1. As Time Goes By: GeForce Go Catches Up With The 6800

Exactly one year ago, NVIDIA launched its latest high-end graphics solution for mobiles: the GeForce FX Go 5700. Since then, many things have changed, with PCI Express beginning to replace AGP in the desktop market. From a technical point of view, this change is not pressing, and should be seen more as an attempt by some big industry players to orchestrate progress.

However, notebook core logic will not be blessed with PCI Express before 2005, when Intel's Sonoma platform kicks off. Its Alviso chipset will incorporate PCI Express, DDR2 memory support and Serial ATA. Until then, mobile devices running PCI Express will continue to use a Grantsdale desktop chipset. As you can imagine, these parts have not been designed for energy efficiency, and do not support processors other than Intel's desktop Prescott. Obviously, these so-called desktop replacement devices are rather heavy and offer pathetic battery life.

With the release of the Mobility Radeon 9800 three months ago, ATI has been offering the fastest graphics chip available for mobile computers. This challenge could not be left unanswered by NVIDIA, which is why it was only a matter of time until their answer hit the scene. Today is the day, and the GeForce Go 6800 is intended to change things fundamentally.