Nvidia Corp., a leading supplier of discrete graphics processing units, this week announced its new GeForce 200M-series graphics chips aimed at mobile computers. The new processors are made using 40nm process technology and support DirectX 10.1 functionality, a feature-set which importance Nvidia has always downplayed.

Performance-wise, the new GeForce G210M, GT 230M, GT 240M, GTS 250M and GTS 260M will not bring new performance heights: the maximum amount of stream processors per GPU is 96 units and the peak theoretical performance is 396GFLOPs, which is considerably below compared to modern desktop entry-level graphics chips. But while the new chips are hardly high-performers, 40nm process technology as well as power saving technologies allowed Nvidia to reduce power consumption of the mobile graphics solutions to 14W – 38W range.

Note: Actual specifications depend on actual notebook design.

The new chips are not only made using TSMC’s latest 40nm process technology, but also feature support for DirectX 10.1 feature-set as well as GDDR5 memory type. Nvidia has always downplayed the importance of DirectX 10.1, but the company still decided to implement the super-set of the application programming interface in its new-generation graphics solutions. It is interesting to note that the company's web-site still claims that the new chips only feature Microsoft DirectX 10.0 support.

Rather surprisingly, but Nvidia has not released any official statements on the matter of the launch, but called its new mobile GeForce 200M chips “feature packed” and “future powered” on its web-site. The reason for this maybe rather simple: notebook manufacturers, with the exception of one or two select designs, will only start to ship new models featuring new graphics processing units (GPUs) sometimes during the back-to-school season, hence, the current announcement is rather formal.

Tags: Nvidia, Geforce, 40nm