ATI All In Wonder 9600 XT PC ATI $299.99 Click Here Sean Gibson - email

Introduction

Ever since the "XT" line of ATI's cards hit the market people have been waiting for the very popular 9600 line to come out with their "All In Wonder" edition cards in the same form. The XT line offers a juiced up version of the GPU, as well as some other tweaks for the hardware to perform better than the original model. The "All in Wonder" series offers consumers much more than your average video card, as with this edition, ATI includes the very popular "Remote Wonder 2.0", the "TV Wonder", and other hardware and software features that are already hot sellers on the market.

The theory is, if you wanted a top performing video card for gaming, but also wanted to watch television and listen to FM radio, as well as import/export video (for editing and capturing purposes), then the All In Wonder series is definitely for you.

The ATI All In Wonder 9600 XT offers some impressive hardware numbers. The list of features is below along with video cards that are close to the MSRP of the AIW 9600 XT.

The breakdown is fairly interesting, as you can see in the numbers the AIW 9600 XT has the fastest Core Speed of any of the cards, even the much more expensive 9800 Pro. Of course, Core Speed is but one component that determines performance, but rest assured that your video card dollar is being well placed with the AIW 9600 XT when it comes to hardware specifications.

Features

The new ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 XT's specifications and features.

• An all-in-one TV tuner with TV-ON-DEMAND™ (records TV programs, pauses live TV, has optional picture-in-picture (PiP) capability and lets you schedule broadcasts directly to your PC)
  Gemstar GUIDE Plus+™ software organizes TV listings and makes searching for and scheduling programs a snap.
• Drive 2 VGA monitors or a VGA monitor and TV output simultaneously.
• Drive an HDTV-ready Television using the optional VGA->YPrPb adapter available from ati.com. Enable a non-interlaced high resolution display in the family room.
• Enjoy the convenience of up to 60 foot wireless radio frequency range (including through walls) with the user friendly control pad utilizing the latest REMOTE WONDER ™ II remote control device
• Includes a simple, forward facing input block with s-video, composite video inputs and stereo audio input
• FM-ON-DEMAND™ (pause,rewind/and save radio on your PC using the popular MP3 format and schedule recordings of your favorite radio shows. )
• THRUVIEW™ creates live, translucent TV, video and DVD windows for easy desktop access
• New EAZYLOOK™ provides easy to read on-screen information for TV and DVDs. Drive MULTIMEDIA CENTER™ from the couch using the REMOTE WONDER II™.

Once again we're blown away by the "All In Wonder" packages that ATI puts together for consumers. You have the Remote Wonder II, as well as the FM radio ability, the video inputs for capturing DVDs and VCR tapes, as well as the cable TV input to watch and capture TV on your computer.

Retail Bundle

Retail package include...

• ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 XT Graphics Board
• Back board Interfaces include Video In (s-video, composite), Video Out (s-video, composite, dual VGA), CATV, and FM ANT.
  Remote Control
• 1 - RF REMOTE WONDER II
• 4 - AAA batteries included
• 1 - USB Remote Receiver
• Cables and Adapters:
  1 – Video/Audio Input Block
  1 – Video/Audio Output Dongle
  1 – 6’ Composite Video Cable
• Setup and Installation:
  1 - Installation and Setup Poster
  1 - Installation and Setup Guide
  1 - Multimedia Center User Guide
  1 - ATI Driver and Utility CD (includes ATI Multimedia 8.6 software)
• Bundled Software:
  Pinnacle Studio 8 - ATI Version
  Matchware Mediator 7
  muvee autoProducer
  Driver Disc
• Warranty: 3 Years

card benchmark & testing

We used the same system we tested other video cards on for this review...

Test System Specifications:
- AMD 2500+XP Processor
- GigaByte GA-7NNXP nForce2 Motherboard
- 512 MB PC2700 Dual Channel DDR RAM
- Windows XP Home
- DirectX 9.0b

We used the following for games using the popular FRAPS Utility which allows you to grab the framerate for ANY game you play, record the framerate as you play, and export it to a text file. Using this, we captured the frame rates using three different video cards with these three very popular titles (all were set in 1280x1024 mode):

- NHL 2004 : Most gamers don't realize that the graphics engine used by the NHL series from EA Sports is amongst the most advanced in the industry

- Grand Theft Auto III : A very popular title that allows you to easily remove any and all frame rate limits

- Unreal Tournament 2004 : The very popular FPS game.

