This rig was sort of moth balled but I have kept it for back up purposes and so I inserted the ATI ALL-IN-WONDER X800 XT video card and reset the CMOS of the main board and then I fired up the system. Installing the card went very easy, just stuff it in the AGP slot, attach the extra 4-pin power connector and you are ready to go.

The ALL-IN-WONDER X800 XT first nicely on the ABIT mainboard and the PCI slot just below the AGP slot is still useable for any other expansion card. Although I wouldn't advise it as the airflow around the GPU on the graphics card would be less efficient to cool down the ATI card.

From this view you can clearly see that the card doesn't interfere with any other elements or component on the ABIT mainboard and it's single slot design is superb considering the capabilities that are packed into this board...

Now that the ATI ALL-IN-WONDER is installed, we can have a look at the ATI CATALYST drivers and the CATALYST Control Center. The CATALYST Control Center (CCC) is to replace the ATI Control Panel that was available on the older CATALYST drivers. You can however still opt for either versions when downloading the CATALYST drivers from the ATI driver pages.

Fundamentally, CATALYST Control Center is a new user interface to the Control Panel. Now, rather than clicking the advanced properties on the Display Properties to gain access to your Control Panel, CATALYST Control Center can be executed as an application from the Display Properties, from a shortcut on the desktop or in the Programs group, or from the system tray.

CATALYST Control Center is based on Microsoft's .NET framework, with a client-server model. CATALYST Control Center has a runtime component that acts as the server, with the user interface the client (and any other plug-ins that go through it). Microsoft's next generation OS, Longhorn, is also expected to be based on the .NET framework which will allow ATI to easily port the Control Panel when it becomes available.

Each of the 3D settings, such as individual controls for FSAA, Anisotropic Filtering, Texture Preference, Mip map Level of Detail, TRUFORM and SMARTSHADER, have their own Control Panel page with the preview window. However, for advanced users that don’t require the preview there is a "No Preview" page which lists all the control and options on a single page.

The SMARTGART feature is only available for AGP based video cards. This feature will not be available on PCI Express graphics cards. With SMARTGART several settings can be activated or de-activated according to the users own needs. Instantly change AGP speed's, read and writes etc. This allows the user to adjust these parameters for performance and compatibility issues, making this a very compatible card for any AGP system, old or new.

The 3D Preview Window does a good job in showing the effects of different graphical settings like the application of AA and AF. Users can get instantaneous feedback for what AA does for example without having to leave the driver Control Panel. I like the fact you can see what these settings do for the image quality, allowing you to see the changes with the 3D based on the performance or quality settings you choose.