A Brief History of ATI’s All-In-Wonder Cards…

For years, ATI has made several attempts in integrating the multimedia / 3D capabilities of its existing graphics cards along with the capabilities of a TV-tuner card thus giving birth to the All-In-Wonder Rage and Rage Pro cards. The AIW had TV tuning capabilities, Video-In / Video Out (VIVO) features, and had the ability to capture video from any source. Although bold and innovative, ATI AIW cards have failed to satisfy the needs of a diehard gamer. The video and TV qualities came at the cost of 3D performance and gamers had to sacrifice an extra AGP slot leaving their 3D cards nowhere to go but PCI, which just wasn’t quite worth the cost (AIW cards usually came at a price of over $250). The previous AIWs were excellent for TV functions, video editing, and running 2D applications, but for those who wanted both TV features and 3D gaming all in one card, it was an “All in Blunder.”

Introducing the All-In-Wonder RADEON

Learning from their previous mistakes, ATI has integrated their hot new RADEON 3D graphics processing technology onto their All-In-Wonder cards creating a true multimedia monster. The processing capabilities of the Radeon has proven itself to be a contender against the giants out there such as 3dfx’s Voodoo 5 5000 and Nvidia’s line of GeForce 2 cards. But looking past its 3D processing power for the moment, the AIW Radeon has lots of other features that make it stand out from the other conventional videocards. For instance, the AIW Radeon comes equipped for both input and output of nearly any type of signal, including S-Video and coaxial. This means that you can play your PC games or emulated Neo Geo games right onto your TV! Just imagine playing Metal Slug X on a 61-inch screen… I’ve tried it and it looks awesome! Also, with the Video In feature, you can easily connect your PSX or Dreamcast and play it on your PC monitor at hi-resolution! Although the quality doesn’t seem to match up with Sega’s VGA box, it is an adequate alternative to buying an extra TV for your room. Heck, the AIW turns your PC into an actual TV!

Before we go any further, here’s a little chart comparing the Radeon to the GeForce 2 GTS! Notice that it features the new environmental bump-mapping and full 3D texture support. This means that the graphics look a lot more realistic and displayed more efficiently without the loss of quality.

Chipset	RADEON	Geforce2 GTS	2x VSA-100
Geometry Features
2^nd Generation TCL engine	YES	YES	NO
Vertex Skinning	Up to 4 Matrices	Up to 2 Matrices	NO
Keyframe Interpolation	YES	NO	NO
3D Rendering Features
Multi Texturing Fill Rate	> 1Gigatexel/sec	> 1Gigatexel/sec	0.66Gigatexel/sec
Number of Texture Units per pipeline	3	2	1
3D Textures	YES	NO	NO
Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA)	YES	YES	YES
Support for all 3 types of DirectX bump mapping	YES -Embossed, Dot Product 3 & Environment	NO Embossed and Dot Product 3 only	NO
Environment Mapping	-Cubic Environment -Dual Paraboloid	-Cubic Environment	Not Supported
DXTC	YES	YES	YES
Shadow Mapping (priority buffer)	Accelerated with P-buffer hardware support	Software only implementation	Software only implementation
General Features
Integrated TMDS	YES	YES	NO
Hyper-Z technology	YES	NO	NO
YprPb Outputs (Component Video)	YES	NO	NO
Video Features
Motion Compensation (Hardware Accelerated)	Yes	Yes	NO
IDCT (Hardware Accelerated)	Yes	NO	NO
TV-OUT	Yes	Yes	NO

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