Intel and NVIDIA have had their battles over the year and it hardly comes as a surprise that they are at it once again. Even less surprisingly it’s NVIDIA’s Ion platform that is in the center of attention. After NVIDIA grabbed Apple’s chipset contract with GeForce 9400M right in front of Intel it has now set its sight on the netbook market with the Ion platform. It’s a shrunk version of GeForce 9400M and the goal has been to create a shrunk version Intel’s 945 chipset which has been the best friend of Atom.
NVIDIA has been displaying its Ion platform to developers and consumers over the last few weeks. It is pretty obvious that Intel does not stand a chance in terms of performance with its current netbook chipsets, but that doesn’t mean it will just fold and give up. In a document called NVIDIA Ion Competitive Position Guide Intel more or less attacks NVIDIA’s new netbook platform.
Intel tries to undermine Ion on several points, among others the fact that the test samples that have been sent out have all been of different version, and that Ion is based on an older chipset. Calling the Ion chipset old is certainly a lot like throwing javelins indoors (Swedish expression (Let he who is without sin cast the first stone … kind of)) considering the stone age 945GSE circuit Intel is pushing.
It also points out that Ion will cost more and consume more power, but it pays no attention to the better performance of the Ion platform.
Not the least it points to the short lifespan of Ion, since Intel’s Pineview processors will integrate the graphics circuit into the processor. Pineview will appear in the fourth quarter 2009 and even if it will be a perfect platform, Ion will still remain the more powerful alternative, graphics-wise.
Intel is without a doubt worried about the potential of the Ion platform. Even if it may sound a bit immoral to stab one of its competitors in the back it is very common with these two and NVIDIA has done the same to Intel on several occasions in the past, they have lowered the bar to levels where they are playing all by themselves with little to no pride.
NVIDIA on the other hand has published a video comparison at its Ion website where it makes fun of the performance of Intel’s integrated graphics circuits, with everything from crashing 3D games to stuttering HD video playback.
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