UK Netbook Review

NVIDIA is introducing a new technology that allow laptops and netbooks to switch between integrated and dedicated graphics chips. For example, if you’re on Facebook, writing email, or just doing light surfing, you could switch to your chipset’s integrated graphics chip to save power. Then, when you’re watching an HD movie, or playing a graphics intensive game, NVIDIA’s new technology will automatically switch to the higher performance, dedicated, graphics card. The technology, which Nvidia showed off today, is called Optimus, and it’s designed to work with GeForce 200M, 300M, and GeForce M GPUs as well as the soon to be released NVIDIA ION 2 graphics processor. It supports Intel’s Core 2 Duo, Core i3, i5, and i7 processors and Intel Atom N450 CPUs.

According to Fudzilla, there will be no ION products from netbook pioneers Asus or MSI. Fudzilla speculates that Asus and MSI would rather stay on Intel’s good side than release ION powered machines. Intel officials have made no secret of the fact that they’d rather see Intel Atom based computer ship with Intel’s integrated graphics [...]

NVIDIA’s ION platform bundles the famous Intel Atom processor with a NVIDIA’s GeForce 9400M graphics processor. With this combo, you get the benefit of the Atom’s low power draw, but the increased graphics abilities of the GeForce 9400M let you decode blu-ray movies as well as giving you  better graphics performance for many video games [...]