Make no mistake, the ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV is a great sim racing video card. With my 1.2Ghz Celeron processor I get around 50 frames-per-second at Bristol at 1024x768 with most of the graphic options turned on. It looks awesome and is very smooth, even in traffic.

But the card doesn't stop earning it's keep when I put the steering wheel away. Then I can plug in my digital video camera to the 8500DV, load up my latest home movie and create my masterpiece. If I get tired of video editing I can use the wireless RF remote and watch some TV, or even a DVD.

I love to watch Kenny, Johnny and Mikey on Inside Winston Cup racing on Monday night, but I'm usually working on my site when it's on. Now I can watch the show on my desktop while I work and if I miss something ATI's TV-On-Demand time shifting works just like ReplayTV or TiVo and I can pause and rewind a live television program! This is very cool and doesn't require any extra hardware, everything you need is in the box.

Early on the drivers were not very good, performance was spotty and the card was sometimes unstable. Recently, ATI announced their Catalyst driver program which promises regular, stable driver releases. Over the last two months or so we've seen two sets of official Catalyst drivers for the ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV and they've both improved performance and introduced even greater stability.

With the new drivers I can heartily recommend the ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV video card for the whole family.