X1900 AIW

[Anoobis]

For all you All In Wonder guys out there.

Is this a good price?

X1900.

 

[cleeve]

I think $400 is typical of the X1900 AIW boards.

A good card if you're really into video, but if you're a gamer you're much better served with spending the extra few bucks for an X1900 XT.

The X1900 AIW boards generally have much slower memory than XTs.

 

[ivoryjohn]

I've owned two AIW's and have given up on them, they are a compromise to both the display and the video.

Their 3d performance always falls short of the non-wonder cards, and mine never overclocked well.

Unless ATI has changed courses with the X1x00's, AIW has always provided a piece of hardware that worked reasonably well but was not compatible with other vendors software. The video encoders worked in software instead of hardware, robbing CPU (and the difference is tremendous).

I currently use an ATI 1800XL and Hauppauge tuner cards. The tuner card encodes in hardware (the cpu doesn't even need to power up, it records perfectly while in low power mode). I can use the tuner with various PVR packages that are avaialable, packages that don't support the AIW (because it does not encode in hardware).

I see that the AIW 1900 is actually priced less than the xt, it has half the memory and is clocked slower.

Hauppauge cards can be had for <$100, so you could have a full blown (oblivion ready) x1800 or x1900 and a DVR card for not much different money.

 

[cleeve]

Their 3d performance always falls short of the non-wonder cards, and mine never overclocked well.

Unless ATI has changed courses with the X1x00's, AIW has always provided a piece of hardware that worked reasonably well but was not compatible with other vendors software. The video encoders worked in software instead of hardware, robbing CPU (and the difference is tremendous).

Well I have two responses to that:

1. My X1800 is an AIW card, and my overclock is, I think, pretty good (see sig)
Stock, it had identical performance and clockspeeds to any other X1800 XL.

2. The X1x00 series can encode video in hardware now, which is pretty nifty


But still, if you're solely a gamer it's extra functionality is useless.

 

[Anoobis]

Hmm..thanks for the input. I was considering an AIW card for my next build since my PC constitutes my only form of entertainment in my room. The only thing I cannot do on it is watch VHS movies, but I only have a few of those most of which are being replaced by DVDs.

Looks like a separate TV-Tuner card is the way to go.