Performance Check: RADEON 8500

AIW RADEON 8500DV

Overview

USB RF
Remote Control

Firewire

5ns SGRAM

By Lars Weinand - Editor In Chief RIVA Station / Editor Tom´s Hardware Guide
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The Canadian graphics chip and graphics card manufacturer presents a new flagship product in its 'All In Wonder' Series, the All In Wonder RADEON 8500 DV. This is a name with tradition. ATI has been offering cards of the All In Wonder flavor for a long time, which strive to be more than just your simple graphics card. These cards are equipped with a wide variety of multimedia components. A TV tuner, for example, turns the card into a TV center for the household.

Other inputs include S-video and composite video, as well as the newest feature, two IEEE 1394 FireWire ports, which allow DV cameras to be connected digitally for the first time. For sound playback, the integrated sound card is used. In addition to the S-video and composite video outputs, there is also digital S/PDIF output, which allows connection to an external AC-3 decoder for Dolby Digital sound with DVD playback.

A conveniently compact input/ output block, which is attached to the card through a special plug, acts as the connection for external video devices. Thanks to a strip of double-sided tape (included in the package), it's possible to attach this box to the PC case or a desk without a problem. One of the FireWire ports can be found on the input/ output block, and the other can be found on the slot bracket of the AGP card. The latter is even capable of becoming a power supply. For FireWire functionality, ATI only provided its AGP cards with an AGP to PCI bridge.

Another new feature is the remote control, which lets you operate the ATI multimedia software. A device that is attached via USB acts as the reception base, and because the remote control operates through radio waves, there's no need to have direct visual contact with it, so you can even operate the software from another room. This could come in handy when the TV is located in an adjacent room, for instance.

Graphic Card Comparsion
Chip Name	AIW RADEON	AIW RADEON 8500 DV	RADEON 8500	GeForce 3 Ti 500
Core	-	R200	R200	NV 20
Manuf. Process	0.18 Micron	0.15 Micron	0.15 Micron	0.15 Micron
Chipclock	166 MHz	230 MHz	275 MHz	240 MHz
Memoryclock	333 MHz (DDR)	380 MHz (DDR)	550 MHz (DDR)	500 MHz (DDR)
Memory Type	SDRAM/SGRAM	SGRAM	SDRAM	SDRAM
Memory Bus	128Bit DDR	128Bit DDR	128Bit DDR	128Bit DDR
Memory Size	32 MB	64 MB	64 MB	64 MB
RAMDAC (S)	350 MHz	2x 400 MHz	2x 400 MHz	350 MHz
Businterface	AGP 1x/2x/4x	AGP 1x/2x/4x	AGP 1x/2x/4x	AGP 1x/2x/4x
T&L	2nd. Generation	3rd. Generation	3rd. Generation	3rd. Generation
DirectX Generation	DX7	DX8	DX8	DX8
Pixel Shader	No	YES	YES	YES
Vertex Shader	No	YES	YES	YES
Truform	No	YES	YES	No
Render Pipelines	2	4	4	4
Texturen per Pipe	3	3	3	2
TV-Tuner	YES	YES	No	No
Video In / Out	YES	YES	TV-Out only	YES*
TV-Out DualView	YES	YES	YES	No
IEE 1394 Firewire	No	YES	No	No
Remote Controll	No	YES (RF)	No	No
* Optional, depends on the model

Just as with the normal RADEON 8500 boards, the All In Wonder has two RAMDACs, which allows for dual view capability. Unfortunately, a second monitor can't really be used with the All In Wonder, since this functionality is limited to TV-out only. The TV image on the second monitor can be adjusted completely independently of the resolution and the refresh rate of the primary monitor.

The RADEON 8500 3D core, which has recently been discussed in various articles ("See the Related Links box to the left"), ensures that the necessary 3D gaming requirements are met. However, the All In Wonder is clocked significantly slower than the standard 8500s. Instead of 275 MHz, the chip runs as 230 MHz. Also, the memory is only clocked to 190 MHz (380 MHz DDR), instead of 275 MHz. The reason for this is the memory module, which, at 5 ns, is pretty slow. According to ATI, faster memory modules would have made these cards much more expensive, and therefore less attractive.

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