ATI "All in Wonder" Radeon 9800 128MB DDR - $179

[epii]

**Ripped from DealCatcher forums.

ATI "All in Wonder" Radeon 9800 128MB DDR Video Card in White Box

ATI Technologies (Video Cards):
Outpost #: 4168113
Price: $ 179.99

Speculation that it's a 9800 Pro AIW. Out of stock but more coming in this week, first come first served.

-epii

[Mpowered]

I've been waiting for a deal like this, but how good is this 9800 compared to other cards available today? Can I be able to expect to play Doom 3 or HL2 with this card?

[epii]

All indications suggest a 9800 Pro would be fine for Doom3 and HL2. Just make sure your CPU's also up to the task. Putting a 9800 Pro into a P4 1.6 would be a waste, as you'd never reach the graphics bottleneck.

[Bires]

Tom's video card analysis (one year old) (http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-12.html)

I have a 9800P and it runs well everything I throw at it. Don't expect 60 frame per second in the newer games with all detail maxed at 1200x800 though.

[Mpowered]

I'm in the process of building a system now that will most likely be a Barton 2.7GHz with either 512 or 1024 MB of RAM. My other option is to buy a regular video card and a separate TV card.

[epii]

The drawback to buying the All-In-Wonder style card is that when it's time to upgrade your vid a year or so from now (assuming you're on that wretched treadmill), you're dumping your TV tuner too.

I'd look at it this way: You're getting a radeon 9800 pro AND an excellent SDTV tuner for less than the going price of a tunerless 9800 pro elsewhere, and by the time you're ready to upgrade, HDTV tuners should be cheaper and more plentiful, both AIW-style and discrete.

I don't see any drawbacks to buying this particular card at this particular price unless money's no object, which i'm guessing is not the case if you're buying a 2.7 GHz cpu. Still, they're your clams.

[Mpowered]

Well, according to pricewatch:
$219 - RADEON 9800 Pro 256MB
$154 - RADEON 9800 Pro 128MB

$180 doesn't seem too bad for the AIW. On the other hand, a seperate tuner card is going to give better results and more options for recording and viewing. This is a budget system for me, I was seriously going to build a box for under $300 using a barebones kit, my old video card and my old monitor. But this is a good price on this card so I might go for it.

[splam]

Another caveat for the AIW, no DVI.

[epii]

Unless you're referring to a very unique version of the AIW 9800 I've not seen, I believe you're mistaken.

Every AIW 9800 sold/reviewed that I'm aware of definitely includes a DVI output. What it lacks is a secondary VGA output. The included DVI, however, comes with an adapter that converts DVI to VGA if necessary.

http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/aiw9800pro/index3.php
http://www.bit-tech.net/review/232/2
http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/ati/aiw9800pro/index.php?p=2
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/videocards/article.php/3211_3073991__2

etc...

[bearlookr]

ATI's multiple monitor solution is called Hydravision, but it is not available on the 9800AIW. We use this card for some basic video production but had to install a second card (PCI of course because the AGP was taken by the 9800AIW) to use two monitors. The details on this feature is sketchy at best when reading the specs on this card at most sites, but if you contact ATI support they will confirm this. :throw: