opinions kthnx (radeon 8500 DV)

[fdog]

ok, I think I'm getting a new video card, so I want opinions to see what you guys think.

http://www.ati.com/NA/PAGES/PRODUCTS/PC/AIW_RADEON_8500/INDEX.HTML

Thats right, I'm thinking about an all-in-wonder radeon 8500 DV card. I know it doesn't hold a candle to the geforce 3 TI 500's (except for those bogus q3 benchmarks), but as of the last couple of weeks, I've really been fascinated by the idea of being able to do video capture.

I can live with not having the best frames per second in an FPS game (I haven't played any CS except for one lan party this semester where we played op flashpoint/red faction).

This thing will cover 72 fps on all the games I play, and since my monitor can only refresh at 72 Hz, thats all I'd be able to see anyway.

The capablity for firewire seems pretty cool, even though I don't own any firewire digital video products.

Whats the word of the all-in-wonder series for video capture?

I've read mixed reviews, and People that I have talked to in person also have mixed reviews... anyone have one of these things and care to comment on it?

even though the all in wonder series may have its flaws, the tv-tuner functionality paried with nvidia chips totally wreaks.

*drool*

http://65.119.30.151/productimage/14-102-195-02.JPG

 

[rbV5]

My experience with an AIW and now my VIVO, have been great. Perfectly capable of quality work in the right hands. and MMC 7.5 that ships with the 8500dv looks to be a step forward on the software end as well. Honestly, despite the slower ram, the 8500dv seems to bench quite well also. The up coming componet video-out dongle will take the already superior analog video-out of the Rage Theater Chip and step up with the best digital TV video-out solution as well..hard to beat that if your an HTPC guy.

Remember full featured multimedia cards rely heavily on drivers to function properly and despite ATI's perhaps deserved reputation in that department, the AIW and VIVO cards offer superior performance than anything I've come across. The fact is, they work and the features work, and if you can deal with manual driver installations and troubleshooting problems when they crop up, they work damn good for capture.

Also, Gigabyte has announced a VIVO card based on the 8500, clocked at the 275/275 retail, no tuner, but certainly loaded with features that may foot the bill as well. So you may want to hang on for a bit.

 

[*kjm]

I have had mine for a week now and just did my first video editing on it last night. It worked great and looked great! The card is not slow at all, sure not up to 8500 speeds but fast non the less. On my Athon 1.2@1.4 I get 6168 in 3dmark2001 with no tweeks. Many are running the card at 275/205 and not the stock 230/190 and that is quite a performance increase. And all I can say about MMC 7.5 is WOW.... WOW. Anyway it works for me and I'm glade I bought one.

 

[Spikesoldier]

Yeah, not to mention the remote, and the Blend feature with the TV is great! *kjm, where did you get your Radeon 8500DV? I got mine at buy.com

 

[*kjm]

I got it from Gateway, they had free shipping and a $30 coup. so it was $319.00 total for me to my house.

 

[Spikesoldier]

Haha, edged you by a nickel! $318.95 with free shipping - Ever see that one stock brokerage commercial! Hahahaa

"What the - we bought our stock at the same time!"

 

[Spikesoldier]

BTW - I have my Radeon 8500DV Stable at 275/230.

 

[crash2much]

Well............I had to return mine. I really, really wanted it to work well, but no good on my end.
The TV tuner picture quality wasn't just poor, but royally sucked.
My SPF(yes , seconds per frame , games were like watching a slide show) also sucked.
In all fairness, I never tried the video capture features though, and I may have had a couple of strikes against me, One being I was working with win xp(notoriuos for killing fps) the newest Radeon drivers for xp are a 'in the works' thing, and I like playing Tribes 2, which apparent for some unknown reason, doesn't play well with the 8500.
That being said, the reason I tried it( I worked with it for 28 days, the limit for the stores return policy) was because my wife had such wonderful results with her AIW.
Rage3d forum has tons of info if ya haven't already visited them.
Good luck