Nvidia and Intel Team Up For Ion Netbook Platform

Nvidia, the #1 graphics chip maker in the computer industry, has finally decided to enter the netbook race. They have recently announced their newest platform, the ION. While it is not a revolutionary new chip (it has in fact been around a while), it’s pairing with the Intel Atom processor is what really makes it important to netbook owners and addicts.

About Ion

Ion is a combination of the current Intel Atom processors, used in most netbooks, with Nvidias 9400M mobile GPU. The 9400M is currently used in many budget laptops and is also the GPU you will find in Apple’s Macbook Pro line. The new chips will offer up 5x faster graphics as well as up to 10x faster video transcoding.

So what does this mean to you?

The Ion will allow you to run video much, much faster. For those of you that have a first generation netbook (like my HP mini), you have probably noticed that the video can cause serious hiccups. With the 9400M, you can now run HD Video in full 1080p and Nvidia even went as far as to say that the platform will be capable of Blu-Ray playback. Not only that, but Nvidia has been quoted as saying that the new platform can run Call of Duty 4 with 25-30 fps consistently. That is quite a feat considering my current netbook can barely run the simple games on Yahoo. What that also means is that this new line of netbooks should also be able to run World of Warcraft on decent quality settings. I must be honest when I tell you that this has me VERY excited. Read more

August 11, 2009 · Filed Under Netbook reviews, Nvidia