14 DAY TRIAL // As mentioned in one of yesterday's articles, these past few days have been extremely busy and tumultuous on the graphics card market, both major players in this particular segment (ATI/AMD and NVIDIA) launching a couple of very interesting products, some of them targeting the exact same specific price points. And in order to capitalize on the momentum created by the release of the HD 4850 and HD 4870 models, AMD has decided to let yet another little wonder out of the bag: the ATI All-In-Wonder HD.
Practically, the new hardware component combines ATI Radeon Premium graphics and ATI TV Wonder HD tuner technology card in one PCI Express 2.0 solution, providing twice the data throughput of older PCI-E 1.0 interfaces. Furthermore, Blu-ray disc playback can be enjoyed in full HD glory (1080p) thanks to ATI All-in-Wonder HD's unified video decoder (UVD) technology.
The All-In-Wonder also provides support for Microsoft DirectX 10.1 and is accompanied by the ATI Catalyst Media Center software that provides an easy method of viewing video content. Additionally, the ATI All-in-Wonder HD provides expanded connectivity with built-in support for six channel (5.1) Dolby Digital surround audio transmission through HDMI, native dual-link DVI-I for high resolution panels and optional component video connectivity.
"Never before has this level of HDTV and graphics performance been seen in an all-in-one PC multimedia solution," said Matt Skynner, vice president of marketing, Graphics Products Group, AMD. "The award-winning ATI All-In-Wonder lineage is built on long-standing leadership in TV and video on the PC. For the hundreds of thousands of owners of previous ATI All-In-Wonder models and for those hungry to realize the full potential of their PC, we're excited and proud to introduce the newest addition to AMD's PCTV product family."
The ATI All-In-Wonder HD is also AMD LIVE! Ready and Certified for Windows Vista, has a manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) of $199 and will arrive in stores at some point in late July, probably just after the first overclocked HD 4850 units will hit the shelves.