ATI All-In-Wonder X800 XL Review

The ATI All-In-Wonder X800 XL is great for video editing and connecting your PC to your home theater system. Sorry folks, but there is no HDTV love here yet though.

Summary

ATI’s new All-In-Wonder (AIW) X800 XL picks up where the company’s X600 AIW card left off, which means a faster core processor, more multimedia capabilities and a heftier price. Surprisingly, the AIW X800 XL isn’t the company’s most expensive All-In-Wonder product though. Nestled in between the AIW X800 XT and the X600 PRO on the ATI product line, the AIW X800 XL offers impressive performance while still maintaining a somewhat modest price. But what is the main difference between the AIW X800 XL and the AIW 800 XT, and have multimedia capabilities really been improved over the previous year’s offerings?

Update 11/2/05: It has been brought to our attention that there are OEM versions of this card floating around that have an AGP interface. If you live in Canada, you can pick one of these up at Future Shop.

Features and Design

 

There are a few subtle differences between the AIW X800 XL and the AIW X800 XT. First of all, the X800 XT has a faster memory clock of 500MHz versus the XL’s 490MHz. The GPU engine clock speed on the XT is also faster at 500MHz versus 400MHz on the X800 XL, pumping out 8 Gpixels compared to 6.4 Gpixels, and having a geometry fill rate of 750 MTriangles compared to 600 MTriangles. This means better gaming performance only and should have no affect on the multimedia capabilities outside of gaming. ATI has taken the same R410 core that is found on their X800 XL gaming card and moved it onto the AIW X800 XL product. The AIW X800 XL comes with a separate component video input cable, where the XT version comes with an output block with built-in component video connections along with S-Video output. The bottom line here is that the AIW X800 XT will appeal to hardcore gamers that have a little extra money to spend

 

The real highlights of this card though are found on the multimedia side. With the AIW X800 XL you can watch 125 channels of analog cable TV, listen to stereo FM radio broadcasts, capture and edit your home videos using the video/audio inputs and the included software, record television shows using the Gemstar GUIDE Plus+ software, and output HD content.

 

The AIW X800 XL comes with a few new tricks up its sleeves. First of all, say good bye to the old Philips TV tuner. ATI has opted to use a newer, smaller tuner chip from Microtune named the MT2050 which is hidden beneath a gold cover. The Microtuner card consumes less power and generates less heat. ATI also throws in their Remote Wonder remote control. If you get the XT version of this card, then you get the larger Remote Wonder II remote control which gives you more features including RF technology.

 

ATI gives you just about everything you need to give your PC a real media punch. That is unless you are a HDTV enthusiast; for that you will need to purchase a separate HDTV tuner card. In the box you get an antenna cable for the integrated FM radio tuner, an input connection block used for S-video, composite, and RCA stereo audio inputs, an output connection block which supports S-Video and RCA audio connections, and HDTV connection cable, composite video cable and the S-video cable. AS for the software, ATI includes Pinnacle Studio 9 (ATI Edition), Matchware Mediator 8, muvee Autoproducer, Guide Plus+ and Visual Communicator web.

 

We found the price of the AIW X800 XL to be all over the map, priced at some merchants for $299 while others are selling it for upwards of $400 dollars. For $400 dollars at some merchants you can get the faster X800 XT card which includes the component video/HDTV connection block. So make sure that you shop around to get the best deal. As of the time of this review, the AIW X800 XL is only available in a PCI-Express version. So if your system has an AGP slot, you will need to look at the XT version of this card. The AIW X800 XL is also not MAC compatible.

 

Picture Courtesy of ATI Technologies

Performance

 

 

Designtechnica Test System

Windows XP Professional; Intel LGA 775 3GHz CPU; 1GB Crucial Ballisitx DDR2 533MHz RAM; ATI X800 XL video card; Western Digital 7200RPM SATA 80GB hard drive

Gaming Performance

 

Because the AIW X800 XL uses the same GPU found in the X800 XL gaming card, the performance is nearly identical. We were able to crank the graphics up to 1600×1200 resolutions with at least 2X AA turned on in most games. The card did fine in our Half Life 2 tests at a 1600×1200 resolution with 2X AA on, but really struggled with Doom 3. So you can expect the AIW X800 XL to output playable frame-rates with most of the older games at a high resolution. For most of the newer games like Battlefield 2, you will have to lower the resolution to 1280×1024 to get fast frame rates. The X800 XT still provides better gaming performance as does the Nvidia 7800GTX, so if gaming is your primary concern and you have some cash to burn, you can always buy a gaming card and then add the ATI HDTV Wonder and TV Wonder Elite separately. But really, the All-In-Wonder X800 XL excels as a good multimedia bundle. Click on the performance tab and link found above and below this review for benchmarks.

 

 

Conclusion

 

While the ATI All-In-Wonder X800 XL doesn’t provide anything that is truly revolutionary, it does take an evolutionary step forward