Hercules All In Wonder Radeon 8500DV

Introduction

The ATI All In Wonder range of graphic cards have a long history behind them. Integrating a multitude of multimedia features onto one simple card, the All In wonder cards have captured the hearts of many. I remember the time we received the first All In Wonder solution brought by ATI, the All In Wonder(AIW) based on the Rage 128 chipset. At the time, it was considered one of the ultimate multimedia cards in the market. After their initial launch the All In Wonder series just kept improving by each new model. The early models of the AIW lacked in raw performance, however as ATI came up with the Radeon chip all this changed greatly. The really cool thing about these cards is that, they are incorporated with so many features that it turns an ordinary PC system into a full featured multimedia system instantly.

After the recent release of the Radeon 8500 chip we have seen an array of cards based on this chipset coming out. Today we bring to you the ATI All In Wonder Radeon 8500DV produced by Hercules. This is the first video card to introduce an integrated firewire port and also the first to include DirectX 8 programmable vertex shaders. Before we get onto in-depth details let’s first take at the card’s specifications and a comparison view to the other Radeon AIW graphic cards.

Specifications

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Graphics processor
Technology	RADEON™ 8500 use a 0.15µ technology
Transistors	60 Million
Memory	64MB on-board DDR RAM memory
Bus	AGP 2X/4X
Memory optimization Technology	– HYPERZ™ II technology – Performs aggressive memory control through its implementation of efficient HSR (Hidden Surface Removal).
Memory interface	128-bit DDR
Internal memory bandwidth	6.1 GB/s
Internal chipset bandwidth	7.36 GB/s
Brute rendering architecture	– 4 pixel pipelines X 3 texels for each pipeline – 2.760 Mtexels/s
3D technological enhancements	• SMARTSHADER™ technology – DirectX 8.1 Programmable Vertex Shaders – DirectX 8.1 Programmable Pixel Shaders (Supports the latest version of DirectX 8.1 pixel shaders (1.4) for ultra-high multi-texturing and blending levels: up to 6 textures in a single pass) • CHARISMA ENGINE™ II – Hardware accelerated T&L (Full Transformation, Clipping & Lighting) engine • SMOOTHVISION™: – True multi-sampling anti-aliasing • TRUFORM™ – Transforms triangles into curved surfaces (Hardware support of N-Patches)
RAMDAC/Pixel cycle	400MHz
Dual display TV/Video out	• HYDRAVISION II™ technology – TV out + VGA or DVI -Clone mode -Extended desktop mode (different signals on TV and Monitor)
On-Board Connectors	– DVI-I/ VGA – Antenna – 1394 FireWire/DV IN/OUT (Digital Video)
External connection bloc connectors	-1394 FireWire/DV IN/OUT -S-Video IN/OUT -Composite Video IN/OUT -Stereo Audio Line IN/OUT (RCA+Jack 3.5mm) -Digital Audio OUT (S-PDIF)
DVD Playback	• VIDEO IMMERSION™ II – Hardware accelerated (iDCT & Motion Compensation) – Enhanced Adaptive Per Pixel De-Interlacing – Temporal De-interlacing
DVD-Video Software Included	ATI DVD Player
Supported API(s)	DirectX® 8.1 & OpenGL®
Remote control	Radio-frequency remote control (+ USB receiver)
Video Editing software	– Ulead Video Studio™ 5.0SE – ATI multimedia center

Comparison View