ATi
All-in-Wonder
128
The ATi All-in-Wonder 128 is ATi's attempt
to bring together the elements of 3D graphics and TV multimedia into one
card. The core of this card is the Rage 128 chipset, which has been
clocked up to 105mhz compared to the original Rage, with the aid of a
small heatsink. This chip does not offer spectacular 3D performance, as
its benchmark scores fall between the original TNT and the TNT2. The
real strength of this card, however, is the myriad of features that it
implements, and does very well. Because of the ATi Theater chip on the
card, the All-in-Wonder is capable of video editing, astonishing DVD
playback, displaying TV over the internet, and being used as a digital
VCR. The internet TV function is especially useful, because, not only
can you view your favorite television show on you desktop, but you can
also do instant replays, thereby catching the split second of a baseball
play that might have been missed. If your goals are moderate 3D power
and a host of useful television feature, than the ATi All-in-Wonder is
for you.
Reviews
are available at:
AnandTech
All-in-Wonder
128 Pro 32MB
The ATi All-in-Wonder 128 Pro is
ATi's attempt to bring together the elements of 3D graphics and TV
multimedia into one card. The core of this card is the Rage 128 Pro
chipset, which has been clocked down to 90mhz for the chip and
90mhz for the 32MB of SDRAM compared to the original Rage. This chip
does not offer spectacular 3D performance, as its benchmark scores fall
below the TNT2. The real strength of this card, however, is the myriad
of features that it implements, and does very well. Because of the ATi
Theater chip on the card, the All-in-Wonder is capable of video editing,
astonishing DVD playback, displaying TV over the internet, and being
used as a digital VCR. The internet TV function is especially useful,
because, not only can you view your favorite television show on you
desktop, but you can also do instant replays, thereby catching the split
second of a baseball play that might have been missed. If your goals are
moderate 3D power and a host of useful television feature, than the ATi
All-in-Wonder is for you.
Reviews
are available at:
Gamespot
Thresh's
Firing Squad
Rage
Fury
The ATi Rage Fury was ATi's top
performer before the advent of the Rage Fury Pro and the Rage Fury MAXX.
In it's time, the Fury was actually faster than nVidia's top of the line
TNT, and 3dfx's Banshee, especially in 32bit color. It sports the Rage
Fury 128 chipset clocked at 105mhz, and 32MB of high speed SDRAM. Back
in the TNT regime, this was almost unheard of on a graphics card, but
these days it fails to impress. Only one thing marred the spectacular
success of the Rage Fury, and that was the lack of fast, reliable OpenGL
ICD 16bit color drivers. ATi has always been known to ship immature
drivers, and this was no exception. Another feature that is inherent to
all ATi cards is their phenomenal capability to decode and play DVD
movies. For this reason, it is not necessary to buy a MPEG-2 decoder.
While the Rage Fury was powerful in it's day, it is nothing more than a
budget value card in these modern times.
Reviews
are available at:
AnandTech
Gamespot
Thresh's
Firing Squad
Rage Fury MAXX
The
Rage Fury MAXX is ATi's high end 3D graphics solution, and is targeted
mainly at PC gamers. Although it falls short of any GeForce DDR board,
the MAXX is on about the same level as the S3 Savage 2000 and a GeForce
SDR. ATi achieves this level of performance by combining two Rage Pro
128 chips clocked at 125mhz for the cores and 143mhz for the memory in a
special configuration called AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering), in which
one chip renders every other frame. In other words, chip A would render
the first 3D scene, and chip B would render the next. Curiously enough,
one of the chips is shut down in 2D mode, resulting in comparatively
slow 2D performance. Also worthy of mention is the 64MB of onboard
SDRAM, which is divided equally between the chips. While this sounds
like a lot, it really isn't, because the chips use their 32MB memory
banks separately to render their own individual frames, and the whole
64MB cannot be utilized as a whole. Also present in the MAXX is ATi's
historic seamless DVD playback, that exceeds that of any other card. The
ATi Rage Fury MAXX is a decent rival for a GeForce SDR board or a Savage
2000, but pales in the face of a GeForce DDR.
Reviews
are available at:
AnandTech
Gamespot
Sharky
Extreme
Thresh's
Firing Squad
Rage Fury Pro
The
ATi Rage Fury Pro was ATi's top performer before the advent of the Rage
Fury MAXX, which uses exactly twice the amount of memory and two chips.
The Fury's speed is placed between nVidia's TNT2 and TNT2 Ultra. It
sports the Rage Fury 128 Pro chipset clocked at 125mhz, and 32MB of high
speed SDRAM at 143mhz. Unfortunately for ATi, the TNT2 was already
shipping, and the higher clocked TNT2 Ultra was on the way. With these
promising cards on the market and being developed, few people were
interested in ATi's latest offering. As is usual for ATi products, the
card was shipped with raw drivers, that further marred its performance..
Another feature that is inherent to all ATi cards is their phenomenal
capability to decode and play DVD movies. For this reason, it is not
necessary to buy a MPEG-2 decoder. While the Rage Fury Pro was powerful
in it's day, it is nothing more than a budget value card in these modern
times.
Reviews
are available at:
AnandTech
Sharky
Extreme
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