes from beginning to end (depending on the speed of your computer), once you’re done, ATI’s TV tuner software will automatically scan for all your available channels, while Gemstar’s GUIDE PLUS software will download local TV listings for your area.
| Multimedia Center/TV | Page:: ( 5 / 20 ) |
Watching TV on your PC
The All-In-Wonder’s most well known feature is the integrated TV player. The All-In-Wonder X1900 can receive up to 125 cable television stations or 70 stations via antenna. We should mention that this is regular analog cable TV; digital cable and satellite aren’t natively supported by the All-In-Wonder X1900.
[image]
| <% print_image("19"); %> | <% print_image("20"); %> | <% print_image("21"); %> |
ATI’s TV player can perform all the functions you’d expect out of any TV, as well as several added extras. With mulTView you can watch television on one channel, while you’re recording your favorite television show on another, or you can use mulTView to watch two distinct stations at once for picture-in-picture support. All you have to do is drop in a second compatible TV tuner card, like ATI’s TV WONDER PRO or TV WONDER ELITE.
[image]
| <% print_image("22"); %> | <% print_image("23"); %> | <% print_image("24"); %> |
Another feature the TV player supports is the TV Bar. With TV Bar, you can surf the web and watch TV at the same time. Just open up Internet Explorer, click the TV icon, and voila, a window will appear on the side of your browser with the current channel you’re watching as well as a program guide with channel listings and programming information just below it.
[image]
| <% print_image("25"); %> | <% print_image("26"); %> | <% print_image("27"); %> |
ATI’s TV player also has a channel preview feature known as channel surf. With it, you can see what’s currently playing on multiple television stations simultaneously. With the click of a button your TV display is split up into a number of thumbnails, each representing a different channel; these thumbnails take snapshots of each station, and are updated regularly. To select a channel, simply click it to appear in your display. Due to the slow speed of the older Microtune 2050 tuner, this process could take quite awhile, but with the newer, faster 2121 chip it isn’t quite as long of an ordeal. Of course, with Gemstar’s Guide Plus electronic programming guide software telling you what’s currently on this feature isn’t used very often. Especially since Guide Plus does such an excellent job with its interface…
[image]
| <% print_image("28"); %> | <% print_image("29"); %> | <% print_image("30"); %> |
| Guide Plus/Remote Wonder | Page:: ( 6 / 20 ) |
You can also use GUIDE PLUS+ to search for specific television shows, genres, or actors. Simply type in the show you’re interested in and GUIDE PLUS+ will show you all channels and times that show will appear for that week. With SCHEDULE+ you can then record all those episodes, or an entire season’s worth of programming. Say for instance, you want to record The Simpsons. With GUIDE Plus, not only can you record the Fox Sunday episode for that week, with GUIDE Plus you can also automatically record all broadcasts of The Simpsons on the other channels in syndication as well.
[image]
| <% print_image("31"); %> | <% print_image("32"); %> | <% print_image("33"); %> |
GUIDE PLUS+ is integrated directly into the TV player, so if you want to record a particular show, simply press the record button and the show you selected will be recorded to your hard drive based on the quality level you’ve predefined. ATI provides several recording presets, or you can customize the recording options if you want to tailor your recordings to your specific needs/taste. All the major file types are supported: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI, Windows Media, and ATI’s own proprietary VCR format.
The really sweet part about GUIDE Plus though is that unlike TiVo, it is completely free. There are no monthly fees you have to pay, and no hidden surcharges. Just load up the software and go!
Remote Wonder Plus
ATI continues to provide their highly regarded Remote Wonder Plus with the All-In-Wonder X1900. ATI’s Remote Wonder Plus has all the buttons you’ll need for controlling ATI’s TV/DVD/CD/VCD/ and media players such as stop/rewind/pause/mute as well as a numeric keypad. Basically all the buttons you’d expect in a universal remote and then some, as ATI also includes a directional thumbpad at the top of the Remote Wonder Plus as well as left and right mouse buttons, allowing you to use the Remote Wonder Plus just like you’d use the mouse on your PC.
[image]
| <% print_image("34"); %> |
For ease of use, ATI also provides quick launch buttons for all of the Multimedia Center applications, including Gemstar Guide Plus and the FM radio player. This means that you can launch any of these programs at the click of a button.
