Nvidia Ion – Adds high end graphics to your netbook

By on Friday 19th December 2008 11:01 am in Gadgets, Netbooks

Nvidia Ion – Adds high end graphics to your netbook

Nvidia has announced a new platform for netbooks , that is designed to deliver high end graphics similar to that of a PC, with their new Nvidia Ion Platform.

nvidia ion

The Nvidia Ion Platform will be able to deliver HD video and high end 3D gaming to your netbook, the platform combines Intel’s Atom processor with a Nvidia GeForce 9400m GPU, and it is likely to be released in the first half of 2009.

nvidia ion

The new Nvidia Ion platform will powerful enough to run Windows Vista and Windows 7 on netbooks, and according to Nvidia this new platform will generate less heat than the current Atom system, whilst offering the same battery life.

This new platform is likely to only add an extra $50 to netbook prices, and if it delivers the graphics performance Nvidia are claiming, we could see it in the majority of netbooks by the end of next year.

Nvidia via Laptopical

Update

The first picture shown is of the new Ion Reference, which is a small desktop PC like the Dell Optiplex 160.

“This Ion reference design is a full-fledged PC that supports full-spec 1080p HD video, popular PC games, and Windows Vista Premium. OEM designs can be even smaller.

28 Comments »

What do you think?

  • http://www.blahblahtech.com/ Wayne Smallman

    I thought external processing was done with? If I was into high-video or serious video gaming, I’d want to know if I could cluster these things…

  • http://www.geeky-gadgets.com Fatgadget

    I think the new platform will be actually built into the netbooks rather than being external, the first picture is of a new Ion desktop PC.

    “This Ion reference design is a full-fledged PC that supports full-spec 1080p HD video, popular PC games, and Windows Vista Premium. OEM designs can be even smaller.”

    It is designed to be similar to current Nettops like the Asus and Dell ones.

    Post Updated

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  • Nick J

    That does seem useful, but the Atom is hardly a high performance platform. It’s less than half as powerful (per cycle) as a Celeron-M. It may end up being the bottleneck, even with games. I also can’t see an Atom of any speed running Vista Premium well.

  • Dave

    9400M is NOT high end. For gaming it is unacceptable.

  • Duo

    I’d rather see something like this using the 9800GTX m in SLI and maybe use the VIA Nano or maybe an AMD Turion X2 as the CPU, if they can fit it into a laptop they can fit that into a laptop they can fit it into something like this.

    9400m is fine if you wanna play WoW and watch videos, but its slow for most anything made in the last 2 years.

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  • http://www.geeky-gadgets.com Fatgadget

    @ Dave, Hi Dave I agree it is not high end gaming, but it would be great inside a netbook compared to their current capabilities.

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  • burgerbob

    I think that the companies are losing sight of what netbooks are for- long battery life for easy tasks, not watching HD video and playing Crysis (joke!) in your average internet cafe on your nice 9″ screen. I don’t see the point of having a superpowered (relatively) netbook. I would like a tiny desktop like that, but how much use would it have either?

  • Why?

    This is a stupid product. If a person wanted to play games they wouldnt have purchased a netbook.

  • Dwindle

    I agree.
    These are designed to be portable internet/business machines. Peripherals are useless unless the netbook is your primary machine.

  • Tony

    I think some of you guys are missing the point, this is not going to be an add on for netbooks, it will be built in.

    I would love to be able to watch HD videos on my netbook whilst I am on a plane, and the extra cost of $50 per netbook seems worthwhile.

  • LeftyAce

    You watch HD videos on a netbook? With what, an HD monitor you bring as carry-on?

  • hacker

    this is like taking a step backwards and totally unacceptable for gaming !

  • Jack Vermicelli

    LeftyAce wrote “You watch HD videos on a netbook? With what, an HD monitor you bring as carry-on?”

    My netbook happens to have a video output device integrated into it from the factory. It displays at 1024×600 pixels, which is well over 720p.

  • Jack Vermicelli

    ^
    |

    Redacted. *blush*

  • da_grum

    the resolution of 720P video is 1280*720, i don’t see how your output is well over that ….

  • Buggsy2

    Good product, but not for netbooks, rather for a 24/7 Linux Home Theatre machine, proxy server, Myth TV, etc. Wonder how much power it draws.

  • Hottestbrain

    The only problem is that there will not be any atoms sold without an intel chipset. The atom will be soldered to the mainboard so this product is renered useless by Intel :(

  • Katanashi

    ^^^
    yes, this seems like would be more of a space saving workstation/HTPC over a gaming rig.

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  • http://www.gadget5.com/ Gadget5

    More games choice for netbook owners! good news :)

  • http://www.mervisdiamond.com Diamond

    im confused, i mean i see how your adding allot to the graphical side of things but netbooks usually have very low specs, i cant imagine being able to play Crysis on a netbook even with one of these things, shouldnt the RAM requirements alone kill it?

  • gary

    Diamond Says:
    shouldnt the RAM requirements alone kill it?

    no because it comes with 2 GB DDR3-1066 CAS 7, it can play call of duty 4 at low setting

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  • http://yamum.com markk

    can I upgrade my acer aspire one netbook’s graphics card to this nvidia ion one?

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