7. Conclusion

With the newest generation of DirectX 9-capable mobile GPUs (or VPUs), notebooks will become more interesting for gamers. However, until the manufacturers send us the appropriate test systems, we won't be able to say which manufacturer offers the better choice. With notebooks, as opposed to desktop cards, it's a bit more problematic because there is a close relationship between the graphics company and the notebook manufacturer. Although ATI gave us the opportunity for a first test, this, in the end, merely involved a notebook "simulation", and testing was conducted under strict conditions that were less than satisfying. At least ATI offered more than NVIDIA, though.

The most interesting confrontation will take place between the Mobility Radeon 9600 and the GeForce FX Go5600. However, ATI is still doing all it can to hold back the desktop variation of the Radeon 9600 and delaying the distribution of test samples, so it's still difficult to come up with a meaningful conclusion in this regard.

In the lower price segment, NVIDIA's modern FX Go5200 will be able to score points against the Mobility Radeon 9200, which is technologically outmoded when it comes to 3D. This is already suggested by the benchmarks of the desktop models of the chips: NVIDIA GeForceFX 5600 Ultra & FX 5200 Ultra: Performance.

Even without extensive testing, it can be speculated that for some PC gamers, notebooks in the near future will become complete desktop replacements as far as this is possible. At the moment, it is still difficult to estimate how the notebooks that are equipped with the new mobile 3D chips will perform compared to desktop PCs. We can only give you an answer to this question and to the question of power consumption when the finished products are available. However, other factors, such as the displays used and, even more important, the extent to which the chip is used by the notebook manufacturer, play an important role. The fact is, if you are thinking of replacing your gaming PC with a notebook that's fitted with one of these new chips, then you should first consider that notebooks equipped with the top variants will also carry price tags that are among the highest. Even the driver situation in the notebook segment is completely different because this is controlled directly by the notebook manufacturer, and driver updates are usually seldom made, in contrast to desktop graphics cards.