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By:
Jeff Bouton
October 6th, 2003
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Benchmarks / Comparison
With Wolfenstein |
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Continued... |
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It looks as
though the GeForce FX 5600 gets the last word in the
benchmarking arena, beating out the ATi cards altogether at
1600x1200 tests. Regardless of the quality settings in
the drivers, the GeForce FX simply ran better all around,
most particularly with the 4XAA and 4XAA+Anisotropic tests.
Now that the
long wait is over, we have to say that it was worth it.
The new All-In-Wonder 9600 Pro proved to us that it is a
worthy addition to the All-In-Wonder family with new
features and excellent gaming performance for the price.
The value the latest All-In-Wonder brings to the PC is quite
good, with virtually every multimedia function you could ask
for including dual monitor support, a remote control,
DirectX 9 support and the powerful Multimedia Center 8.6
that unlocks all of the card's multimedia functions.
Aside from the
card's excellent features and performance, the overall
bundle that will accompany the All-In-Wonder 9600 Pro is
impressive in its own right. We think that some users
may be disappointed that the Remote Wonder II will not come
standard with the card, however, ATi does give a cheap
upgrade option that should satisfy most. What they may
find more of a let down is the lack of an antennae for the
FM tuner. While the documentation states that you can
hook up your cable if your provider offers FM signal, this
is unlikely in this era of charging for every service.
We think the majority of users ( in the states at least)
will need to either pay for FM service from the cable
company or visit their local electronics shop for an
antennae for the FM tuner. ATi could have included
this and made everyone happy, especially with the money
saved by not including the Remote Wonder II as initially
touted. But then again, they are including Half-Life
2, so it's hard to get too upset at the few shortcomings we
mentioned.
The
All-In-Wonder 9600 pro is slated to hit store shelves
October 6th at an MSRP of $249 and surely there will be
cheaper prices found. Taking into account our overall
impression of the new All-In-Wonder and a few of its
missteps, we still walked away quite pleased with ATi's
latest offering. If you are a budget minded user
looking for a video card that does it all, it's hard to beat
the ATi All-In-Wonder 9600 Pro for value and performance at
the price.
We give the All-In-Wonder 9600 Pro a Hot Hardware Heat Meter
Rating of a 8.5.
There are a ton of folks just like you
in HotHardware's PC Hardware Forum...
Go There Now!
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