ATI’s All-in-Wonder X800 XT graphics card

THE PC GRAPHICS market is about as competitive as it comes, with ATI and NVIDIA constantly striving to one-up each other and capture the performance crown at each price point. Given that incredibly competitive environment, it’s odd that ATI’s high-end All-in-Wonder cards haven’t really had much competition. It’s not for a lack of trying on NVIDIA’s part, either. The green team took a stab at the All-in-Wonder market with the Personal Cinema, but its software was way behind ATI’s, and Personal Cinema products were largely confined to low-end parts. The Personal Cinema never really made the jump to the GeForce 6 series, either.

The Personal Cinema’s effective demise has left the All-in-Wonder’s blend of 3D performance, video capture, TV tuning, and remote control capabilities without any real competition. One can always get the same functionality by combining multiple cards and accessories, but the All-in-Wonder is the only card that wraps everything into a tidy and potentially more affordable package.

The latest Radeon to receive the All-in-Wonder treatment is the AIW X800 XT, which melds all the All-in-Wonder’s multimedia capabilities with the Radeon X800 XT’s formidable 3D horsepower. Inexplicably, the All-in-Wonder X800 XT is also less expensive than the Radeon X800 XT, despite the AIW’s laundry list of extra features. That sounds too good to be true; read on to see if it is.

The card
As its name implies, the All-in-Wonder X800 XT is based on ATI’s Radeon X800 XT graphics core. The All-in-Wonder’s R420 graphics chip is identical to that of the Radeon X800 XT, as are its core and memory clock speeds, so 3D performance should on-par with the Radeon. However, unlike the Radeon X800 XT, which is available in AGP and PCI Express flavors, the AIW X800 XT is currently AGP-only. AGP support should make potential upgraders happy, but it’s less than ideal for anyone looking to build a future-proof system from scratch. Unfortunately, ATI’s only PCI Express All-in-Wonder is based on the dated Radeon X600 graphics core.

Although they share the same graphics chip, the All-in-Wonder X800 XT and Radeon X800 XT are very different cards. The All-in-Wonder, for example, comes dressed on a purple board with blingtastic gold trim. ATI graphics cards are normally red, but purple seems to be the new color of choice for the company’s multimedia products. Perhaps members of the multimedia team are Laker fans, or maybe they just like Barney.

Apart from its unique color scheme, the All-in-Wonder card also has a slightly different layout than the Radeon X800 XT. The layout changes are necessary to allow the AIW to accommodate its extra multimedia hardware, including ATI’s Rage Theater 200 video decoder chip.

Just barely visible under the All-in-Wonder’s GPU heat sink, the Theater 200 is responsible for both video decoding and audio processing. The chip features a pair of 12-bit analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), an adaptive 2D comb filter, and support for component, composite, and S-Video input. According to ATI, the chip actually supports high definition input, although the All-in-Wonder X800 XT does not.

The Theater 200 is no stranger to the All-in-Wonder series; it’s been around since the days of the All-in-Wonder 9600 XT, and it’s getting a little long in the tooth. ATI’s latest video decoder chips, such as the Theater 550, feature 3D comb filters and, more importantly, hardware-accelerated MPEG2 encoding. Hardware MPEG2 acceleration allows for high-quality recording with little to no CPU utilization, and is a must-have feature for serious home theater PCs. Hardware MPEG2 encoding is also a requirement of Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system.

Although its use of the Theater 200 video decoder has been consistent across the last few All-in-Wonder products, ATI has changed its, er, tune with respect to tuners. ATI used digital tuners back in the days of the Radeon 8500DV, but switched to analog tuners from Philips for more recent All-in-Wonders. For the AIW X800 XT, ATI has returned to silicon-based digital tuners, which supposedly offer higher quality and quicker tuning. Since the image quality of analog tuners has been good enough for recent All-in-Wonders, it seems likely that ATI made the switch to digital because smaller silicon tuners consume less board real estate.

