Digital Home Thoughts: NVIDIA Launches ION Graphics

"NVIDIA has unveiled a new netbook platform that combines an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GPU with an Intel Atom CPU to dramatically boost graphics performance on low power machines like netbooks and nettops. We first heard that NVIDIA was working on something like this a week and a half ago, and now the company says machines built around the platform could be ready to ship in the first half of 2009."

Anyone that has a netbook or an ultraportable knows that Intel's integrated graphics, while capable for regular 2D applications, is really lacking when it comes to 3D performance. NVIDIA appears to want to change all of that, pairing a GeForce 9400M with the Intel Atom. The 9400M is still classified as an IGP, but it performs considerably better than any solution from Intel. Supposedly, this new marriage won't drain any more power than an Atom/GMA 950 pairing as well. The only disappointment is that it will add a noticable price jump to netbooks. The great benefit I see from all of this is that even the humble netbook will be capable of 3D performance. Sure, it won't match a high performance rig, but it means that developers can work on applications knowing that 3D and powerful media capabilities are available.