Nvidia announces new chipsets, Hybrid SLI
Three product announcements from Nvidia
Nvidia's three announcements today are perhaps not that surprising if you follow the PC tech rumor mill, but it's nice to finally have confirmation.
First, is the introduction of Nvidia's next-generation chipset, the NForce 700-series. The 780a, 750a, and 730a are AMD-only designs based on the AM2+ CPU interface. They allow for
But more than matching AMD's CPUs with Nvidia's SLI technology, the new chipsets also bring about Hybrid SLI, an overarching term for two new technologies, Hybrid Power and GeForce Boost.
Hybrid Power is aimed mostly at laptop gamers. If you have a Hybrid Power-enabled laptop with both a discrete graphics chip and an integrated graphics chip (which we expect to see this quarter), you will be able to shut off the power-hungry discrete chip and divert basic Windows desktop rendering to the integrated chip. Hybrid Power is exclusive to 780a and 750a chipsets, and will also require as yet unannounced discrete graphics chips to work.
GeForce Boost, alternatively, should interest mainstream desktop gamers, and will have an impact as soon as you get an NForce 700-series chipset. Here you can pair your 700-series graphics chip (which we'll get to) with a GeForce 8400 GT or a 8500 GS (as well as budget cards going forward) and enjoy a boost to overall 3D graphics processing. Nvidia demonstrated a GeForce Boost-enabled system at least running Crysis with a semismooth frame rate in DirectX 10 mode at 800x600. Both this concept and Hybrid Power are similar to ATI's Hybrid Crossfire, announced last month.
Finally, Nvidia also introduced its nominally DirectX 10-capable GeForce 8200 integrated graphics chip. You'll find a version of this chip on all of the new NForce 700-series chipsets. In addition to basic gaming, Nvidia says the new chip also offers full PureVideo HD support (Nvidia's video decoding software, which also received an update, mostly by way of automated color and contrast tweaking). With that capability, chipsets that include the GeForce 8200 will also support Blu-ray and HD DVD playback without a discrete graphics card. That opens the door to more HD-capable small-chassis desktops.