“The AIW X1900 represents good value for those looking to upgrade their older video card…”
Avg
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Powerful GPU
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great for gaming; good software package; solid value
Against
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Old video decoder chip; too large for many personal computers; insufficient GPU clock
Abstract
ATI’s latest All-in-Wonder card, the AIW X1900 uses the company’s latest and greatest GPU, borrowed from the X1900 series gaming cards, and includes video recording and editing capabilities as well as an integrated television tuner along with PVR and TV on Demand functions. The X1900 GPU is an outstanding processor that performs exceptionally well in 3D environments; perfect for gamers. We’ve always been impressed with the premise behind the All-In-Wonder philosophy, and we’re still surprised to see ATI as the only graphics card company to implement a product line behind a video card that basically does it all. The previous All-In-Wonder cards we’ve reviewed have been pretty misses, so we’re excited to see what ATI brings to the table this time around.
Features and design
The first thing you should know about the AIW X1900 is that it uses the same GPU core as the X1900 XT and XTX. The other thing you should know is that the core clock is slower than the two cards mentioned above, 500MHz compared to 625MHz in the XT and 650MHz in the XTX. So if you plan to buy this card primarily for gaming and only want a few extras, you should be fine. If you’re a die-hard gamer, get the XT or XTX, then maybe add the TV Wonder Elite if you want a TV tuner card.
The AIW X1900 comes in a PCI-Express x16 version for now, although an AGP version may be introduced later, but don’t quote us on that. The AIW X1900 has a few new tricks that separate it from the All-in-Wonder cards of the past. Using ATI’s new Avivo and H.264 HD technology, the AIW X1900 will give you a high definition picture on your computer depending on the content being played. H.264 acceleration is used to decode Blu-ray and HD-DVD media on a computer. Visit ATI’s website to read more about AVIVO and H.264 and download an H.264 decoder for your computer. As we saw at this year’s CES, you can expect Blu-ray recorders for your PC to appear very soon, followed by playback devices for the home. If nothing else, this new AVIVO and H.264 technology will give longevity to the AIW X1900; you should also expect to see it on future ATI video cards.
The TV tuner on the AIW X1900 has been upgraded several times over the years, starting with the Philips tuner and ending with the Microtune MT2050. However, this year the tuner has been upgraded once again, this time with the Microtune 2121 chip. According to ATI, the new Microtune 2121 is physically smaller than previous tuners, but still changes channels faster, and when combined with ATI’s Theater 200 video decoder, should provide better picture quality when playing wireless or analog cable content. The Microtune 2121 tuner will not work with HDTV, digital cable or satellite broadcasts; you will need to buy a separate tuner card for them. On the PCB, the Microtune 2121 tuner box is cut in half, with each half located on the side of the video card. This helps make room for a large heatsink that overlaps the tuner box slightly. The AIW X1900 can receive up to 125 channels on your computer. If you add a second tuner card, the ATI software will allow you to watch two programs using picture-in-picture.
The heart of the AIW X1900 is the Theater 200 video decoder chip used to decode all video aspects of the card. The Theater 200 decoder has been around for a long time, at least 3 or more generations of All-In-Wonder cards and in our opinion should be replaced by the Theater 550 Pro chip on the AIW X1900. We tested the ATI TV Wonder Elite using the new Theater Pro 550 chip last year and were impressed with its video quality.
There are four connectors on the AIW X1900, an FM radio tuner coaxial input, a coaxial/composite input for the integrated TV tuner, a DVI connector and a proprietary ATI connector that plugs into the dongle (which also has an analog VGA input) for use with its I/O blocks that can agree. One of the blocks has S-Video and RCA inputs, another has S-Video and RCA outputs, and the third block has a YPrPB/component video output so you can watch High-Definition content on a compatible TV or monitor. However, you will not be able to use two or more of these connector blocks at the same time. ATI includes the unique adapter cables you’ll need to get things up and running. You will first need component video, S-video and RCA cables.
ATI bundles the Remote Wonder Plus with the AIW X1900 and that’s what you’ll be using for most of your television and video playback. The Remote Wonder Plus is a decent remote that gives you most of the functions you’ll need. It’s not as robust as the Remote Wonder II, but we can understand why ATI chose it over it; helps keep the price low. If you want to buy a Remote Wonder II, it should work with this video card.
On the software side, you get ATI’s own Multimedia Center software for recording shows for later playback, for watching video files, and for watching TV shows and more. This is really where you’ll spend the most time when using this card. Media Library software organizes all your media in one place for easy access. ATI has decided to ditch the Pinnacle software in favor of Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 and Photoshop Elements 4.0. These two programs alone help make the included software package one of the best we’ve seen with a video card in a long time.
