NVIDIA GeForce 8M: DirectX 10 Goes Mobile
by Jarred Walton on May 9, 2007 1:00 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
Additional Features
The DirectX 10 unified architecture is common to all of NVIDIA's GeForce 8 series hardware. All of the midrange solutions incorporate the new PureVideo HD video processing engine. The mobile offerings do have one other technology that's not present on desktop hardware: PowerMizer. Similar to Intel's SpeedStep technology, PowerMizer allows an NVIDIA mobile graphics chips to reduce clock speeds and voltages in order to conserve battery life and reduce heat output.
It wasn't clear from NVIDIA's presentation whether or not the latest GeForce 8M hardware makes any significant changes to the PowerMizer technology. However, here's a quick overview of the PowerMizer 7.0 technology. Again NVIDIA claims a twofold increase relative to last generation hardware (G72M vs. NB8M and G73M vs. NB8P), only this time the increase is in performance per watt efficiency. We would be very unimpressed if the new hardware wasn't at least better than the previous generation hardware, but we will hold off on saying more until we have had a bit more time to test NVIDIA's latest mobile GPUs.
PowerMizer 7.0
The DirectX 10 unified architecture is common to all of NVIDIA's GeForce 8 series hardware. All of the midrange solutions incorporate the new PureVideo HD video processing engine. The mobile offerings do have one other technology that's not present on desktop hardware: PowerMizer. Similar to Intel's SpeedStep technology, PowerMizer allows an NVIDIA mobile graphics chips to reduce clock speeds and voltages in order to conserve battery life and reduce heat output.
It wasn't clear from NVIDIA's presentation whether or not the latest GeForce 8M hardware makes any significant changes to the PowerMizer technology. However, here's a quick overview of the PowerMizer 7.0 technology. Again NVIDIA claims a twofold increase relative to last generation hardware (G72M vs. NB8M and G73M vs. NB8P), only this time the increase is in performance per watt efficiency. We would be very unimpressed if the new hardware wasn't at least better than the previous generation hardware, but we will hold off on saying more until we have had a bit more time to test NVIDIA's latest mobile GPUs.
PowerMizer 7.0
- Starts with upfront power efficient architecture design
- GPU-level and system-level power savings
- Activity based switching between performance modes
- Adaptive Clocking dynamically tunes power to match demand
- Dynamic Clock Gating intelligently shuts down unused circuitry
- Enhanced Analog Circuitry power savings - PLLs, TMDS, PCIE (ASPM and ASLM)
- New low-power memory modes of operation -- dynamic drive and termination switching
- CPU power savings -- maximum CPU offload for graphics and video applications
- Power panel savings -- SmartDimmer 2.0 dynamically modulate backlight-lamp power
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JarredWalton - Thursday, May 10, 2007 - link
No idea, although since Mac doesn't use DirectX for graphics and may not really matter much. Those who want to use a MacBook Pro and run Boot Camp could potentially benefit if they run Windows Vista, but for now I wouldn't count on Apple using the new NVIDIA parts. I could of course be wrong, as I don't really stay up-to-date on Apple plans.iwodo - Thursday, May 10, 2007 - link
I like mGPU for several reasons. Not only for laptop but also for desktop or other application.It allows you to run Vista with Aero. This is good enough for for most people who only want fast Interface.
VP2 would bring Full HD H.264 Decoding to the mass.
Combing with low power usage this is very good things like AppleTV.
Are mGPU only available on Laptop but not desktop? It would make a very cost effective PC for the mass.
Ajax9000 - Wednesday, May 9, 2007 - link
Any news on whether we will finally see DL-DVI support on all but the high-end / 17"+ laptops?JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 9, 2007 - link
When I get one of the 8000 notebooks I'll be able to verify if that's supported. I think it's an option but it's up to the notebook manufacturers to support it.overzealot - Thursday, May 10, 2007 - link
Any other wrongly listed games?
JarredWalton - Thursday, May 10, 2007 - link
Given Carmack's support of OpenGL, he might be using DX10 type fragments shaders in that manner. Obviously, the slide is provided by NVIDIA, so whether it's accurate or not is up to them. Supreme Commander is listed, and yet that's "DX10 via forthcoming patch" which is a bit obscure.JarredWalton - Thursday, May 10, 2007 - link
The slide has now been updated with a more current list of upcoming DX10 games.RamIt - Wednesday, May 9, 2007 - link
"We do have an early Santa Rosa notebook in-house for testing that's equipped with a GeForce Go 8600M GS, but unfortunately we've run into some difficulties during testing and won't be able to bring you actual performance results for a bit longer"Heavy sigh.