Technocity

Nvidia has launched a new graphics chip for laptop computers that it says is its fastest to date. The GeForce GTX 280M gives a 50 percent performance boost over previous Nvidia GPUs, said Brian Burke, an Nvidia spokesman. It includes 128 cores and delivers 562 gigaflops of performance, the company said. It was announced at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover, Germany. The performance may have been helped by an improved manufacturing process, said Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research. The chip is manufactured using a 55-nanometer process, compared to the 65-nanometer process employed for other recent Nvidia chips. The new process may also help the GPU draw less power, Peddie said. To further extend battery life, the 280M can switch between using a separate graphics card and an integrated graphics processor, Nvidia said. The GTX 280M is aimed at gaming enthusiasts and those who use demanding multimedia applications. It supports SLI (Scalable Link Interface), which allows two GTX 280...

Asus might be most famous for its low-cost netbooks, but its latest multimedia powerhouse is the kind of laptop that’ll give your average desktop PC an inferiority complex. Let me whet your appetite with some tasty morsels from the W90’s specifications - for starters there’s a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 garnished with 6GB of RAM and two 320GB hard disks and, for the main course, not one but two ATI Mobility Radeon HD4870 graphics chipsets with 512MB memory apiece. If you’ve still not had your fill, there’s a tasty 18.4in Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 LED-backlist display for dessert. Asus also assure us that the DVD writer in our pre-production model will make way for a BluRay drive in production models. And, in a refreshing departure from the gaming laptop norm, it doesn’t light up like a neon pound-shop Xmas tree every time you turn it on. Instead, the W90 finds itself finished in altogether more stylish, sombre tones. Brushed aluminium spans its giant-sized lid and its interior glimmers ...