X800XT AIW

[Sphexi]

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-492&depa=0

What's the general consensus on these cards? Traditionally, the AIW cards have been slightly lower end than their straight non-AIW brothers and sisters. I'm currently running a BBA 9800PRO 128MB, which gives me decent performance, but I'm finding it starting to lack a bit as I get more and more into higher-end gaming like HL2, FarCry, things like that.

That, and I'd love to have the AIW built in, I've wanted one for a while, but not without sacrificing the raw power or a real gaming card. Newegg doesn't seem to have any reviews on it yet, and although I'm assuming it performs the same as other X800XT cards, I'd love to get some real feedback from real users.

 

[SynthDude2001]

I think it would be cool if they'd do an AIW with an HDTV tuner...but then again, I upgrade my video card a lot more than I'd likely upgrade a TV tuner/capture card anyway....

 

[mwmorph]

i think they made it so that aiw cards are now just as fast as now aiw cards.

 

[rbV5]

That, and I'd love to have the AIW built in, I've wanted one for a while, but not without sacrificing the raw power or a real gaming card.

There were only a couple AIW models clocked slower than the non-AIW counterpart...MOST of them are clocked exactly the same.

The AIW X800XT looks awesome. Its the nicest "looking" AGP card IMO, and it now has dual head and FM tuner as well. It is also already below MSRP at Newegg, making at value over a standard X800XT considering the feature set.

I'd love to have one in my rig.

 

[Genx87]

AIW's are cute but honestly the next time I buy a tuner\capture card it will be a stand alone.

The drivers and clunky software has been kind of a turn off. Video apture quality hasnt been that impressive either.

 

[Sphexi]

Well, it was on sale for $479 the other day from Newegg, which got me interested in it. I might wait for it to go back on sale and get it, then tell my fiance to make it an early birthday present for me

 

[Sphexi]

I should have it in my hands by noon tomorrow ...so yay!

 

[JBT]

That looks like a great card for the price. I perfer separate TV tuner cards but AIW's arn't bad. You would think they would have put dual DVI on something like that though...

 

[Sphexi]

Doesn't look like they had room on the back for it, although the amount of in/out cables that come with it is phenomenal. Full HD output too, put it to a large monitor and you have a decent HD signal.

 

[Sphexi]

My god, this thing is so beautiful...I have EVERYTHING turned up all the way, and I'm pulling 85fps in CSS...why did I wait so long to upgrade from my 9800?

 

[StumbleBum1]

Wow!! $479 shipped

 

[Williama1018]

Actually, the AIW cards are the same as the non-AIW cards since the 9800. I've ordered the X800 and will let ya guys know how well it stacks up.

 

[Sphexi]

I can tell ya right now it's fantastic. I had to play with my system a bit to get it up there, but in 3DMark2001 I'm pulling about 20,500 and in 3DMark2005 I'm pulling about 5500, which seems to be consistent with setups like mine with an X800 card. Compared to my 9800PRO it's leagues beyond though, with everything turned on in CSS I was pulling 115fps last night, never dropped below 80, before I had everything turned down and it would drop to 30fps a lot.

 

[ScrewFace]

ATI had a nasty habit of lowering core and memory clocks on their AiW products as compared to the plain vanilla ones. But, ATI got smart and that stopped with the introduction of the AiW Radeon 9700 Pro which was the 1st AiW card clocked (325/310) the same as a regular Radeon 9700 Pro. So, don't worry. Be happy.

 

[Sphexi]

Oh I am. My only complaint is that I get poor FM reception in my house, so I ran a cable from the FM coax lead up to a larger VU-90 Radioshack antenna I happen to have setup in my attic for such things ...picks up crystal clear now.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: ScrewFace
ATI had a nasty habit of lowering core and memory clocks on their AiW products as compared to the plain vanilla ones. But, ATI got smart and that stopped with the introduction of the AiW Radeon 9700 Pro which was the 1st AiW card clocked (325/310) the same as a regular Radeon 9700 Pro. So, don't worry. Be happy.

I don't know about the clockspeed of the Rage models, but the original AIW Radeon was clocked at the same 166/166 MHz of the Standard Radeon 32 DDR. Of ALL the AIW Radeons, I can recall only 2 models that were clocked lower than a standard Radeon, The AIW7500 and 8500DV.

 

[Sphexi]

I wasn't necessarily talking about clock speeds, more of an overall quality issue I was worried about. I've always heard that the drivers for the AIW setups were always a bit sketchy, and that they seemed to be a bit lower quality than their non-AIW versions.

So far I've seen nothing like that with my X800 though, and my 3DMark scores are just as good as comparable systems.

 

[Sphexi]

Well, like I suspected, ATI's AIW drivers are still flakey as all hell. Not only are they kinda lame as far as the look and operation of the programs (Loading Guide+ listings while you have the TV up already causes all sorts of issues), but no matter what I do when I use the TV/PVR function there's a 50/50 chance of it locking up, to the point where the Task Manager is unable to kill it. I have to do a full reset of the system to get it back. I figured out that the ATI Multimedia Center is somehow calling on Explorer.exe for something, which is why it won't close, and once I reset those I can close it, but still can't run it again until I do a full reset.

Very disappointing, but somehow not surprising. I suppose my next step is to contact ATI about it, then try the older 1.2 drivers and see if those work better. After that I guess I could always try a clean install on a new XP setup, but I really don't think that I should have to go that far just to get some supposedly simple software to work.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: Genx87
AIW's are cute but honestly the next time I buy a tuner\capture card it will be a stand alone.

The drivers and clunky software has been kind of a turn off. Video apture quality hasnt been that impressive either.

Dont say I didnt warn you

As far as locking my system up. That hasnt ever happened but I have had a load and a half of their WDM driver failing to load when it is called. This requires a reboot if I want it to work. If this doesnt work then I cant get anything on the AIW to function.

 

[Sphexi]

It works great when it works, I'm just trying to narrow down what's causing it to lock up. I'm running MMC 9.03 right now, the newest seems to be 9.06, so I'm gonna try that and see what happens.

 

[RollWave]

how does this TV stuff work with cable? You plug your cable from your wall into the card and then from the card to the tv?

Does your computer have to be on then to get cable going to the tv?

 

[fstime]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-492&depa=0

What's the general consensus on these cards? Traditionally, the AIW cards have been slightly lower end than their straight non-AIW brothers and sisters. I'm currently running a BBA 9800PRO 128MB, which gives me decent performance, but I'm finding it starting to lack a bit as I get more and more into higher-end gaming like HL2, FarCry, things like that.

That, and I'd love to have the AIW built in, I've wanted one for a while, but not without sacrificing the raw power or a real gaming card. Newegg doesn't seem to have any reviews on it yet, and although I'm assuming it performs the same as other X800XT cards, I'd love to get some real feedback from real users.

Great card, its a little faster than a 6800ultra, kind of how the 6800GT is a little faster than the x800xl. Nothing major.

 

[RollWave]

I'm scared of these lockups, hopefully I dont have any issues with my card once I get it. I'm new to the whole tv capture thing.

 

[imverygifted]

shameless plug, im selling one on the forum new sealed:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=45&threadid=1505457