ATI is announcing their All In Wonder X1800XL at a MSRP of $429. The A-I-W X1800XL gives you all of the features, performance and quality of the X1800XL plus analog television, a FM Radio, a DVR device, and Adobe Photoshop Elements too! While ATI could have easily charged $499 for this product and in fact that was the original MSRP, they decided to price it at a premium of $30 over the standard X1800XL. As such this card has the easiest recommendation for a video card I've ever made.
Performance on the card is exemplary. The X1800XL core performs more or less on-par with NVIDIA's 7800GT, with some instances where the X1800XL outperforms it and others where the 7800GT outperforms the X1800XL. ATI's solution has the benefit of better performance with dynamic branching, but NVIDIA's solution has the benefit of a higher Texel fill rate and more memory bandwidth.
The delay of the X1K series allowed ATI to enter the market with their newest generation A-I-W just a month after releasing the regular card. One thing I should talk about in the review will be the lineup of A-I-W cards for the Christmas season. ATI has the A-I-W X1800XL for $429. At the moment, the A-I-W X800XL is retailing for $399, making the choice between the two cards pretty clear. I'm sure ATI will lower the price of the A-I-W X800XL as the X1800XL reaches the market today. You should be able to buy the card on Newegg as I write this. We are giving the AIW X1800XL an Editor's Choice Award because it is a great value for the money with great performance and great features.