The All-in-Wonder’s considerable multimedia muscle feeds a bevy of video input and output ports, but the card’s port cluster is pretty sparse. That odd-looking connector on the left handles all the card’s multimedia ports, starting with a splitter that forks to provide cable and FM coaxial inputs, and 10-pin input and output connectors.

Those 10-pin video input and output connectors plug into one of three video dongles included with the card. Input and output dongles are available with composite and S-Video ports, and ATI also includes a component HDTV output dongle for those with high definition displays.

Although you can’t use all three dongles at once, they snap together like Lego, which makes things a little neater. ATI also bundles composite and S-Video cables, and an antenna for the FM radio.

Software and Remote Wonder
To complement its video capture hardware, the All-in-Wonder comes with a video-centric software bundle.

Rather than including games you might never play or demos you can already download for free, the AIW’s software bundle includes copies of Serious Magic Visual Communicator, Matchware Mediator 7, and Pinnacle Studio 9. That should be everything you need for basic video editing and DVD authoring. ATI also includes the latest version of its Multimedia Center software, which we’ll get to in a moment. First, let’s tackle the Remote Wonder II.

The All-in-Wonder X800 XT comes with the same Remote Wonder II that ATI included with the AIW 9600 XT, so it’s hardly a new accessory—not that the Remote Wonder II needs updating. This RF remote doesn’t require line of sight, so it’s much more convenient than standard IR remotes. However, the RF antenna, which plugs directly into a USB port, is much bulkier than that of the original Remote Wonder. The larger antenna does improve range, but it’s a little unsightly.

Mouse control is perhaps the Remote Wonder II’s biggest improvement over the original. While the first Remote Wonder’s mouse controls worked, they weren’t particularly sensitive or accurate. The Remote Wonder II’s mouse mushroom is much improved, allowing users to easily click and drag from the couch.

Cursor control is nice, but the Remote Wonder’s real power is its programmability. Like the original, the Remote Wonder II features six programmable buttons in addition to its array of numeric and playback controls.

ATI’s Remote Wonder software allows users to associate those programmable buttons with application launches, Windows functions, or even arbitrary key combos. While only six buttons are programmable in the driver, the function of the remote’s other buttons can be modified by using different plugins.

The drivers ship with plugins for several popular applications, and others are available for download. ATI has also released a plugin SDK for those who want to roll their own.

By default, the Remote Wonder operates in “PC” mode, but users can assign different plugins to each of the remote’s four AUX buttons. This allows users to quickly switch between plugins, which is great for home theater PC users who want to use one program for video playback, another for DVDs, a third for picture slide shows, and a fourth for MP3 playback.

ATI actually sells the Remote Wonder separately for $50, which makes it a pretty valuable addition to the All-in-Wonder X800 XT’s bundle. PC remotes have become quite common recently, but we’ve yet to see one that even comes close to matching the Remote Wonder’s programmable flexibility.

Multimedia Center
Rather than ship the All-in-Wonder X800 XT with third-party multimedia software, ATI bundles its own Multimedia Center. MMC has been around for what seems like forever, and surprisingly, little seems to have changed over the last year or so.

Multimedia Center wraps DVD, VCD, TV, radio, video playback, and media library functions together, and for casual desktop use, it’s all right. However, I wouldn’t recommend the personal video recorder (PVR) software for anything but occasional recording. MMC needs to launch the TV application, complete with on-screen video and sound, each time it starts a scheduled recording. The software will close the TV app when a recording is completed, but it’s incapable of silently recording programs in the background, which is quite annoying. Silent background recording is a standard feature of PVR apps like BeyondTV and Windows Media Center Edition, so its absence in Multimedia Center borders on inexcusable. Normally, I’d suggest ditching the MMC software in favor of BeyondTV or Media Center Edition, but the All-in-Wonder X800 XT isn’t supported by either.

To ATI’s credit, some of MMC’s recording capabilities are more robust than those of Media Center Edition or BeyondTV. MMC can record directly to AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, or ATI’s own VCR format using a variety of user-configurable recording profiles, while Media Center Edition and BeyondTV are limited to MPEG2 recording. Multimedia Center also allows users to apply pixel shader-accelerated VideoSoap filters in real time to clean up messy video signals.

