Some very exciting news has surfaced, which may provide the next exciting development for netbooks.
At the present time, netbooks are not suited to graphically intensive tasks such as photo/video editing, and playing games or HD video. However, a new graphics platform proposed by Nvidia could soon change that.
The new platform is nicknamed Ion, and combines the Intel Atom processor already used in netbooks, with an Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics chip.
So what does this mean? Well, basically it means that netbooks will have some serious graphical grunt compared to what they have now.
Nvidia are promising 5x faster graphics and 10x faster video transcoding - which is a significant improvement on existing performance. This should allow HD video to be played easily.
On the gaming front, it is being claimed that a game like Call of Duty 4 will run at a resolution of 1024×768 and 25-30 frames per second. This means that many games will be playable, providing the detail settings are lowered to a reasonable level.
This beefing up of graphics will also mean that netbooks are much more capable of running Windows Vista Premium, and the forthcoming Windows 7.
All of the above improvements are said to come with no impact upon the battery life that we see in the current crop of notebooks - which is surprising given that you would expect a graphics chip to increase power usage.
This graphically boosted range of netbooks is expected to appear mid-2009, so plenty of time to drool in the run up to their release. In terms of cost, you can expect to pay around $50 more compared to current prices.
Via: Gizmodo, Tech Radar, CNet, Slash Gear, Engadget, Ubergizmo
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January 2nd, 2009 at 3:46 pm
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