ATI X1900 All-in-Wonder

ATI All-in-Wonder X1900

ATI is a company that is well known for its multimedia range of graphics boards. The All-in-Wonder series has accompanied each new GPU for years now, and ATI continues to update the line with the latest in 3D technology.

Last week, we covered the launch of the X1900-series of ATI cards in some significant depth. We found the Radeon X1900XTX to be a beast of a card, outperforming the 7800 GTX 512MB by a significant margin both in single card and multi-card configurations.

The X1900 was released in three configurations: X1900XTX (the fastest), X1900XT (almost as fast) and X1900 CrossFire Edition (the XT, but with the video compositing chips for multi-card operation). Today, we're looking at a fourth addition to this line-up: the All-in-Wonder (not as fast, more multimedia functionality).

Before launching in, you might like to check out these previous articles for context:

• X1900 launch review
  
• X800 GT All-in-Wonder review
  
• HIS 9600 All-in-Wonder review
  
• ATI's Avivo Mark 2

The card

Superficially, the card looks pretty similar to previous incarnations of the All-in-Wonder, but quite different from the recently launched X1900 XTX. Instead of the hefty dual-slot leafblower, it sports a single-slot cooler reminiscent of the Radeon X800 XL and GT. You can also see the Theater 200 tuner sat atop the card in gold. This is the same tuner as in the other recent AIW cards.
Internally, the card is also quite different from the X1900XTX. The X1900XTX and the X1900XT both sport 48 pixel pipelines, 8 vertex shaders and 512MB of onboard memory. The XTX has a core clock of 650MHz and a memory clock of 1550MHz. The XT sports speeds of 625/1450MHz. By contast, the AIW is clocked right down at 500/960MHz and has 'only' 256MB of memory. These lower speeds allow for the smaller cooler and the extra PCB space needed to accommodate the multimedia kit. However, all the other features of the X1900 series are present - the only difference between the AIW and the other boards is the memory configuration and the speeds.

The kit that you get with the X1900 All-in-Wonder is the same as with previous AIW generation, the X1800 AIW: there's a breakout box for Component, S-Video and Composite connections and a remote control to operate the ATI software.

In the US, the X1900 AIW costs US$450, compared to US$600 for the X1900XTX and US$525 for the X1900XT. While we don't have UK pricing for the AIW, the UK X1900XTX is around £400 and the X1900XT around £350, leading us to think that the AIW could sneak in at just under £300 if pricing is comparable to North America. It is worth pointing out that this is exceptionally good pricing compared to NVIDIA right now: a GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB is still over £450 if you can find one for sale, with the 256MB version around £340.