ATI even includes six programmable buttons which can be programmed to perform practically any function you want, including handling basic Windows tasks such as closing an application, or for TV viewing, going back to the channel you just flipped from. ATI even provides batteries for the remote control unit inside the packaging, so you’re ready to go the moment you take your All-In-Wonder X1900 card out of the box!
Additional software
In addition to the aforementioned software, ATI also includes a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0. With Adobe PhotoShop Elements you can edit and enhance your photos and other images while Premiere Elements is used to create home videos.
Each of these programs sells for $85 at retail, so ATI’s basically including $170 worth of free software on top of the already excellent bundle that’s included with the All-In-Wonder X1900.
| Test Systems | Page:: ( 7 / 20 ) |
System Setup
AMD Athlon 64 FX-57
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
2GB OCZ DDR400 SDRAM
ATI Radeon X1900 CrossFire (to simulate performance of X1900 XT)
ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB
ATI All-In-Wonder X1800 XL 256MB
ATI All-In-Wonder X1900
Driver version sample_8-203-3-060104a-029367E
250GB Maxtor Hard Drive Maxline III SATA Hard Drive w/16MB Cache
Windows XP Professional SP1
DirectX 9.0c
Benchmarks
3DMark 06
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles
Call of Duty 2
Half-Life 2 Lost Coast
Far Cry
F.E.A.R.
Battlefield 2
Quake 4 (dual-core patch wasn’t used)
| 3DMark 06 | Page:: ( 8 / 20 ) |
3DMark 06– Direct3D
| 3DMark 06 | Page:: ( 9 / 20 ) |
3DMark 06– Direct3D
| Half-Life 2 Lost Coast 4xAA/16xAF | Page:: ( 10 / 20 ) |
Half-Life 2 – Direct3D
| HDR: HL2 Lost Coast | Page:: ( 11 / 20 ) |
| Battlefield 2 | Page:: ( 12 / 20 ) |
Battlefield 2 – Direct3D
| Battlefield 2 Performance 1600x1200 | ||
| Card | Min FPS | Max FPS |
| Radeon X1900 XT | 97 | 130 |
| Radeon X1800 XT | 87 | 107 |
| All-In-Wonder X1800 XL | 69 | 85 |
| All-In-Wonder X1900 | 70 | 94 |
| ||
| Quake 4 | Page:: ( 13 / 20 ) |
Quake 4 – OpenGL
| IL-2 4xAA/16xAF | Page:: ( 14 / 20 ) |
IL-2: FB – OpenGL
| IL-2 Sturmovik Performance 1600x1200 | ||
| Card | Min FPS | Max FPS |
| Radeon X1900 XT | 34 | 104 |
| Radeon X1800 XT | 39 | 121 |
| All-In-Wonder X1800 XL | 31 | 98 |
| All-In-Wonder X1900 | 22 | 69 |
| ||
| F.E.A.R. Performance | Page:: ( 15 / 20 ) |
F.E.A.R. – Direct3D
| F.E.A.R. Performance 1280x1024 | ||
| Card | Min FPS | Max FPS |
| Radeon X1900 XT | 30 | 176 |
| Radeon X1800 XT | 29 | 136 |
| All-In-Wonder X1800 XL | 26 | 102 |
| All-In-Wonder X1900 | 25 | 128 |
| ||
| Call of Duty 2 | Page:: ( 16 / 20 ) |
Call of Duty 2 – Direct3D
| HDR: Serious Sam 2 | Page:: ( 17 / 20 ) |
| Far Cry HDR | Page:: ( 18 / 20 ) |
Far Cry – Direct3D
| Far Cry Performance 1600x1200 | ||
| Card | Min FPS | Max FPS |
| Radeon X1900 XT | 64.2 | 102.6 |
| Radeon X1800 XT | 53.4 | 75.9 |
| All-In-Wonder X1800 XL | 41.6 | 60 |
| All-In-Wonder X1900 | 44.4 | 67.2 |
| ||
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 19 / 20 ) |
Pros
3D Performance: At the heart of the All-In-Wonder X1900 is ATI’s R580 GPU. R580 contains over 380 million transistors and boasts ATI’s all-new ultra-threaded architecture with shader model 3.0 support, a programmable memory controller with a 512-bit internal ring bus and most notably, 48 pixel shaders.
