Radeon 8500DV AIW opinions

[RichL]

Heres an oddball question

My current setup is a G400max for 2d swapping to a Voodoo 5500pci for 3d games. Its cheap, effective, but rather cumbersome.
I'll be throwing together a new machine in the next week or so and I'd prefer to replace this combo with something else. my budget is too tight for an ATI9700 or Parhelia, so I'm looking at an ATI 8500DV AIW (and risk the buggy drivers). The AIW will also fulfull my requirement for an occasional video capture, and means I can retire my K6III and Mystique RR system.

I've heard the 8500's 2d isnt that fantastic, and that the DV/AIW has been clocked lower than the regular 8500, but will it still outperform the G400/V5500 I currently have?

[luni]

Of course.

[UtwigMU]

Videocard+capture card is better and costs less than AIW/Marvel solution.

In 1-2 years R8500 will be where your current cards are now but TV requrements will still be the same.

Also TV wonder + ATI videcoard is better than AIW (see linkage bellow).

I recommend you getting Leadtek WinfastTV 2000XP - saw good opinion on Ars forums - or terratec cards - ask AZ about them.

Any pitfalls in getting a tv-wonder rather than an All-in-wonder? thread on Ars.

Stacy wrote a favorable extensive review on TV Wonder, but when she switched to XP she had to ditch it.

Also Ati support for older capture cards is not stellar. For instance my friend never made RageIIC and TV ISA card work since when he got them in '96.

[GT98]

I have an 8500DV in my Shuttle box..in reguards to 2D output...its a notch below the Parhelia in that deptarment, but overall its very good compaired to Nvidia's offerings. In the Performance department..according to a FPS counter...the 8500DV and Parhelia run almost the same numbers, but the P's performance is much smoother overall. I can overclock my 8500DV pretty well without any werid arificats going on.

If I remember right there are two verisons of the AIW...the AIW 8500 and the AIW 8500DV...the DV is the slower clocked model with 64MB ala 8500LE & I believe and the AIW 8500 is the same as a 128MB 8500 retail at full speed.

[Paddy]

I have the DV model. It's a nice card now that the drivers seem to have been sorted out.

With hindsight, id have stuck with my GF3 Ti500 and bought a TV card...