Despite its lack of silent recording, Multimedia Center’s 10-foot GUI suggests that ATI intends for it to be used with home theater PCs. The EAZYLOOK interface looks great from the couch, and ATI’s insistence on all capitals really makes the name jump off the page.

Unfortunately, EAZYLOOK doesn’t have an integrated program guide. The app is able to pull program titles as you flip through channels, though. This capability makes channel surfing through commercials easier, although we’d prefer to see a fully-functional program guide integrated into the EAZYLOOK interface.

Instead, users have to settle for GemStar’s Guide+ program guide software. Guide+ does a decent job of displaying program guides, but it’s all but impossible to read from the couch. Unfortunately, Guide+ also lacks the ability to record all instances of a given program automatically, regardless of what time or channel it’s on. BeyondTV and Windows Media Center Edition do a much better job of automatically scheduling recordings based on a program’s title, and ATI would do well to have Multimedia Center emulate that capability.

Don’t tell the RIAA, but Multimedia Center can also record and time shift radio broadcasts. When coupled with the AIW X800 XT’s FM tuning capabilities, the radio app is a neat addition to a desktop PC.

Our testing methods
Today we’ll be focusing on the All-in-Wonder X800 XT’s video capture and tuner performance against that of an All-in-Wonder 9600 XT. Although the X800 XT packs considerably more pixel-pushing power, the two cards actually feature the same video decoder chip, and as you’ll see, their capture and tuner performances are well matched. Unfortunately, software incompatibilities prevent us from directly comparing the AIW with a hardware-accelerated MPEG2 card. Hardware MPEG2 cards, including ATI’s own TV Wonder Elite, don’t work with ATI’s Multimedia Center software. The AIW X800 XT’s tuner isn’t supported by Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 or BeyondTV, either.

While today’s focus is on the All-in-Wonder X800 XT’s video capture and tuner performance, don’t forget that the card also has a potent GPU. For more on the card’s 3D performance, see our recent AGP Radeon round-up.

All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged, using the following test system.

Processor	Athlon 64 FX-53 2.4GHz
System bus	HT 16-bit/1GHz downstream
Motherboard	Abit AV8
BIOS revision	VIA K8T800 Pro
North bridge	VIA K8T800 Pro
South bridge	VIA VT8237
Chipset drivers	Hyperion 4.56
Memory size	1GB (2 DIMMs)
Memory type	OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev 2 DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
CAS latency (CL)	2
RAS to CAS delay (tRCD)	2
RAS precharge (tRP)	2
Cycle time (tRAS)	5
Hard drives	Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 NCQ 120GB SATA
Audio	VT8237/ALC658
Audio drivers	Realtek 3.71
Graphics 1	ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 XT 128MB with CATALYST 5.5 drivers
Graphics 2	ATI All-in-Wonder X800 XT 256MB with CATALYST 5.5 drivers
OS	Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS updates	Service Pack 2, DirectX 9.0c

Thanks to OCZ for providing us with memory for our testing. If you’re looking to tweak out your system to the max and maybe overclock it a little, OCZ’s RAM is definitely worth considering.

Also, our test system was powered by OCZ PowerStream power supply units. The PowerStream was one of our Editor’s Choice winners in our latest PSU round-up.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

• ATI Multimedia Center 9.08

The test systems’ Windows desktop was set at 1280×1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests. All of the 3D gaming tests used the highest possible detail image quality settings except where otherwise noted.

All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.

Tuner times
For this test, we timed how long it took each card’s tuner to initialize when starting up and changing channels in Multimedia Center. Timing was done with a stopwatch and repeated five times for each card to ensure consistency. Both cards exhibited a slight hiccup between video initialization and audio synchronization, so we didn’t stop the clock until video and audio were in sync.

The All-in-Wonder X800 XT trails every so slightly here, and given our relatively crude timing methods, we’re inclined to call this one a tie.

Live TV CPU utilization
Our live TV, time-shifting, and recording tests were conducted using ripped DVD playback from an Xbox to ensure a consistent source video. The first two minutes of the Pirates of the Caribbean were used.

