ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro 128 MB 4X AGP Graphics Card

Manufacturer:	ATI Technologies
List price:	~~$209.99~~
Our price:	$260.29 that is -24% off!

ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro 128 MB 4X AGP Graphics Card

Average rating: Stars

Great Graphics - TV Problems

I have been a long time user of ATI products for their excellent 2D performance, multi-monitor support, and very solid 3D performance. I also used to write video card device drivers for hardware companies.

In particular I've been a long time user of the All-In-Wonder products. In the past, ATI has been my first choice. I'm afraid I have to give this one a mixed review. As an upper-middle to lower-high-end graphics card, this card worked well. It is a good deal faster than other 9XXX graphics cards and generally faster then the newer x600 series (but not faster then the more expensive x800 series). The output seems crisp and clean, even at resolutions above 1600x1280.

The card natively outputs DVI video, however, the retail box includes an adaptor for standard VGA monitors. In addition to the main DVI output jack, the card contains separate Input & Output jacks that connect to proprietary ATI break out cables (also included in the retail box) that in turn provide access to s-video, NTSC in/out & sound in/out. There is also a standard coaxial cable TV input jack that can connect to analog cable TV or an antenna.

However there is a serious problem with the TV-tuner application. Namely, the TV viewing and recording software is not compatible with Hyperthreading. As most Intel Processors over 2.5 Ghz or so provide hyperthreading (turned on by default) this is a serious issue.

Hyperthreading allows one physical CPU to appear as two virtual CPU's. Parts of the CPU hardware are duplicated, and other parts are shared between the two virtual processors. The result is increased system responsiveness and approximately 20% gain in speed for multi-threaded applications and games. However, when hyperthreading is turned on (the default), the TV application in all recent versions of the ATI drivers (catalyst 5.2-5.6) will crash. ATI has not acknowledged that this is a current problem and provides no solution. The only workaround at this point is to disable hyperthreading in the computer's BIOS. While this slows down the machine, it makes the TV application perfectly stable again and I recommend it for those who already have an All-In-Wonder 9800 and need to use the video features.

For those who have not yet purchased this card, I cannot recommend it. Instead, look into getting the 9800 Pro (no tuner) and a separate TV-tuner card. The combined cost is just a little more and it will save you many headaches.

ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro 128 MB 4X AGP Graphics Card - ATI Technologies

SAVE YOUR MONEY

First off, the people that rated this card with 3 or more stars obviously have not used this card. Their reviews are a textbook review I have seen on many websites.

Secondly, before I bought this card I doubted reviews saying, I never have a bad experience with drivers, so I bought it. It was fine for 2 weeks, I got the most "updated" drivers and my games (Doom 3, GTA Vice City, NFS: Underground, and many more worked great). Then the troubles began; my computer would freeze every 45 minutes or so, depending on how much load was on the card itself. So, TV watching was limited, gaming was out of the question, but DVDs actually played without the card quitting on me.

Also free phone support is limited to 30 days after you buy it. Well, since I bought it from a private seller on Amazon who didn't get me the card until 31 days after I paid for it, the FREE phone support was useless.

I knew I wasn't going to pay the 2.99 or 3.99 a minute charges for help, because they would just give me answers to general problems from a list that they have in front of them. Also, going to the website for help is pointless too. E-mailing ATI for support only gives you a response of (once again) general problems with certain situations that have nothing to do with your problems.

I will only give this video card one good mark. The input connector for connecting a VCR to show VHS tapes on your monitor is great with no quality loss at all, the tv quality was pretty decent, and the one touch recording for tv programs was easy as well. I actually programmed the remote control so that I could even turn off my computer from my bed after watching tv or a dvd, just to make me that much lazier. For the people who gripe about having to update the tv listings every week, don't you get tv listings in the paper every Sunday? Enough said.

Lastly, I broke down and bougt an ATI(I'm not against ATI, just the AIW 9800 pro)9550 AGP 256mb video card and a TV wonder pro that came with the video imput device so I still can watch VHS tapes on my computer. Those 2 items were cheaper than what I paid form the AIW and after leaving my computer running all day and watchng tv and doing the normal stuff I do on my computer, I have had no problems at all. Save your money and just buy the 2 cards separetely.

Have a nice day!

ATI Technologies - ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro 128 MB 4X AGP Graphics Card

Not the best option

If you want a real PVR option, don't buy this card. Buy the video card and TV card separately. I've had an AIW card for a year and wish I had spent a few extra bucks 11 months ago.

Don't get me wrong. I have another computer equipped with a 9800 Pro without the AIW features. It's an excellent card. I'm still using the AIW card in this machine, but only as a video card, not as a TV tuner...and it works just fine.

The idea behind a video capture card is that you can pause, rewind and record live TV. By far the best way to do this is to buy a separate video capture card with hardware encoding. This way, the card converts the video signal into a format that can be saved on your hard drive (mpeg2).

Otherwise, your CPU must do the work. That's what ATI All-in-Wonder cards do. While ATI makes great video cards, integrated cards like the AIW cards rely on the CPU to do all the dirty work.

Video is somewhat jerky when you have TIVO capabilities enabled (pause/rewind live TV). You'll notice it especially when watching sports -- because the card drops frames due to the heavy CPU load.

Their TV software is pretty decent -- and actually has some pretty great features.

But their guide software (Guide Plus+) leaves much to be desired. You have to manually iniate guide updates and it only downloads the guide a week at a time -- so you have to remember to update the guide. Other available packages download the guide automatically, daily, and two weeks at a time.

I have an AMD Athlon 2600 CPU with 512 MB of RAM and two 80GB hard drives and I still encountered all these problems. I spent a year trying to get better performance and finally broke down and bought a card with hardware encoding (the Avermedia UltraTV 1500 MCE). I now have two 1500 MCE cards installed in the same machine...and the performance is still much better than the single AIW card. I can record one show and watch another, or record two shows. Still, pause/rewind live TV works flawlessly.

The picture is better, the sound is better, TIVO capabilities work without compromising system performance or dropping frames. I started using Snapstream BeyondTV software to view and record shows and I couldn't be happier.

In short, spend an extra $20 and skip the video/TV tuner combo cards and you'll be much happier in the long run.

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