All-in-Wonder card suggestion

[AlwaysUp]

I want to be able to watch TV and work on my home pc at the same time. I understand the All in Wonder cards are capable of this. My system board supports 2x AGP. What specific graphics engine will do a good job of this? 7500? 8500? What is a sufficient amount of memory 64? 128? Is DDR a must? I want to get a good card that finds a balance between performance and features vs cost. Any suggestions are gratefully accepted.

[pam123]

The 7500 AIW is $127 at www.newegg.com .
It's 64mb DDR and you should be able to use office apps and watch your shows in an on-screen window at the same time.
It will have no trouble with a 2X slot, well, none of the AIW cards will but the price goes up alot and it'd be overkill.
HTH

[AlwaysUp]

Thanks pam123, I will check it out!

[Kubie]

AlwaysUp,
Dok just got the AIW 7500 and seems very happy with it. For the money you can't go wrong.
Carl

[mountaineer]

How would it work for gaming? How does it compare to Ge Force cards? I mean would it be comparable to a GF2, a GF3, etc?

[pam123]

Comparable to a Gf2.
ATI did a good job with the card but was still behind the curve when it came out, the lower priced alternative to the first 64mb 8500. It was part of the second generation of Radeon Cards.
Nvidia smoked ATI with first the Gf3 and followed with the Gf3 Ti 200 and Ti500 before going on to the Gf4s.
ATI came back with the 8500 128mb which was a very good card but not quite enough to compete with the Gf4 Ti series.
Now that ATI has changed it's product cycle, and learned how to write drivers, the competition is much tighter; as witness the 9700/9500 cards.
NVidia's GFX is due out this spring as is ATI 350 Radeon ( current cards are the 300 ) and they'll be the new generation of video cards.

[AlwaysUp]

It isn't just the video quality, frame rates, or weather it is cutting edge gaming card that interests me. It is the TV option, which, incidentally, I have a question about. I understand that your cable service goes directly into the vid card. Is that right? If I presently use my home's cable connection into my cable modem what would be the hit to my internet connection if I inserted a splitter prior to the cable modem and my router? I have two pc's using the router for internet connection from the modem.

[HAL9000]

I have two machines with AIW cards, one is an old Rage Pro 8Mb, the other is an 8500DV (recently upgraded from the 7500). My cable goes from the wall to a splitter, one to the cable modem, the other to another splitter which the two lines then go to the AIW's. Both have good pictures and the cable modem runs great. Guess I answered your question really, yes, the AIW has a coax input for your cable line.

[AlwaysUp]

Thanks Hal9000, I'm grateful for the rich diversity of experience here at PCMech. No telling how many dollars I'd spend on stuff I don't need or want! Thanks for your replies. I'm off to NewEgg!

[glc]

If you are going to split your cable line, you must use a *passive* splitter, and it must have a bandwidth of at least 1 GHz, with 1.1 GHz being preferable. Radio Shack should have what you need for around $8.

[Floppyman]

That brings up a question. Is there any way to run two monitors off the AIW cards? TIA.

[BUGNUT]

I'm running an old AIW 4mb Pro. Works great!! You may want to check out the Xtasy Everything card P/N 5564. The graphics part is a GF2 MX 400 64MB. Its selling here in Toronto for $129.00 CA. Thats about $9.99 US or something like that. I do believe that Visiontek is no longer in business. But the firesale prices look very interesting. Does any one have any other info on Visiontek?

Regards

Bugnut