ATI's All-In-Wonder X1900 Performance And DVD Decoding Quality
by Josh Venning on February 10, 2006 8:45 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Final Words
It's nice to know that the problems ATI have had in the past with getting a product out on launch date are a thing of the past. We saw many of these AIW X1900s on sale on the day of release with a hefty price tag of around $500. The price has gone down slightly since then, and you can currently get one of these cards for about $455, which is still fairly expensive. Given the capabilities of this card however, the price makes sense. The All-In-Wonder X1900 is the AIW for those who want the best possible performance in games, while still being able to record and watch video on their computer. We've mentioned before that these cards are somewhat specialized and a large part of their attractiveness is their gaming and multimedia features in one easy-to-use package. Many users might opt for the lower price or better features of having a separate graphics card and home theater card instead.
We've seen now how well ATI does with DVD processing, and the benchmarks show that ATI does a better job at this overall than NVIDIA. Here are the final HQV benchmark scores.
ATI: 111 NVIDIA: 68
These numbers represent the total numbers for each test added together for each card. As we can see ATI scores better overall than NVIDIA, which is interesting considering NVIDIA's PureVideo decoding was consistently better than ATI's software in the past. What is important to keep in mind however, is that certain tests could be considered more or less important to individual users depending on what types of video they will be dealing with. For example, while ATI gets a better overall score, NVIDIA still does a better job at picture detail (sharpness) than ATI, so that might be a factor to consider when looking for a decoder. Also, some of the tests may not apply at all to your situation, like the mixed film with horizontal and vertical text. If you don't watch news channels with scrolling text you may never have a need for this option.
Where NVIDIA loses the most points is in the Film Cadence tests, as well as the Noise Reduction test. We can conclude then that these benchmarks show that ATI has a wider set of capabilities in their DVD decoding than NVIDIA does. Add to that the fact that ATI's DVD decoder is free to ATI customers while NVIDIA's PureVideo decoder costs an extra $30 and ATI definitely has a winning solution on their hands.
With ATI leading now in the "king-of-the-hill" game of graphics solutions, we now look to NVIDIA for a response, while wondering what's in store for graphics in the semi-long term. If performance continues to increase at the rate that it has been, we aren't sure how game software will be able to keep up. We are always happy when we see advancements in technology, but the huge sizes of some of these high end cards make us think better efficiency might be good direction for graphics hardware to move toward. But of course, advancements in hardware performance will always leave the door open for game software to advance, which is good news for everyone.
It's nice to know that the problems ATI have had in the past with getting a product out on launch date are a thing of the past. We saw many of these AIW X1900s on sale on the day of release with a hefty price tag of around $500. The price has gone down slightly since then, and you can currently get one of these cards for about $455, which is still fairly expensive. Given the capabilities of this card however, the price makes sense. The All-In-Wonder X1900 is the AIW for those who want the best possible performance in games, while still being able to record and watch video on their computer. We've mentioned before that these cards are somewhat specialized and a large part of their attractiveness is their gaming and multimedia features in one easy-to-use package. Many users might opt for the lower price or better features of having a separate graphics card and home theater card instead.
We've seen now how well ATI does with DVD processing, and the benchmarks show that ATI does a better job at this overall than NVIDIA. Here are the final HQV benchmark scores.
ATI: 111 NVIDIA: 68
These numbers represent the total numbers for each test added together for each card. As we can see ATI scores better overall than NVIDIA, which is interesting considering NVIDIA's PureVideo decoding was consistently better than ATI's software in the past. What is important to keep in mind however, is that certain tests could be considered more or less important to individual users depending on what types of video they will be dealing with. For example, while ATI gets a better overall score, NVIDIA still does a better job at picture detail (sharpness) than ATI, so that might be a factor to consider when looking for a decoder. Also, some of the tests may not apply at all to your situation, like the mixed film with horizontal and vertical text. If you don't watch news channels with scrolling text you may never have a need for this option.
Where NVIDIA loses the most points is in the Film Cadence tests, as well as the Noise Reduction test. We can conclude then that these benchmarks show that ATI has a wider set of capabilities in their DVD decoding than NVIDIA does. Add to that the fact that ATI's DVD decoder is free to ATI customers while NVIDIA's PureVideo decoder costs an extra $30 and ATI definitely has a winning solution on their hands.
With ATI leading now in the "king-of-the-hill" game of graphics solutions, we now look to NVIDIA for a response, while wondering what's in store for graphics in the semi-long term. If performance continues to increase at the rate that it has been, we aren't sure how game software will be able to keep up. We are always happy when we see advancements in technology, but the huge sizes of some of these high end cards make us think better efficiency might be good direction for graphics hardware to move toward. But of course, advancements in hardware performance will always leave the door open for game software to advance, which is good news for everyone.
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bldckstark - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
The example shown does not change the overall score of the card. The example shown is for the readers reference to the test, and is not what the test scored from. There may be other reasons someone may not give these tests merit, but this is not one of them. You could maybe rank on the author for this, but not the tests.mpeavid - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
The example shown does not change the overall score of the card.But how do we know that? Take example cadence 2224. According to the text the same item is being compared, yet different frames are clearly shown. If their methadology was more concise, their text is not.
You have to be clear about this or it misleads your readers. Its like doing a 3D test using 2 different scenes to render. Anandtech uses all the same 3D scenes to render right?
rjm55 - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
Other sites did AIW 1900 reviews on January 31st. Why so long for AT? Did ATI pass you over on sending a sample?fishbits - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
By adding more polys, textures, particles, lights, shadows and shaders. You really didn't know this? Call any respected game dev house and ask them if they could possibly come up with a use for more GPU horsepower. The answer will be "Of course genius, we've got code and models we're waiting for capable hardware to run on, it's been that way for years. We'll take every bit of it we can get." Tell Anand I want you to spend this weekend benching EQ2 maxed out and tell us Monday if "we" still "aren't sure."
Anyhow, sounds like a nice card, but I'd rather have a more dedicated gaming card and a seperate TV tuner solution.
Griswold - Monday, February 13, 2006 - link
Of course they want more power so they dont have to write efficient and optimized code. Especially your EQ2 example comes to mind. There are far too few companies that come up with highly optimized code that will run top notch on current hardware and provide extra eye candy on future generations.Backslider - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
The 7800GT used in the test must be stock. The one I purchased came overclocked and performs much better than what the benchmarks are showing.ATI is still too pricy at the moment, I looked up and down for an X1800XL that could come with in price range of the 7800GT that I purchased, and I couldn't find one. I wasn't going to pay $60 over when they perform so identical. The prices were approx.
X1800XL 256 Stock $330
7800GT 256 OC $270
ATI get those prices down.
tuteja1986 - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
I sold my 7800GTX bought a x1900XT and i couldn't be happier :! if G71 fixes some issues like IQ and HDR with AA then i will sell my X1900XT and buy a 7900GTX :) or eles wait for R6XX and G8X.Backslider - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
Having owned an X800xl and a 7800GT, I honestly didn't see an IQ difference. The whole HDR with AA thing, well, you must play a lot of Far Cry.Good luck with keeping up with the latest and greatest though, it's almost a game with in it self. If you sell at the right times, you can upgrade for very little and still have the newest toys.
Happy gaming
MrKaz - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
I have a ati 9700 and geforce 6600gt and ati rendering look better.There are some annoying layers/plates on the nvidia rendering that i dont like.
And just one note: the display is the same on both cards.
DeathByDuke - Friday, February 10, 2006 - link
I'd certainly buy one if it was around $299-349, considering it performs closer to a much more expensive X1800XT