Matrox Marvel G400TV

Gaming Performance

The most obvious difference between the Marvel G200 and the new Marvel G400 is, of course, the difference in gaming performance. Honestly, the G200 was not an excellent gamer's chip, but it had the potential to be. However after being plagued by poor driver releases and the resulting poor gaming performance, it didn't end up with very positive performance figures in comparison to the TNTs and the Voodoo2s out there at the time. The Marvel G200 was never intended to be a gamer's solution but the G200 part of that equation kept a few possible users from pursuing what would otherwise be a very interesting card to use in their systems.

This is one of the areas in which the Marvel G400 improves on. The G400 is a much more competitive gaming solution than the G200 was upon its release. While driver issues are still present with the G400, at least the performance of the chipset (especially considering the upcoming release of the G400 TurboGL drivers) is up to par with the competition in contrast to the G200 where the performance wasn’t up to par with the competition. Keep in mind that Matrox's target market with this product still isn't the hardcore gaming market, because honestly, they cannot succeed there with this chip, but they are at least better equipped with the G400 as the heart and soul of the Marvel than they were with the G200.

But how does this performance compare to competing products? Considering that the only competing products are the ATI All-in-Wonder 128 and the 3dfx Voodoo3 3500TV there isn't that big of a comparison that needs to be made. Compared to the All-in-Wonder 128, the performance of the G400 versus the Rage 128 (the core of the AIW128) is obviously superior. The Rage 128, if you recall, was a creation from the generation just prior to that of the V3/TNT2/G400 family of 3D graphics chips, so it isn't a surprise that in terms of gaming performance the Marvel G400 holds the advantage over the AIW128.

The 3dfx Voodoo3 3500TV is another story. While ATI married a decent video editing platform with a weak performing graphics chipset 3dfx linked a strong performance oriented graphics chipset with a weak video editing platform. The result? A really fast gaming card with TV input and output. Notice the emphasis on the gaming part rather than the TV input/output, because the 3500TV is mainly a gamer's card with a few extra features. In terms of gaming performance, the Marvel G400 does offer 32-bit rendering but in terms of raw gaming performance the 3500TV holds the advantage.

On the performance ladder, the Marvel G400 falls in-between the AIW128 and the Voodoo3 3500TV which is a much better ranking than the year old Marvel G200 can boast.

For updated performance scores of the G400 visit our Matrox G400 Revisited Article