NVIDIA ION 2 vs NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS SLI vs NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX
NVIDIA ION 2
► remove from comparisonThe Nvidia ION 2 (GT218-ION-A3 / GT218-ILV-A3) is a dedicated graphics card for the new Pinetrail Atom CPUs (e.g., N450, D510, D410 announced Dec 2009) Generation. The ION2 is based on the GT218 chip (GeForce 305M, 310M) with dedicated memory (compared to the old ION that was a chipset graphics card). Because of the limitations of the Pinetrail chipset, it can only be connected with PCIe 1x. Therefore, the performance of the chip is slower than a similar GeForce G210M e.g.
The ION 2 comes in three versions, that differ in core speed and shader cores.
10" Netbook ION
The ION chip in 10" netbooks with Pinetrail Atoms offers only 8 shader cores and a clock rate of 405 MHz. According to Nvidia the performance should still be similar to the first generation of ION. The power consumption of 6 Watt is rather low, and therefore fully suited for small netbooks.
12" Netbook ION
The 12" version features all 16 cores of the GT218 chip and is clocked at 475 MHz. The performance should be above the old ION platform.
Desktop & Netbook ION
The desktop version is clocked even higher at 535 MHz as no power restrictions have to be met.
First benchmarks by netbooknews.de on a pre-sample of the Acer Aspire 532g with the 8-shader-core version resulted in about 3000 points in 3DMark03. That would be noticeably slower than a ION 1 netbook. The relative low result can be explained by the early sample and the PCIe 1x bus. Still, compared to a GMA 3150 the performance is a lot better.
As the integrated GMA 3150 graphics in the Atom CPU is quite limited (slow 3D performance, no HD video acceleration, no digital monitor output), the ION 2 is intended to adress these weak points. It offers a better 3D performance, (digital) monitor outputs (HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, and VGA), video acceleration with PureVideo HD (since Flash 10.1 also for Internet Videos in HD) and CUDA for using the computing power of the GPU.
The netbook ION 2 versions also supports Optimus to automatically switch between the dedicated (ION) and integrated (GMA 3150) graphics card. Therefore the battery runtime without GPU load should be equal to a non ION netbook. The HDMI port however always triggers the use of the ION card, as the port cant be used with the GMA 3150.
The power consumption of 6-12 Watt TDP is quite high for an Atom system, but the ION 2 should be switchable (with the integrated GMA 3150) which still can lead to high battery runtimes.
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS SLI
► remove from comparisonTwo NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS graphics cards are bounded by SLI. This shows only in SLI supported games a clear performance advantage and makes it partially faster than a GTX version. The smaller version of the 7900 GTX with less shader- and vertex-pipelines and according data sheet less current consumption. It is only useful for big laptops, because of the high current consumption of each graphic card.
Current games like Far Cry, Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory, Oblivion, Call of Duty 2 or Half Life 2 - Lost Coast can be played with high details and resolutions without any problem. Antialiasing and anisotrope filter can be set in all games except Oblivion (with >30fps).
List of SLI supported games: SLIZone.com
The chip also features the PureVideo Technology but has less features as the PureVideo engine in the current 8600M GT chip. > Comparison of PureVideo features
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX
► remove from comparisonThe NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX is top of the mobile graphic cards line from NVIDIA (of the 7000 series) and successor of the 7900 GTX graphics card. It enables the user to play all games from 2006 fluently in the highest resolutions and options. As a consequence, the heat is correspondingly high. Therefore it can be used only in DTR laptops (17"). At moment, there is nothing better for gamers (except the SLI version with 2 cards).
The performance can be compared partially even with the Desktop 7950 GT video cards (partially a bit better, according NVIDIA). Therefore, the Geforce Go 7950 GTX is able to display actual games like F.E.A.R., Company of Heroes, or Call of Duty 2 fluently in high details and high resolutions.
The chip also features the PureVideo Technology but has less features as the PureVideo engine in the current 8600M GT chip. > Comparison of PureVideo features
NVIDIA ION 2 | NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS SLI | NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Codename | GT218-ION-A3, GT218-ILV-A3 | G71M | G71M | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | GT2xx | G7x | G7x | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pipelines | 16 - unified | 40 / 14 Pixel- / Vertexshader | 24 / 8 Pixel- / Vertexshader | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Core Speed | 405 / 475 / 535 MHz | 375 MHz | 575 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shader Speed | ? / 1100 / ? MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Speed | 790 MHz | 500 MHz | 700 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Bus Width | 64 Bit | 256 Bit | 256 Bit | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Type | DDR2, DDR3 | GDDR3 | GDDR3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Max. Amount of Memory | 512 MB | 1024 MB | 512 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shared Memory | no | no | no | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
API | DirectX 10.1, Shader 4.1 | DirectX 9c, Shader 3.0 | DirectX 9c, Shader 3.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Power Consumption | 6/12 Watt | 40 Watt | 45 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
technology | 40 nm | 90 nm | 90 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of Announcement | 10.01.2010 | 01.06.2006 | 12.10.2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Link to Manufacturer Page | www.nvidia.com | www.nvidia.de | www.nvidia.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GeForce Go 7900 Series |
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Transistors | 556 Million | 278 Million | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | 90nm | HDR, Intellisample 4.0, UltraShadow II, PureVideo, CineFX 4.0, PowerMizer 6.0, Transparency Antialiasing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notebook Size | large | large | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Information | SLI = 2 Grafikkarten im Verbund, 90nm, 2.278 Mio Transistoren, MXM-Modul | 90nm, 278 Mio transistors, MXM-Module, Drivers are available at nvidia.com |