ATI clocks the GPU at 500MHz, while the board’s memory runs at 480MHz, these speeds are nearly identical to the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL card that today’s AIW X1900 board replaces. In theory this means that at worst, the All-In-Wonder X1900 should perform no worse than its predecessor, while shader-heavy games should see a significant performance boost thanks to the AIW X1900’s 32 additional pixel shaders.
In practice however we saw a few cases where performance wasn’t quite up to the levels already established by the AIW X1800 XL. Most likely this is due to the newness of the X1900 driver. In games that use shaders extensively such as F.E.A.R. and Half-Life 2 Lost Coast with HDR, the All-In-Wonder X1900 ran considerably faster than the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL, even though they were running at nearly the same clock speeds. This is the future ATI is counting on with their X1900 family, although it remains to be seen how soon this future will become a reality.
Multimedia Center/Software apps: ATI has done a superb job of integrating all the media players and programs into their Multimedia Center software suite. With just a few mouse clicks you can be listening to the radio, or scheduling an entire season’s worth of programming to be recorded to your PC.
Each of these programs aren’t some hack job ATI put together quickly either, they’re all feature complete programs that are fully capable of doing anything you need (and then some) on your PC. To date no one has done a better job of integrating everything as fluidly as ATI has done with Multimedia Center. NVIDIA’s failed attempt with their Personal Cinema initiative being the most recent example.
Remote Wonder Plus:
Value: ATI continues to provide an excellent value proposition with the All-In-Wonder X1900. For starters, at $500, the All-In-Wonder X1900 is the least expensive X1900 product on the market right now. So if you want to see what all the fuss about 48 pixel shaders is all about, the All-In-Wonder X1900 is the cheapest ticket in town right now.
Second, ATI provides so many goodies inside the All-In-Wonder X1900’s packaging. Not only do you have the FM and TV tuning capabilities provided by the Microtune 2121 chip, the All-In-Wonder X1900 also provides timeshifting functionality, just like a TiVo, as well as Gemstar’s Guide Plus electronic programming guide. All this is included at no extra charge to the end user. Next, you’ve got the REMOTE WONDER PLUS remote control unit. This feature alone is worth $50. A quick check of ATI’s shop.ati.com website reveals that the REMOTE WONDER PLUS is currently selling for $49. ATI also includes three input/output blocks with the All-In-Wonder X1900. These retail for $20 apiece on ATI’s website, making them a $60 value.
Finally, don’t forget the Adobe software ATI includes with the All-In-Wonder X1900. ATI bundles the card with Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0. These are the latest versions Adobe provides of each respective program, and each carries a retail pricetag of $85, giving you a $170 value. Add all this up separately and you’re looking at spending nearly $300 – that’s over half the price of the All-In-Wonder X1900 card.
Cons
Size: The All-In-Wonder X1900 is one massive card, at nearly 10” long it’s one of the longest graphics cards we’ve ever seen! Because of this, those of you with smaller cases (particularly SFF users) may have a hard time fitting this card inside your case.
Theater 200: While ATI’s THEATER 200 chip delivers good image quality, its feature set is quickly becoming dated. The chip doesn’t provide MPEG-2 encoding, nor does it support the 3D and 5-Line 2D comb filters found in ATI’s newer THEATER 550 Pro ASIC. Quite a few ATI enthusiasts have been hoping for an All-In-Wonder card with Theater 550 Pro onboard, unfortunately those prayers have still gone unanswered.
No CrossFire support: Gamers interested in pairing an All-In-Wonder X1900 card with a Radeon X1900 XT CrossFire master board should know that at this time, the AIW X1900 isn’t compatible with ATI’s CrossFire technology. With the All-In-Wonder line, ATI’s focus is on multimedia first, then performance. Apparently this means that somewhere along the line CrossFire support to a backseat to some other feature when ATI’s engineers concocted the All-In-Wonder X1900.
| Final Verdict | Page:: ( 20 / 20 ) |