AIW 128 Pro finally down for the count, what now?

[morrmar]

Weirdness after a lightning storm with my 128 Pro. The box it's in was
protected by an APC UPS but the satellite receiver that was connected to the
card was on a cheap Belkin UPS. Now I can't get audio in any shape or form
on MMC's TV app, everything else works fine, except the audio. All was fine
before but now no sound. Re-installed MMC more times than I want to admit in
case it was a s/w problem but still no joy. Still can get sound from all
other apps except MMC so I doubt it's the sound card.

Anyway, I'm not a gamer but use the AIW extensively for analog avi capture
from a sat receiver and editing, dvd burning, etc.. The 128 Pro was
outstanding for what I do and as I understand it, has the same Theatre chip
as all but the most recent of AIW incarnations. Since my card is in all
likelihood fried, it's time for another one.

I want to spend between $50-100 USD on a used card from Ebay. I think my
best option, as I will stay with ATI's products, is a 8500 like here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31534&item=3486582160&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

or here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40158&item=5101255480&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

I know to avoid the 8500's with the DV designation from past posts but can't
remember why. Also, I can't tell if these are AGP, which I want, or PCI.
Anyway to tell from the configuration, as the sellers haven't responded to
my email.

So, the point of this long winded post is...

Given my needs, is this the best card I can get in my price range from the
AIW series?

 

[Augustus]

I want to spend between $50-100 USD on a used card from Ebay. I think my

best option, as I will stay with ATI's products, is a 8500 like here:

Excellent choice. All 8500 AIW cards are AGP only. For that matter every
8500 or 8500LE is AGP only. The 9100 which is really a rebadged 8500LE is
available in PCI version, but there never was a 9100 AIW version. You're
correct in avoiding the 8500AIW DV version. It's about 25% slower in core
and memory. Also avoid the 9000 Pro AIW.....uses the RV250 core which is
missing one TMU per pipeline and is about 30-40% slower.

 

[Gareee©]

Excellent choice.

So what would be the next step up from this card? (It's what I currently run
on 2 machines here...)

 

[Augustus]

Excellent choice.

So what would be the next step up from this card? (It's what I currently run
on 2 machines here...)

Next step up would be the 9600 Pro AIW. This is a better card than the 8500
in all areas. Has DX9 and decent core/memory speeds, but it's not greatly
faster than an 8500. The 9600SE AIW is a step down....it may be DX9, but
also 64bit memory and slow memory speed. There's also a 9600XT AIW which is
a big jump up from the 8500, a 9800SE AIW which is OK, but not as good as
the 9600XT AIW, the no longer produced 9700 Pro AIW and lastly, the 9800 Pro
AIW. The last two are excellent and very fast indeed, with 256bit memory and
double the pipelines. The absolute worst AIW card is the 9200SE
AIW....crippled RV280 core, 64 bit memory. There's also a 9200 AIW which
has128 bit memory and suffers from the same problems the 9000 AIW does. The
only difference between the 9000 RV250 core and the 9200 RV280 core is AGP8X
support on the RV280. Given that a 9800Pro has trouble saturating the AGP4X
bandwidth, it's a moot point.

 

[Gareee©]

Thanks for all that great info.. I'll have to keep my eyes out for some
deals...

 

[morrmar]

I want to spend between $50-100 USD on a used card from Ebay. I think my

Excellent choice. All 8500 AIW cards are AGP only. For that matter every
8500 or 8500LE is AGP only. The 9100 which is really a rebadged 8500LE is

Thanks for the info, just hope I can get it within my price range in the
next week or two.

 

[morrmar]

Next step up would be the 9600 Pro AIW. This is a better card than the
8500

in all areas. Has DX9 and decent core/memory speeds, but it's not greatly
faster than an 8500. The 9600SE AIW is a step down....it may be DX9, but
also 64bit memory and slow memory speed. There's also a 9600XT AIW which is
a big jump up from the 8500, a 9800SE AIW which is OK, but not as good as
the 9600XT AIW, the no longer produced 9700 Pro AIW and lastly, the 9800 Pro
AIW. The last two are excellent and very fast indeed, with 256bit memory and
double the pipelines. The absolute worst AIW card is the 9200SE
AIW....crippled RV280 core, 64 bit memory. There's also a 9200 AIW which
has128 bit memory and suffers from the same problems the 9000 AIW does. The
only difference between the 9000 RV250 core and the 9200 RV280 core is AGP8X
support on the RV280. Given that a 9800Pro has trouble saturating the AGP4X
bandwidth, it's a moot point.

Well I was having a bit trouble finding a 8500 AIW on Ebay in my price
range, they've been averaging $100 USD, so I went prowling. I found a card
not listed above, but I think I found a good deal so I went ahead and pulled
the trigger. The response here will tell me whether or not I screwed up.

A vendor via Amazon was selling a 9600 AIW, non Pro/XT/SE edition just a
9600, new but in an opened box, for $140. Since my primary interest is
video, and this card had the Theater 200 chip while the 8500 did not, I
didn't mind paying a bit more than I was going to for the 8500. Even though
I'm not a gamer, I do quite a bit of photo manipulation in PhotoShop, in
addition to video. So I thought this card might helpful with that app as
well. Especially coming from a 128 Pro. <g>

Found one review, seems enthusiastic but I'm not familiar with the site,
here:

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_all_in_wonder_9600/page17.asp

Read another review (can't locate now) that was more technical and in-depth
and according to them, the card runs so cool it doesn't need a fan but just
a large heat sink. It was a pretty positive review as well.

So, is the 9600 AIW worth the extra $40 I spent for the apps I use or did I
bite the hype and spend more than I should have? And more importantly, are
the drivers and MMC 9.0 stable under XP? Kinda looking forward to migrating
from 7.7.