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All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro Review

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wonder-if-it's-worth-it dept.

VL writes "From synthetic, to real-world game benchmarks. TV capture, DVD playback, and 2D/3D image quality... we covered all the bases with a review of All in Wonder 9600 Pro."

10 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Odd by Soporific · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Aren't there a million sites out there that do hardware reviews? Or is it a slow newsday?

    ~S

  2. Linux drivers? by eddy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do they test the linux drivers, or is this another one of those "there exists only one platform, and it's name is 3DMark"-reviews?

    --
    Belief is the currency of delusion.
    1. Re:Linux drivers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      AKA as "The only real skill we have is installing hardware and clicking on the 3DMark 2003 icon"-reviewers.

      The world is full of them. The only decent sites seems to be The Tech Report and Ars Technica who actually try to test the gear on something other than WindowsXP.

    2. Re:Linux drivers? by The+One+KEA · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You make a valid point -- so far no review of modern video cards that I have ever been able to find has benchmarked the card on a Linux platform. Unfortunately, there are multiple valid reasons why they don't, the main ones being that the Linux drivers are still a little too involved to set up easily; the lack of game-independent benchmarks for Linux that work in a GUI; and finally, probably their belief that no one games on Linux anyway.

      Except for the id fans; thanks to teh Carmack, every single game they've written since Doom has been ported to Linux either during development or after the source code was GPLed. If ATi and NVIDIA (or even XGI) would clean up their drivers and work with either UnitedLinux, the LSB or the distro makers like SuSE and Mandrake to improve the installability of the driver for Linux n00bs, the benchmark companies might begin releasing game-independent benchmark ports like 3DMark and Aquamark, and companies would be encouraged to port to Linux or make their source code available to folks who will (like icculus).

      --
      SCREW THE ADS! http://adblock.mozdev.org/ Proud user of teh Fox of Fire - Registered Linux User #289618
  3. Down already... by Tet · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So you thought you'd submit a story to Slashdot to get some visitors to your site. Well done. Yes, it's a cheap way to get some publicity for a vaguely tech related site. But didn't it occur to you to ensure it could survive the slashdotting before you submitted the story?

    --
    "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
    1. Re:Down already... by Grant29 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, I think your right. Anyways, why not go to Rage 3D? They are an ATI dedicated site. They have very active forums there for user-to-user support.

  4. This card has been out for quite a while by DaveCBio · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What's so special about this review?

  5. Re:More than games. by The+One+KEA · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Indeed. Unfortunately, it's a chicken-and-egg problem: the game companies won't release Linux games because there isn't enough marketshare, but since there's no Linux games no one tries to game under Linux, so the game companies won't release Linux games....

    Honestly, I don't know how well-supported the AIW cards are by the ATi Linux drivers -- and such support won't appear until enough people get together and make ATi aware of the fact that people want this functionality.

    Hopefully, sooner or later someone will actually write a review on how easily the latest & greatest video hardware can be installed on the major distros and how fast they are -- this is a biggie because the toolchain and options used to compile the X server, the kernel, the drivers and the libraries make a BIG difference. Fortunately, games like UT2K3 do run under Linux AND they have integrated benchmarking capabilities. So the review wouldn't be totally bereft of benchmarks.

    --
    SCREW THE ADS! http://adblock.mozdev.org/ Proud user of teh Fox of Fire - Registered Linux User #289618
  6. May I make a suggestion - Radeon 9800 non-pro. by shadowlight1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I had an AllinWonder Pro way back in the day. Used it to sample in some digital video and back up some of my VHS tapes to HD. Drivers sucked. When I got Windows 2000, it totally broke. Since then, I've avoided the whole thing by getting a digital camera with USB drivers. Much more flexible anyways, and you can plug in external sources into the dv camera and I'm back where I was with the AllinWonder.

    So here's my video card suggestion: Forget the 9600 AiW and go straight to a 9800 non-pro version. According to Tom's hardware, 20-30% performance difference over the 9600 graphically. Finally, do NOT get the Pro, XT, or SE versions of the 9800 unless you are a hardcore gamer. I was able to get a Radeon 9800/128 meg version for $185 on EBay!

    The lower clock speed of the 9800 vs 9800 Pro affects performance minimally, but you can also overclock the regular 9800 to have Pro-like speeds, from what I hear.
    Tom's hardware also indicated VIRTUALLY NO PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCE between the 128 and 256 meg RAM versions of the RaDeon 9800 Pro card.
    ----
    Basically, the extra RAM, fluff features ATI puts on their cards is for the kiddies. If you want to buy in, go for it. Otherwise, be smart, take advantage of the core technology by getting the 9800 -- you'll get all the performance and save $200. Save your money for dedicated, portable peripherals.

  7. LInux Oriented Hardware Reviews by Jagasian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why do hardware reviews only test the hardware out under Windows? Are there any hardware review sites that review hardware under Linux? Just because a piece of hardware performs nicely or efficiently under Windows doesn't mean the same applies under Linux.

    Things are Linux oriented hardware review should cover:
    1. Linux based synthetic benchmarks
    2. Benchmarks under popular Linux games
    3. OSS drivers (yes/no)
    4. Linux support (yes/no)