Despite its higher price tag and more recent hardware, the AIW X800 XT’s CPU utilization during live TV playback is slightly higher than that of the All-in-Wonder 9600 XT. Of course, the difference is only a little more than 1%, so it’s pretty close.

Time-shifting CPU utilization
Our time-shifting test involved recording one minute of video, jumping playback to the beginning of the recording, and recording an additional minute of video during playback of the first minute.

This one’s pretty much a tie. The AIW X800 XT comes out slightly behind, but only by the slimmest of margins.

Recording CPU utilization
Our MPEG2 recording test used Multimedia Center’s “DVD High” recording profile, which records at 720×480 at 46.74MB/minute.

Again, the All-in-Wonder X800 XT trails the 9600 XT, but by less than 1%. Neither is particularly impressive considering that hardware-accelerated MPEG2 cards manage CPU utilization under 5% with background recording.

MPEG4 recording was done with Multimedia Center’s “Home Theater” recording profile, which records at 640×480 at 23.49MB/minute.

The gap between the AIW X800 XT and 9600 XT narrows with our MPEG4 recording test, indicating that the X800 XT’s substantial advantage in pixel shader power isn’t being effectively utilized.

WMV recording was conducted with Multimedia Center’s “Local Use” profile, which records at 320×240 at 1376kbps. Unfortunately, MMC doesn’t support WMV recording at higher resolutions or quality levels.

The X800 XT finally flexes its muscles in our WMV recording test, but the AIW 9600 XT isn’t far behind. Overall CPU utilization is quite high considering that we’re only recording WMV at 320×240.

Capture quality

To check the All-in-Wonder X800 XT’s capture quality, we grabbed a few frames from recordings of our DVD rip and compared them with those of the AIW 9600 XT. The recordings were done using Multimedia Center’s “DVD high” quality setting. We’ve displayed cropped high quality JPEGs below, but you can click on the images to see a full-size, uncompressed PNG.

Stills from the All-in-Wonder X800 XT’s recordings appear to be slightly brighter than those of the AIW 9600 XT, but otherwise, capture quality is comparable.

Conclusions
When ATI first released the All-in-Wonder X800 XT, the card sold for around $500. Since then, prices have dropped dramatically. The AIW X800 XT is now widely available for less than $400, with at least one reliable online retailer selling the card for $325 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Contrast that with the price of the standard Radeon X800 XT, which sells for about $400 and up, and the All-in-Wonder looks like a phenomenal deal considering its multimedia extras and bundled Remote Wonder II.

Although the AIW X800 XT’s surprisingly low price encourages enthusiasm, we still have several reservations about the product, particularly for home theater PC applications. Our biggest issues are with Multimedia Center, which lacks an EAZYLOOK program guide and silent background recording. The omission of silent background recording borders is inexcusable for a serious home theater PC, and it’s something we’ve griped about in previous All-in-Wonder reviews. An X800 XT might be overkill for most home theater PCs, anyway, especially since the GPU’s impressive pixel pushing-power doesn’t seem to lower CPU utilization dramatically during live TV or video capture. The X800 XT GPU also requires active cooling, and with a noise level of 55 decibels on a nearly silent open test system, this All-in-Wonder’s a little too loud for the living room.

ATI All-in-Wonder X800 XT June 2005

While it’s less than ideal for home theater PCs, the All-in-Wonder X800 XT is an excellent desktop card for those looking to combine proven 3D performance with multimedia and video capture capabilities. The lack of silent background recording is still frustrating, but Multimedia Center’s fine for casual TV viewing and occasional recording. The Remote Wonder II is phenomenal, too, and there’s nothing preventing users from separating it from the All-in-Wonder and using it with a more appropriate home theater PC.

If you’re looking for a high-performance AGP upgrade with multimedia features galore, the All-in-Wonder X800 XT is the best deal around. In fact, the card offers such good value that we’re giving it our Editor’s Choice award. Now, can we have a PCI Express version at the same price, please?