NVIDIA Announces Power Saving for Mobile GPUs

Well, at this point, it looks like NVIDIA and ATI are really in a race to be the top dog in graphics. NVIDIA comes out with GeForce 3, and ATI comes out with the Radeon 8500 (which Tom looked at recently in this preview ). Then, NVIDIA pulled the Quadro2 Go GPU for mobile workstations out of its back pocket and ATI countered with its own hotrod RADEON 7500 mobile processor. Well, at the same time that ATI came out with the 7500, it also introduced its POWERPLAY power-reduction technology for laptops. Now, NVIDIA is in second place (time-wise at least) with its PowerMizer technology, which (you guessed it) allows users to extend battery life using a power management system that's integrated into the mobile chip's hardware and software. NVIDIA says that PowerMizer enables features already built into NVIDIA's GeForce2 Go mobile GPUs and can reduce system-level power consumption by reducing CPU load and saving power within the graphics subsystem. Instead of increasing voltage to deliver peak performance, PowerMizer uses 1.575V and can reduce power gobbling to one-half watt for standard office applications in maximum battery mode setting. PowerMizer technology will be featured in notebooks powered by NVIDIA's GeForce2 Go, Quadro2 Go, and future mobile GPUs. Both ATI's and NVIDIA's latest mobile offerings are targeted at "workstation level" mobile machines. I still doubt that many CAD users and 3D content creators will switch to working on laptops, but if the competition between the companies leads to reduced power consumption for the gadgets, let `em keep chasing each other. Competition is good for consumers.