ATI All-in-Wonder X1800XL Reviews

[Arty]

ATI announced (http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?p=630685#post630685) their All-in-Wonder X1800XL card today.

Review: http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_all_in_wonder_x1800_xl/default.asp

[Geo]

Is it just me, or is FS kicking everybody's butt on video issues the last few months?

Too bad we don't have our new video forum to put this in. :wink:

[Rys]

Strange launch, at least in Europe. None of the usual suspects have had boards and the MM team haven't made any noise about it (at least to me, which they usually would in the past).

Wonder what's going on.

[Dave Baumann]

They've got boards in Germany since last Thursday - I guess they had been checking out the PAL/DVB-T/SCART compatibility. I was offered one but turned it down for the first round as I'm already behind anyway.

[Geo]

The FS piece did mention that the Euro version was about two weeks behind NA. . .

Edit: Bjorn3d is up too. . . http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=856

[ben6]

Yeah it was a bit of a strange launch. I met with ATI a few weeks ago and received a card at that time (It's currently in my main box). I'll share a couple of things

1. ATI decided to hard-launch the card-good for them. Strange from a reviewer's POV, but good for them.
2. MSRP wasn't $429 at the beginning

[Geo]

Huh? The MSRP is given as $500 in the FS piece.

Tho I 'm coming 'round to Rys pov that MSRP is a necessary evil that should never ever be mentioned in polite company or around the kids. :lol:

[Geo]

Anyone with any insight on:

1). Why Theater 200 instead of 550?
2). What should we conclude about timing on an R580 AIW, if anything at all? Is it possible this is our X1K AIW for some time to come (or maybe even "the foreseeable future")?

[Dave Baumann]

Try reading some of our video articles - it explains why Theater 200 isn't used on AIW products.

[ben6]

They changed the MSRP about a week and a half ago FS may not have changed it.

[Geo]

Try reading some of our video articles - it explains why Theater 200 isn't used on AIW products.

I'm assuming you tyoped and meant 550. From the Avivo piece:


Theater 550 PRO was designed as a stand alone device, so at present there have been none of ATI's "All-In-Wonder", single board solutions available with it, meaning that current All-In-Wonder products have relied on software MPEG encoding - ATI's next generation Theater product, currently expected some time next year, will combine the hardware encode capabilities (and inevitably enhance on them) with a video port that can communicate directly with ATI's graphics chips in order for full, single board hardware encode and decode capabilities to be supported


Hmm, I wonder if that has some applicability to my other question about when to expect the next AIW after this one as well. . .

[Arty]

They changed the MSRP about a week and a half ago FS may not have changed it.
Yup.

Further sweetening the deal is the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL's MSRP of $429. This card isn't cheap by any measure of the word, but it's only marginally more expensive than the standard Radeon X1800 XL that debuted with an MSRP of $449 only five short weeks ago.

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=742&cid=2

Anandtech's article is also online: http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2613

[ben6]

That FiringSquad article is kind of strange. They use Cat 5.11, which is version 8.191 whatever. The card ships with 8.193 and ATI said not to use 5.11s

[Blacklash]

Glad I didn't snatch up an AIW X1800XL. I am hoping they were referring to the AIW X1900XL in the quote Geo provided.