21. Conclusion: Change Of Leadership, Madness (Likely To) Continue

After quite some time lagging behind ATI, Nvidia conquers the performance crown again in the mobile segment of high-performance graphic chips. The current mobile flagship of the GeForce Go 6800 series integrates twelve pixel pipelines, five vertex shaders and a programmable video processor, to empower mobile PCs such as the Sager N9860. The results are impressive, as the benchmark results show, with the unit achieving 3D performance results close to those of well-equipped desktop PCs.

The Geforce Go 6800 is also Nvidia's first chip made available as a Mobile PCI Express Module (MXM). However, the end user will not derive any special advantage from this pseudo-standard now, nor for the foreseeable time. The reason is not so much ATI - which promotes its own "standardized" module AXIOM - but rather the fact that notebooks are not open systems like desktop PCs. Desktop systems allow the user to simply replace components such as a graphic card, power supply or processor. However, while some notebooks also allow users to upgrade the CPU and graphic chips, possibilities are limited by the thermal design of each model.

These circumstances raise certain doubts about the real driver for the development of both proprietary standards (MXM, AXIOM). I am not convinced that they were primarily intended to protect the customer's investment by creating the opportunity to upgrade. Rather, I suspect that the manufacturers had their own reasons for promoting the module concept.

On the one hand, the modules are a tool for notebook manufacturers to keep or even increase current margins. MXM and AXIOM will allow companies to reduce development cost and time-to-market, since the thermal design of a particular notebook model will only need to be adjusted to the maximum thermal level of the respective chip family. On the other hand, graphic card manufacturers will be able to increase their revenue base: the module concept enables them to sell not one but several different chips for a specific notebook model. In terms of graphic performance, MXM and AXIOM-based notebooks are easy scalable.  

We have a few thoughts about the Sager N9860 too. Certainly, it is the fastest portable PC our lab has seen to date. On the other hand, we are not so sure that this device even still be considered a notebook: 'portable PC' may be a much more appropriate description for this 12 pound monster. We admit that the performance potential and comprehensive equipment of the N9860 are nothing less than exciting. But a look at the price of the test configuration ($3500) throws us quickly back into reality. When you add all the bells and whistles, such as two optical drives, 2 GB RAM, a P4 560 3.6 GHz and 2x80 GB SATA-RAID, the price inflates to an eye-popping $5400!  

Gamers usually prefer a PC with a large display. However, the native resolution should be in line with resolutions commonly in games (XGA,SXGA,UXGA). To our knowledge, there are no action games which support widescreen resolution modes.

Despite all this, users who are looking for a powerful workstation to perform demanding work such as video editing, or who just want to own another status symbol, will find a friend in the Sager N9860 (or its sister model D900T, built by Eurocom.) After all, prospective owners of a Ferrari or a Porsche do not ask if the car gets good gas mileage or if the mufflers are quiet. And certainly, they don't worry too much about whether the price for all that performance is appropriate.      

One thing is certain however: the development of 3D graphic monsters for portable PC systems will continue. ATI will soon open yet another battle in this war.