ATI All-In-Wonder and G400

[Gambit007]

I have an AGP G400 DH from Matrox and I wanted to get a PCI All-In-Wonder 128. Does anyone know if this will work or will I get major conflicts from my DVD software and games? Oh, no I know both won't be used during games or DVD's. I want to use the AIW to encoded video and the G400 for games.

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P3 500, Abit BH6, 128MB, 20 gig HD, 6X DVD, 32/8/4 CD-RW, 100 MB external zip, SB Live Value, 10/100 Ethernet for DSL

[Kurt]

Why look for trouble? Grab a Rainbow Runner for G-series from Matrox, it should work with the G400 (be sure to check though)

[Kruzin]

I have to agree there.
You have a DH G400, so a RR-G would work with it, without the possibilities of conflicts often found when mixing video cards like that...

[mtbtuned]

I would however check out the video editing forum, RRG are not always the most well behaved and have their own share of problems. My experience anyway

[paulcs]

Driver issues aside, and I bet they're will be driver issues, how many IRQ's does the All-in-Wonder require? Given the TV Wonder requires an IRQ, I would guess two. Then, of course, the G400 will need an IRQ as well. You need a soundcard. If you have a NIC, SCSI card, Modem, USB enabled, Com and printer ports enabled, I could definitely see this degenerating into IRQ hell.

Then there's the new ATI media package they just shipped (a year late!). You might want to conside how that is going to react with your G400? The software it replaced was initially not compatible with the Rage Fury's drivers. And they were released at the same time.

I have a Rainbow Runner, and I never use it. I bought it after it was first released, and I had some sound issues. These have been long resolved, but I don't like waiting for Rainbow Runner compatible driver updates. I'm sure people are having issues with the board, but take my word for it, you haven't experience issues until you've experienced Rage 128 issues.

The Rainbow Runner, at least, was designed to work with other Matrox products and doesn't require an IRQ.

If you do decide to take the ATI route, it might be helpful you try the board before committing to it. See if you can buy it from a vendor with a very liberal return policy.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net