AMD unveils new All-in-Wonder HD Graphics card

[hugh]

After more than a two year hiatus, AMD today announced the latest video graphics card in the ATI All-in-Wonder family which features a combination of Radeon HD Video graphics and ATI's Theater 650 Pro tuner.

[name777]

Perfect combination of features. I'll wait for detailed reviews, but it's a good buy I'll be planning for

[I_Want_My_HDTV]

The main problems with ATI AIW cards are lack of support from third party software developers and mediocre bundled media software. I've purchased several AIWs and they all had the same problem. Another limitation is lack of connectivity compared to other video cards. This new card looks like it has DVI and HDMI, an improvement over earlier models, but it appears to lack audio/video capture capabilities. I've been less than enthusiastic about the bundled remotes as well. The remotes themselves are pretty typical for PC remotes but the software generally has weak application support, both from ATI and third parties. Separate video and tuner/capture cards are probably a better option overall.

[recneps77]

It may be a good "buy one device and get two" kind of thing, but when you want a new video card, you have to get a new tv card, and so on.
At least with separate cards they can be upgraded separately (different slots too - tv cards are PCI or PCIeX1, video cards are PCIeX16)
Though - if you weren't planning on a tv card anyway, it may only be like $10 more and you get HDtv for free - an easy selling point.

[PPL4GOLF]

The list price of $199 US is a little steep.
$100-$150 sounds a little better.

[hugh]

The vast majority of AIW buyers use the ATI software or MCE. The AIW has been very successful for ATI (now AMD) so I suspect this one will be also.

Remember this product is an ALL-IN_ONE and is meant for the 95% of the population that isn't into open source media centres etc.

Please lets keep discussion to the topic at hand which is the AIW HD rather than discussing why you don't want to buy it.

[Michael DeAbreu]

I pored over the specs on the ATI/AMD website. The video specs are identical to those for the HD2600 series. Significantly it only supports DDR2 rather than the faster GDDR3 sported by most video cards. They don't provide any information on GPU/memory clock speeds and amount of dedicated video RAM. So it is a little difficult to determine where this card fits in their family of video cards. Obviously it is not CrossFireX or even hybrid crossfire. So no possibility of adding it to a 780G IGP motherboard for a 3D performance boost and bonus TV tuner. Actually, I don't even think it is as fast as the 780G. Anyone looking at this card is well advised to consider a 780G motherboard and a separate TV tuner card.

[Wayne]

The other problem with this card is that it has a fan - why not make it fanless if it is meant to be used in an HTPC? It should be feasible as there are many fanless cards that run faster than this.

[I_Want_My_HDTV]

They don't provide any information on GPU/memory clock speeds and amount of dedicated video RAM.

AIWs are typically a slower clocked version of their cards with similar GPU chips and no tuner. The RAM is often smaller and slower as well.