Nvidia ION 2 to be GeForce G310 discrete GPU?
January 15, 2010 at 8:30 am
If there was one disappointment at CES, it was a lack of information (or products) using the Nvidia ION 2 GPU. Nvidia used CES to mainly talk about its Tegra 2 chipset, however it wasn’t only ION 2 that got left to the wayside, even its upcoming Fermi line of desktop cards were barely mentioned.
Anyway, whilst much rumour and speculation continues over what form the ION 2 will take, Pierre over at Blogeee came across some promotional material that may give some insights. An upcoming Asus EeeTop ET2010PNT will be using “Nvidia GeForce G310 ION2 graphics with hardware decoding” according to the marketing blurb.
This would confirm previous rumours that ION 2 will not be a chipset, like the original ION, but will instead be a discrete GPU part. The GeForce G310 is basically a rebadged G210 according to reports. Judging by the desktop version, the G310 has DX10.1 compatibility and is a 16-core CUDA part. It also has multi-monitor support and HDMI 1.3a for 7.1 surround sound. It supports a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels.
Question marks remain over whether there would be enough bandwidth for such a card to work over the PCI-E lanes, battery life and cost. Whilst this may not be an issue for nettops, I imagine it is trickier to fit something like this into a netbook. With a no-show at CES, maybe Intel’s two-chip Pine Trail platform really has thrown the spanner in the works for Nvidia.
January 15th, 2010 6:59 PM
So the consumer suffers. By selecting a Pineview solution, Intel may have shut Nvidia out of the netbook market. The problem is that the graphics capability of the Pineview is crap as well. So the solution offered by Pineview is no solution at all. Anyone who wants a low power, small factor solution is left with ATI/AMD Congo solutions. Although you may ask if there is any demand for Ion like graphics out there, the sales of the Ion 1 Netbooks is proof positive that there is. My wife, a realtor, loves her Lenovo S12 Ion and uses it as a mobile presentation device to display MLS listings. The GPU is a real plus for this use. If there is no Pineview – Ion 2 netbook on the market when she goes to replace her current unit, she will look to either an AMD device or look for the smallest and lightest CULV unit with dedicated graphics. Yes … NVIVIA may be cut out here but I don’t get Intel’s strategy.
January 16th, 2010 11:13 AM
I agree Jack, ION does make a real difference, especially for those who don’t mind suffering a bit of endurance for the enhanced multimedia/CUDA abilities.
Let’s hope Nvidia aren’t down and out when it comes to an ION solution for Pine Trail…