Image courtesy of ATI Technologies
Performance
Designtechnica Test System
Windows XP Professional; Intel LGA 775 3GHz CPU; 1 GB Crucial Ballisitx DDR2 533MHz RAM; Western Digital 7200RPM SATA 80GB Hard Drive
Setup and use
ATI didn’t send us the final manual with the AIW X1900 so we can’t tell you how well they describe the setup process; we went in blind, so to speak.
You need to have a pretty heavy system to meet ATI’s requirements to use this card. You will need a PCI-Express x16 based motherboard, a power supply of at least 450W, a Pentium 4/Celeron or AMD Athlon class processor and at least 256MB of system memory. We also want to warn you that this is a huge card, 10 inches long. We had trouble getting this into our test system and were forced to relocate the hard drive to fit it into the case. If you have a small case, this card is out of the question, and if you have a store bought system, be sure to buy this card from a store with a good return policy because there is a chance it won’t fit in your system either.
After installing the card and connecting the monitor, FM antenna and cable TV, we booted the system and prepared to install the software. Surprisingly, we were able to install the Catalyst software without it crashing our system once. It took about 10 minutes to install everything and several reboots during the process.
The Gemstar Guide Plus software scanned our incoming cable signal and programmed all stations to watch. You can use the guide separately as with ATI’s Multimedia Center software, or you can use ATI’s new EazyLook Multimedia Center software which acts as a Media Center-type front end, letting you choose which operation you want. The new GUI looks great and does a fantastic job of tying all the apps together.
Mostly everything worked as advertised. You really need to sit down and spend a good 4-5 hours playing with everything before you fully understand how to use this card. ATI has done a great job of getting multiple apps and products to work together, but a little more tweaking would be nice. At times we encountered software crashes and sometimes the software seemed to take several minutes to load.
If you have a computer with Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition, the AIW X1900 is fully compatible. It will use the TV and FM radio tuners on the AIW X1900. However, we recommend that you use the MCE operating system as the default GUI to access recorded shows and media. Remote Wonder II will work with MCE so you don’t have to buy another remote.
Image courtesy of ATI Technologies
For those of you looking to build a HTPC or MCE PC from scratch instead of adding this card to your existing media PC, we recommend getting an X1800 or lower card and then adding the ATI TV Wonder Elite tuner card and Hauppauge HDTV card to your system. The ATI TV Wonder Elite tuner card has a Theater 550 PRO video decoder that is better than the Theater 200 found on the AIW X1900, plus you can upgrade your video card in the future without having to buy a new tuner card. Another issue we found is that the sheer size of the AIW X1900 card (10 inches long) simply won’t fit in most Media Center PCs, plus the heatsink and fan put out a lot of heat and noise making it more ideal for a desktop PC.
When it comes to gaming, the AIW X1900 is a solid player. It’s not as fast as the X1900 XT or XTX and the Nvidia 7800GTX also beats it, but the AIW X1900 does a great job on all but the most demanding games; you will play Battlefield 2 at 1600×1200 resolution with 4XAA enabled without any problems. For full game benchmarks, click on the performance tab and link above and below this review.
Conclusion
We’ve said that a hundred times and we’ll say it again. Buy the AIW X1900 for its gaming and video recording and editing capabilities. If you’re planning to buy it for your home theater or Media Center PC, give it a miss. Buy a smaller graphics card, then an ATI Theater 550 Pro based tuner card and a good HDTV tuner card; you will be much better.
The AIW X1900 really just improves the older AIW cards with a newer graphics chip and that’s all. It still uses the older Theater 200 chip tuner, the electronics programming guide and the ATI Multimedia Center software look the same and it’s not a very good software package for a full Media Center PC. And at 10 inches, this card will be incredibly difficult to fit into most custom-built PCs, let alone store-bought ones.
That said, the AIW X1900 represents good value for those looking to upgrade their older video card to one that does a little bit of everything. Remote Wonder is a great remote control and the software package is fantastic. In the end, the AIW X1900 needs a little more refinement and a real identity.
The AIW X1900 really belongs in a desktop computer intended for multimedia enthusiasts or for someone who lives in a dorm room or similar environment where space is at a premium.
Avg
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- Powerful GPU, great for gaming
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- An excellent software package
- It represents good overall value
Against
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- Too big, it’s hard to fit it in a desktop computer
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- It only encodes video in MPEG2, not MPEG4
- The GPU clock is lower than the X1900 XT
Editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn