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| Introduction, Specifications & Bundle | |||||||
It has only been about six weeks since ATI officially unveiled their new Radeon X1K family of products, but the Canadian based graphics giant is already introducing a new addition to the line-up today. It probably comes as no surprise to many of you that, in parrallel with their X1K family of products launch, engineers at ATI were also hard at work on a brand new "All-In-Wonder" featuring one of the company's new GPUs. The culmination of their efforts is the new All-In-Wonder X1800 XL, pictured below. This card has all of the same features as the "standard" Radeon X1800 XL, including a 16-pipeline, SM 3.0 class GPU clocked at 500MHz and 256MB of high-speed GDDR3 frame buffer memory. But in addition to the features offered by ATI's relatively new GPU, the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL also sports all of the multimedia functionality that the All-In-Wonder line of products is known for. We were recently given the opportunity to evaluate the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL and will present our findings on the following pages. Read on and feast your eyes on arguably the most feature-rich video card created to date.
Unfortunately, we did not receive a "retail-ready" All-In-Wonder X1800 XL for evaluation, so we cannot show you exactly what will be included in the retail bundle. What we have pictured for you below, however, are all of the cables and dongles that will be included with the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL.
The "domino" style, stackable input-output dongles that ATI recently introduced to the All-In-Wonder line of products make a return appearance here, along with a another custom dongle that houses a standard analog-DB15 monitor connector and a couple of additional connectors for the "domino" blocks. Also pictured above are an S-Video cable, a standard composite video cable, and a simple di-pole FM antenna. A couple of other items were included with our sample as well, like a Remote Wonder Plus and obviously the card itself, but we'll show you those items a little later on. The full list of items that will be bundled with the All-In-Wonder Radeon X1800 XL include:
If you're familiar with some of the other products in ATI's All-In-Wonder line-up, you may notice a big change with the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL's software bundle. In lieu of Pinnacle Studio, which has been bundled with All-In-Wonder cards for the last couple of years, ATI is now including full versions of Adobe Premiere Elements 2 and Photoshop Elements 4. This is a big change, for the better in our opinion. Adobe's image and video editing products are among the best available for the PC. |
| Inspecting the AIW X1800 XL | ||||
With the exception of the gold shielding over the silicon tuner and the various outputs on the card's backplane, the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL looks very much like the standard Radeon X1800 XL introduced early last month. Both versions of the card feature Volterra's multi-phase voltage regulator underneath a thin, red, aluminum heatsink at the far end of the PCB, and they have the same single-slot, variable-speed cooling apparatus as well.
The Radeon X1800 XL GPU at the heart of the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL is manufactured using TSMC's .09 micron process and is composed of roughly 321 million transistors. The GPU features ATI's new "Ultra-Threaded architecture" with Shader Model 3.0 support, AVIVO, and fast dynamic branching. As we mentioned earlier, the Radeon X1800 XL GPU has 16-pixel shader processors, but it also has 8-vertex shader processors, and is equipped with a 256-bit, 8-channel memory interface. The card's core is clocked at 500MHz and its 256MB of GDDR3 memory is clocked a 1GHz. At these clock speeds, a large-single slot cooler is sufficient to keep core and memory temperatures in check.
Unlike the standard Radeon X1800 XL though, the All-In-Wonder version sports a purple PCB with gold and red accents. The All-In-Wonder X1800 XL also differs from the standard version of the card in that it has only a one dual-link DVI output, along with F-Type FM and TV inputs, and a custom dongle connector on its backplane. The All-In-Wonder X1800 XL does have a second monitor output for multi-monitor support as well, but it is situated on a separate dongle and not on the card itself.
An integral component of the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL is the Microtune IC 2121; a small chip situated underneath the gold shielding at the upper-corner of the card. The Microtune IC 2121 gives the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL its TV and FM tuning capabilities. ATI switched to a silicon tuner a while back to reduce power consumption and free-up precious PCB real estate. The Microtune IC 2121 has much lower power requirements when compared to the older, and much larger, "tin-can" tuners found on early All-In-Wonder cards. ATI claims the Microtune 2121 reduces power consumption by up to 11% over previous AIW products, with the tuner consuming only 1.5 watts of power. Working in conjunction with the Microtune 2121 tuner is ATI's own Theater 200 chip. The Theater 200 sports dual 12-bit ADCs (Analog to Digital Converters), and handles all of the signal conversions from the card's TV/FM tuner and various inputs. During the conversion process from an analog to a digital signal, the signal is passed through a 2D comb filter in the Theater 200 chip, and a video downscaler optimizes the output for your screen. The Theater 200 is also responsible for demodulating and decoding audio streams into separate left and right channels. |
| Multimedia Center & Remote Wonder | |||||||||||||||
Like previous products in ATI's All-In-Wonder line-up, the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL's multimedia features are accessed using the company's Multimedia Center software suite. To evaluate the All-In-Wonder Radeon X1800 XL, we installed version 9.10 of Multimedia Center, which was included on our installation CD. Multimedia Center incorporates the applications necessary to access all of the card's various multimedia features.
TV Tuning: The tuner app also has Multiview capabilities that give users the ability to display two separate channels simultaneously, should a second ATI-based TV tuner card be installed in the system. One thing we noticed while working with the AIW X1800 XL, is that tuning TV channels takes a bit longer than it would on previous AIW cards that used the larger Philips tuner. We experienced the same type of delays with the AIW X800 XT and X800 XL as well. Just like the other AIW cards that are equipped with the newer Microtune silicon tuner, the AIW X1800 XL, took a second or two to lock-into a channel. FM Tuning: Other Creature Comforts:
A major component of the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL's accessory bundle is the Remote Wonder Plus. This is the third revision to ATI's Remote Wonder, and definitely the best in our opinion. The Remote Wonder Plus is much smaller than the original Remote Wonder and Remote Wonder II, but all function in a similar manor. The Remote Wonder Plus features a multitude of customizable buttons to control various applications, at a range of up to 60 feet.
The stand-out feature on the Remote Wonder Plus is its mouse control knob. Using it takes a bit of getting used to if you've only worked with standard mice, but after working with the Remote Wonder Plus for only a few minutes, we were very comfortable using it to perform some basic tasks on the system, like launching / closing applications or stepping through songs in the CD player. Configuring the Remote Wonder Plus is very simple, thanks to ATI's easy to use programming software. Assigning functions to each of the remote's customizable buttons is as easy as selecting an item from a drop-down menu. And for more extensive programming, users can install plug-ins for many popular applications as well. ATI ships the Remote Wonder Plus pre-configured to work with their Multimedia Center software and includes plug-ins for Guide+, PowerPoint and WinAMP. However, a multitude of other plug-ins are available from numerous third-party sources as well. |
| More Software: Adobe Applications & Guide+ | ||||
As we mentioned earlier, we did not receive a retail-ready All-In-Wonder X1800 XL for evaluation, so we were unable to test the new Adobe applications being bundled with the card. Starting with the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL, ATI will no longer be bundling Pinnacle Studio with their All-In-Wonders. Instead, users will get full versions of Adobe's Photoshop Elements 4 and Premiere Elements 2.
We hit Abode's website and pulled together some screenshots to give you all a glimpse of the Adobe applications that will be included with the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL. Basically, Photoshop Elements 4 and Premiere Elements 2 are "lite" versions of Adobe's very powerful Photoshop CS and Premiere Pro applications. Photoshop Elements 4 is an image editing and creation applications, and Premiere Elements 2 is for video editing and authoring. While these versions may not feature all of the tools incorporated into the professional versions of these applications, Photoshop Elements 4 and Premiere Elements 2 should by no means be considered limited. They both incorporate the most commonly used features found in Photoshop CS and Premiere Pro. They simply lack some of the more powerful features geared for professional users.
The last of the applications included with the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL we'll be showing you is Gemstar's Guide+. This application has been bundled with ATI's All-In-Wonder products for quite some time, and adds a lot of value to the product. Guide+ essentially acts like a digital TV-Guide, and presents users with a comprehensive list of programming specific to the user's locale. Upon installation, users have to input their zip code, and then select their cable provider from a list. Then a few moments later, after downloading the appropriate listings, a visual representation is available on-screen. Simply click on a listing to view it, or even schedule it to be recorded. The listings are also fully searchable by category, title, or even actor. Guide+ is very easy to use, and is a perfect compliment to the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL. And perhaps best of all, there is no subscription fee for All-In-Wonder owners and updates are free. |
| Our Test System & HQV | ||||||||||||
HOW WE CONFIGURED THE TEST SYSTEM: We tested our NVIDIA based cards on an Asus A8N32-SLI nForce 4 SLIX16 chipset based motherboard, powered by an AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 processor and 1GB of low-latency Corsair XMS RAM. However, the ATI based cards were tested on an ATI reference Radeon Xpress 200 motherboard, but with the same processor and RAM. The first thing we did when configuring these test systems was enter each BIOS and load the "High Performance Defaults." The hard drive was then formatted, and Windows XP Professional with SP2 was installed. When the installation was complete, we installed the latest chipset drivers available, installed all of the other necessary drivers for the rest of our components, and removed Windows Messenger from the system. Auto-Updating and System Restore were also disabled, the hard drive was defragmented, and a 768MB permanent page file was created on the same partition as the Windows installation. Lastly, we set Windows XP's Visual Effects to "best performance," installed all of the benchmarking software, and ran the tests.
For our first test, we used the HQV DVD video benchmark from Silicon Optics. HQV is comprised of a sampling of video clips and test patterns that have been specifically designed to evaluate a variety of interlaced video signal processing tasks, including decoding, de-interlacing, motion correction, noise reduction, film cadence detection, and detail enhancement. As each clip is played, the viewer is required to "score" the image based on a predetermined set of criteria. The numbers listed below are the sum of the scores for each section. We played the HQV DVD using the latest version of NVIDIA's PureVideo Decoder on the GeForce 7800 GT, and as recommended by ATI, we played the DVD on the ATI All-In-Wonder X1800 XL using Intervideo's WinDVD 7 Platinum, with hardware acceleration enabled.
Both of the cards we tested performed similarly in the HQV video benchmark. The NVIDIA powered XFX GeForce 7800 GT pulled ahead by only 5 points, thanks to its better performance in one of the film cadence tests. What's interesting to note is that the GeForce 7800 GT technically doesn't have support for 3:2:3:2:2 cadence detection, but it was definitely enhancing the images during that test. |
| CPU Utilization: WMV HD Content | ||||||||||||||
Windows Media Video 9 Acceleration: Microsoft's Windows Media Video 9 (WMV9) HD format was accepted by the SMPTE HD-DVD consortium as a new HD format. The Windows Movie Maker software, which comes bundled with Windows XP, makes it easy for consumers to edit and save their favorite videos. These videos are saved in the .WMV format. Most of today's high-end GPUs include dedicated hardware to accelerate the playback of WMV and WMV-HD content for fluid full frame rate video even on systems with entry-to mid level CPUs. Previous generations of GPUs were not able to support WMV9 decode acceleration, so often times HD WMV9 content would drop frames when being played back on legacy hardware.
To document CPU utilization when playing back WMV HD content, we used the performance monitor built into Windows XP. Using the data provided by performance monitor, we created a log file that sampled the percent of CPU utilization every second, while playing back the 1080p versions of the "MP10 Digital Life" and "The Rules of Attraction" videos available on Microsoft's WMVHD site. The data was then imported into Excel to create the graphs below. The graphs shows the CPU utilization for a GeForce 7800 GT and the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL using Windows Media Player 10, patched using the DXVA update posted on Microsoft's web site (Update Available Here).
While playing the "MP10 Digital Life" video, both cards used a similar amount of CPU resources, with a slight edge going to the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL. The scale titled in favor of the GeForce 7800 GT, however, when playing back the "Rules of Attraction" trailer. Notice the excessive peaks and valleys when using the 7800 GT, though. This video has portions of high-speed action, mixed in with some blank black frames and multiple video boxes. The All-In-Wonder seemed the maintain a similar level of CPU utilization throughout, while the 7800 GT used much more, or much fewer CPU resources depending on the type of video. And it seems the Radeon and GeForce each offloaded portions of the video differently, as is evident by their opposing nature of the peaks and valleys in the graph. |
| 3DMark05 & Splinter Cell | ||||||||||||
The All-In-Wonder X1800 XL and XFX GeForce 7800 GT were evenly matched in the default 3DMark05 benchmark. Less than 30 points separated the two cards, a difference of less than 1%. Needless to say, a difference that small falls well within the margin of error in this test.
Both cards also performed similarly in the Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory benchmark. Without any additional pixel processing enabled, the XFX GeForce 7800 GT finished well ahead of the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL, but with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled, performance between the two cards was very close. At the lower resolution, the GeForce had an approximate 2.5 FPS lead that shrunk to just over 1 frame per second once we raised the resolution to 1600x1200. Had the XFX GeForce 7800 GT been clocked at NVIDIA's reference specs, this test would likely have gone in ATI's favor. |
| FarCry v1.33 | ||||||
Neither card had any trouble with our custom FarCry benchmark. While running this game, the XFX GeForce 7800 GT had a clear advantage when anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering were disabled, beating the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL by about 12 and 19 frames per second depending on the resolution. However, with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled the two cards are much more evenly matched. With AA and aniso enabled, the GeForce 7800 GT was slightly faster than the Radeon at the lower resolution, but the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL pulled ahead slightly when we cranked the resolution up to 1600x1200. |
| Half Life 2 | ||||||
The All-In-Wonder X1800 XL was able to outrun the XFX GeForce 7800 GT in every test configuration but one using our custom Half Life 2 benchmark. Both cards had no trouble tearing through this game though. As good as Half Life 2 looks, its simply no match for today's high-end graphics processors. We'll likely be updating our Half Life two tests with a custom demo from the "Lost Coast" level, which employs HDR (High Dynamic Range) rendering, though. With HDR enabled on a supporting level, Half Life 2 is far more taxing. As it stands now, the XFX GeForce 7800 GT pulled ahead of the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL in only one test configuration - 1600x1200 with 4X anti-aliasing and 16X anisotropic filtering enabled. The performance deltas in this test were relatively small, however. |
| Doom 3 | ||||||
Although the latest set of Catalyst drivers gave the Radeon X1K family of products a nice boost in performance when running OpenGL applications with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled, the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL wasn't able to keep up with the XFX GeForce 7800 GT in our custom Doom 3 benchmark. in this test, the XFX card held onto significant performance leads at both resolutions, regardless of whether or not any additional pixel processing was used. We suspect ATI still has a few tricks up their sleeves to bring even more performance to the X1K family in the future, but currently NVIDIA still has a distinct advantage here. Perhaps this will change in the future, but ATI still has a lot of ground to make up. Time will tell. |
| F.E.A.R. v1.02 | ||||||
F.E.A.R. was yet another game where the XFX GeForce 7800 GT outperformed the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL when no additional pixel processing was used, but with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled, its a totally different story. With AA and anisostropic filtering disabled, the XFX GeForce 7800 GT posted framerates 12 and 9 frames per second higher than the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL depending on the resolution. With anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled though, the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL had an edge. At 1280x960, the AIW X1800 XL was 7 frames per second faster then the 7800 GT, and at 1600x1200 the two cards put up the exact same average framerate. This is yet another game where the pre-overclocked nature of the XFX GeForce 7800 GT helps its performance. Had the XFX card been clocked at NVIDIA's reference specifications, the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL's performance would look somewhat better in comparison. |
| Quake 4 | ||||||
The XFX GeForce 7800 GT smoked the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL in our custom Quake 4 benchmark. In this test, the XFX GeForce 7800 GT had a significant performance advantage at both resolutions, regardless of whether or not anti-aliasing was enabled. The performance deltas separating the two cards were much larger in the default tests, but even with AA and aniso enabled the XFX GeForce 7800 GT was between 21% and 25% faster than the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL. |
| Our Summary & Conclusion | ||||
Performance Summary: The All-In-Wonder X1800 XL performed well throughout our entire battery of benchmarks. When no additional pixel processing was used, the XFX GeForce 7800 GT we tested as a reference point had superior performance in the majority of the tests, but the two cards were much more evenly matched when anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering were used. When AA and aniso were enabled simultaneously, the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL and XFX GeForce 7800 GT put up similar numbers, with the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL performing better in the Direct3D tests and the GeForce excelling in the OpenGL tests.
We couldn't help but be impressed by the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL. ATI has taken the already powerful Radeon X1800 XL and equipped it with all of the multimedia functionality that has made their All-In-Wonder product line a success over the years. The card's performance in many of today's popular games may not have overwhelmed its main competition, the GeForce 7800 GT, but performance with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering was nonetheless very good. Even though there are more powerful graphics cards out there from a pure gaming standpoint, the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL is unmatched in terms of overall features. Simply put, this card can run any game you throw at it with more than acceptable framerates, while offering an unsurpassed assortment of multimedia, TV and video functionality as well. The All-In-Wonder X1800 XL is arguably the most feature-rich video card produced to date. Couple that with the new software bundle what includes some popular applications form Adobe and Gemstar's Guide+, and ATI has an obvious success on their hands. Further sweetening the deal is the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL's MSRP of $429. This card isn't cheap by any measure of the word, but it's only marginally more expensive than the standard Radeon X1800 XL that debuted with an MSRP of $449 only five short weeks ago. ATI also claims that cards will be shipping to retailers today, so hopefully we'll see prices drop below MSRP relatively quickly, as they did with the standard Radeon X1800 XL. We really liked the All-In-Wonder X1800 XL and are giving it a 9 on the Heat Meter.
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