ATI Radeon 9700 Pro All-In-Wonder

We've already been deeply impressed by the Hercules All-in-Wonder 9000 Pro, as it was the first All-in-Wonder we've seen that doesn't make you choose between features and performance.

In just a few weeks the goalposts have been moved and we now have the Radeon 9700 Pro All-in-Wonder, running at the same clock speeds as a regular Radeon 9700 Pro but with the addition of the All-in-Wonder features we know and love.

This All-in-Wonder adds a premium of £100 or more to the cost of basic cards, but you do get a lot for your money.

The most obvious extras are the Philips TV tuner and the RF remote control, plus you get Video in/Video out cables that add S-Video, Composite, S/PDIF and audio ports to assist video capture and TV out.

The card lacks a FireWire port, so DV camcorder owners need to make other plans.

ATI includes a load of its own software for media playback, TV recording and timeshifting.

Our performance figures show this card performs just as well as its basic 9700 Pro cousins - its DirectX 9 performance is up to every task you can throw at it.

Clearly the All-in-Wonder features are aimed at those who use their PC to watch TV and movies, and that RF remote comes into its own when you watch in comfort some way from your PC.

This is an amazing piece of hardware, but it comes at a steep price.

Contact: ATI
www.ati.com

Specifications:

• Core 325MHz
• 256bit memory controller
• Dual 400MHz Ramdacs
• 128MB DDR running at 620MHz
• 19.4Gbps memory bandwidth
• DVI-I, Video in, Video out, CATV-in
• Open GL 1.3 and DirectX 9 compliant
• AGP 8x