Introduction

Everyone Knew It Was Coming

When Matrox first released the Millenium G400 and G400 Max, just about everyone knew the Marvel G400 wasn't far behind. Back in the day, ATI ruled the roost with the All-in-Wonder, the only all-in-one graphics card on the market (I have to admit that I bought one of these cards a couple years ago just for the TV-tuner.). Matrox later entered the all-in-one arena with the Marvel G200, and 3dfx has thrown its hat into the ring with the Voodoo 3 3500 TV.

The quality of all-in-one cards has improved drastically since the days of ATI's Rage II+ All-in-Wonder. Matrox's Marvel G200 raised the bar considerably, and ATI answered back with the All-in-Wonder 128. Then 3dfx jumped in with the V3 3500 TV and smacked down everyone, but now Matrox is finally releasing the Marvel G400-TV.

It Has Everything!

Built around the G400, the Marvel may be the best all around card for the PC enthusiast. The G400 chip takes care of all the gaming needs with great 3D performance and features such as Environment Mapped Bump Mapping and DualHead display technology. Matrox's new TurboGL driver gives the G400 a huge performance increase in Quake 2/3, Unreal, and other games based on the Quake and Unreal engines. No longer hampered by substandard OpenGL performance, the G400 is now our choice gaming platform.

Gaming performance is nice, but the Marvel's real claim to fame is the hardware video capture and editing features. There are plenty of people out there looking for a complete consumer level video editing solution, and the Marvel G400-TV fills the role nicely.

The G400's DualHead feature has incredible versatility. In addition to the Windows desktop environment, games are also starting to support multi-monitor features. Having a second display just for video playback also makes editing video a breeze. We got our hands on a Marvel G400-TV and put it through our usual barrage of tests. Read on to find out how it performed!