We also used the popular Futurmark "3DMark03" utility to see how well the card performed.

3D Mark 2003 - DX9 Benchmarking

3DMark 03 is the latest installment in the popular 3DMark series. 3DMark03 measures modern PCs’ 3D graphics performance. The numbers...

As you can see the card performs a bit better than the similar price-pointed card, the nVIDIA 5700 Ultra. If you're interested in games in a DX9 atmosphere, it seems logical that the ATI 9600 Pro is just as good a solution than other cards at that $300 price point.

Grand Theft Auto III

We definitely feel this is one of the better games to test out with the framerate benchmarking utility, because it fully supports turning off the framerate and vsynch limits, as some games won't allow more than 75.

As you can see there's a big difference between the ATI 9800Pro chipset and the ATI AIW 9600XTperformance, but remember to consider the fact that these cards are almost $200 apart in retail stores. Also look at how closely this card performs against its fellow competition - it's beating the nVidia cards.

Unreal tournament 2004

Here's a very popular First Person Shooter that shows a great real world example of how the card performs.

The ATI AIW 9600XT is the trailer in the pack, but the numbers are fairly close.

NHL 2004 (1600x1200 resolution)

This game also topped out at 75 for all the cards at 1280x1024, so we pumped up the juice and saw the difference in performance we were looking for.

This is the test that really surprised us, but for whatever reason, the AIW 9600XT kicked some serious butt in the NHL 2004 test at 1600x1200 resolution.

installation

The video card is quite easily the easiest thing to install in your computer. Uninstall the OLD drivers first (some people forget this step), turn off your computer, take out the old card, put in the new card. The All In Wonder 9600XT card does not require any extra power supply to be plugged in.

Turn on the system, download the latest Catalyst drivers (right here) and install them. After that - you're ready to go!

impressions of performance

The card runs pretty well ... then I remember that this card is only $299 and I think that this is one heck of a deal. Consider this ... the Remote Wonder II runs $50 and the included TV card feature saves consumers even more money. The All In Wonder brand is really three cards in one, and offers some great gaming performance.

The lack of 295 cables for this version of the card and use of the one giant uber-cable that plugs everything into it is pretty convenient ... just don't ever lose it (if you do you can buy a new one from ATI.com). The FM tuner worked pretty poorly to be honest, but to be fair to ATI, that's more of a reflection of the HORRIBLE reception of FM radio I get in the area.

The Remote Wonder II was extremely fun to use and can impress the hell out of many people that aren't familiar with the technology. Basically you plug in the received into a USB port, and suddenly your entire computer can be controlled from one giant remote control. Such features are completely up to you as the device is completely configurable. The Remote Wonder II is a very impressive device and a great part of the All In Wonder package.

The bundle also includes Pinnacle Studio (video editing) and MatchWare Mediator 7.

The card supports dual VGA connections, although all should be aware there is no DVI support for this card. For those of you that haven't considering using 2 monitors at once on your PC, you have no idea what a wonderful thing you are missing. The card does have an optional HDTV Component Video adapter available as an add-on from ATI.com, which allows the highest quality PC output for a TV or HDTV screen.

As far as gaming goes, the card's performance numbers speak for themselves - this is a very nice performing card. If you're going to want to game at the top levels, then this is definitely a card you should be considering for purchase.

Conclusions

Once again ATI has impressed us with an innovative product with the All In Wonder 9600 XT card. This card offers consumers a ton of features and uses, from capturing and editing video, to controlling your computer from 60 feet away - but the best feature of all is a top performing video card.

The benchmarking numbers definitely impressed us because this card's numbers were comparable or beating that of the nVidia competition. The AIW 9600XT's performance is best used for power computer users looking to utilize all it's uses - from gaming at top speeds, to importing television, to the powerful Remote Wonder II controller.

For the money, you're not going to find a better deal on the market if you're looking for a solution with all the aformentioned features. If you think about it, just the card would run you about $250, the Remote Wonder II about $50, a TV card about $40, and the software about $100.

The ATI All In Wonder 9600XT is a fantastically performing video card that offers all the features that a power computer user could possibly want - all at a price that we can all afford. ATI should be commended for developing the XT edition of this card that offers new hardware specs which equate into faster performance. Overall - a very impressive and innovative product.

10 / 10 OVERALL SCORE 96% 10 / 10 9 / 10 10 / 10 9 / 10 9.6 / 10