ATI's All-In-Wonder has been a big success for
the Canadian graphics company. Combining 3D gaming power with
TV tuning and multimedia features, those looking for a consolidating
solution need to look no further than their AIW lineup. From mainstream
to high-end, ATI typically covers all the bases to meet the user's
economic and entertainment needs.
With the growing trend towards PCI Express, mainly
due to AMD/NVIDIA jumping onboard, it was a matter of time before
ATI brought an AIW card to this platform. Surprisingly, it wasn't
the X800 or X850 version released first, but the X600 Pro. Clearly
targeted at the mainstream crowd, it's no secret this won't be
the card to give you 100fps in Half-Life 2, but it does give PCIe
owners an option for not only a 2D/3D graphics card, but also
one that can be used as part of an entertainment hub.
I won't rehash the marketing overview, but
it's available here. You can also grab the full
specifications from here.
The All-In-Wonder X600 Pro
Since we've covered the X600 here at VL before,
I won't go into too much detail about the technology. Some things
to highlight; The codename of the X600 is the RV380 and is built
on the same architecture as the 9600 (RV350). It's a native PCIe
part, built on a 13 micron, Low-K process, with 4 pixel pipelines,
2 vertex engines, and a 128-bit memory bus. The reference X600
Pro is clocked at 400MHz core and 300MHz (600MHz DDR) memory and
supports DX9 Shader Model 2.0. As you can see in the above images,
no external power is required for the card, despite the extra
multimedia based hardware built into the PCB.
Since the X600 can be looked at as
a native PCIe version of the 9600, it's not too surprising they
went with the same cooling system. The heatsink covers the entire
VPU core and surrounding area with the fan slightly offset to
blow through all the fins.
The AIW X600 Pro comes equipped with 256MB of Hynix
HY5DU561522CT-33 SDRAM. The ram is officially rated at 300MHz,
which is in line with ATI's reference X600's ram speed. For the
card's IO, we have a DVI and VGA out as well as a connection for
ATI's new modular input and output blocks which we will discuss
shortly. While the AIW X600 Pro is capable of dual CRT output,
no DVI-to-VGA adapter is included so you'll need to pick one of
those up if you need to.
Other than the VPU and memory, the other important chips that
make up the AIW X600 Pro are the RF modulator TV tuner and Theater
200. The TV tuner is quite a breakthrough as it's a mere fraction
of the size of previous tuners. While there is not much of a physical
benefit for the X600 Pro, the upcoming X800 version of the card,
as well as future versions of the AIW that require more PCB space
for cooling will benefit greatly from the smaller tuner.
New with the AIW X600 Pro are the
modular input and output blocks. These new blocks are stackable,
making for a much neater setup as ATI adds more for additional
functions. The move to these blocks also frees up some rear PCI
backpanel space for the DVI and CRT connections as well.
Setting the card's modular blocks
requires the installation of an input cable into the back of the
card as discussed earlier. Afterwards, you connect the modular
blocks, followed by any cabling that you need depending on your
task. Keep in mind that no cables are included, and you'll need
to pick those up on your own.
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