ATI All-in-Wonder 128

ATI All-in-Wonder 128 vs. Matrox Marvel G200

The most natural card to compare the All-in-Wonder 128 to is the Matrox Marvel G200, which provides many of the same features. However, the Marvel is missing some key features and does not perform the features it does have as well as the All-in-Wonder 128. The three biggest differences come in video capture options, DVD support, and 3D performance - probably the three most important areas for many potential customers.

The video capture issue is a matter of available formats - the Marvel G00 only supports video capture using the Motion-JPEG (M-JPEG) format, which greatly limits the flexibility of its video capture compared to the ATI All-in-Wonder 128. First and foremost, M-JPEG is not a universally accepted format and finding a CODEC for it is not so easy. This makes distribution of the recorded video a more difficult task than it should be. The second problem with M-JPEG is that it requires over three times as much space as MPEG-2 at the same resolution and frame rate. This can be partially attributed to the fact that M-JPEG performs no compression on audio, where as MPEG (1 and 2) achieves 10:1 compression on audio with virtually no quality loss. This is a major issue since CD quality audio can add up extremely quickly - remember, those 650MB CD's only hold 74 minutes of audio. To top it off, MPEG just flat out performs better compression as shown below:

M-JPEG is at a slight disadvantage in the graph above since it performs no compression on the audio portion and CD audio of course takes a lot of space quickly as mentioned above. However, M-JPEG with no audio what so ever would only reduce the file size by approximately 5%, no where near enough to bring it to the level of MPEG.

DVD playback is another area where All-in-Wonder 128 really excels thanks to built in hardware DVD decoding. The Marvel G200 does support DVD playback, but you must use either software decoding or purchase a $99 hardware DVD daughter board. The software decoding of the G200 requires more CPU power and does not look nearly as good as that of the hardware Rage 128 decoder. The DVD daughter board for the G200 was not available for comparison.

Then there is the question of 3D performance, which is a little unfair to the older Marvel G200, but which must still be addressed. The Rage 128 chip used on the All-in-Wonder 128 brings to the table a much more complete feature set than the G200 featured on the Marvel. The G200 features just half the raw fillrate of the Rage 128 - 100Mpixels/s for the G200 compared to 200Mpixels/s for the Rage 128. The Rage 128 also features single pass multitexturing support, while the G200 must take two rendering passes to apply the same two textures. Matrox and ATI have both built in full AGP 2X support into these chips. Both chips feature a full 32-bit rendering pipeline, including 32-bit Z-buffering, but the Rage 128 takes a much smaller performance hit when 32-bit rendering is enabled. Finally, the Rage 128 features a full OpenGL ICD for both Windows 9x and NT, while the Matrox has only now (after 8 months) released the second beta of their OpenGL ICD that only works under Windows 9x and does not even work with the Marvel G200 drivers. Not surprisingly, the benchmarks on the previous page show that the G200 lags seriously behind the Rage 128 in 3D performance. 2D performance is comparable and the G200 appears to have a better AGP implementation.

The Marvel G200 does get the edge for its excellent break out box, which features all the video input and output connectors hooked to the Marvel by a single cable, so you will never have to climb under your desk to plug something in. The All-in-Wonder 128 does use a break out box (which, incidentally is much smaller) that features just the audio/video RCA and S-video inputs, so you will be able to constantly change inputs with no problem. However, it still uses a "dongle" (it looks like a splitter cable) that attaches to the back of the card for audio out and TV-out. The coaxial CATV plug is also on the actual All-in-Wonder 128 card, but is found on the Marvel's break out box. The last issue with the break out box is that the Marvel's has a SPDIF output for digital audio that is not available on the 16MB All-in-Wonder (but will be added to the 32MB version). The whole break out box issue is irrelevant if you leave all these components hooked up all the time. However, if you only use the TV-out or TV-tuner occasionally, it could become a minor pain with the All-in-Wonder 128.

The Marvel G200 also has a more flexible TV-out option that supports up to 1024x768 compared with the ATI's maximum of 800x600. Both cards have excellent 2D performance and support - Matrox gets a slight edge here for their excellent 2D utilities, although the Rage 128's are not bad and ATI may be improve them in the future with features like virtual desktops. ATI's multimedia center definitely beats out Matox's by including many additional features, such as instant replay, "TV Magazine", TV as the desktop background, and the channel surfing preview. Finally, the G200 chips in general have featured excellent 2D image quality that is unmatched by any other card with an integrated RAMDAC. The Rage 128's 2D image quality is certainly above that of the TNT and many other cards, but not quite to the level of the G200.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the Marvel G200 is available as an 8MB card that is upgradable to 16MB, whereas the All-in-Wonder 128 comes with a non upgradable 16MB (see below for information on the upcoming 32MB version). To further rub it in, the All-in-Wonder 128 with 16MB retails for $249 compared to the 8MB Marvel G200's $299 price tag.