14 DAY TRIAL // Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA recently announced a new technology that it plans to officially introduce at beginning of this month. Dubbed Optimus, the solution was said to target the notebook segment, providing consumers with the tools to boost system performance, but not having to worry about battery life, due to said increment in graphics performance. On that note, the outfit is said to be planning the release of said technology on February 9th, according to sources on the Internet.
Our colleagues over at xbitlabs have it on their own sources that the graphics chip maker will officially reveal the Optimus technology on February 9th. However, the solution will apparently be based on one of the company's older technologies, known as “Hybrid SLI” and “Hybrid Graphics,” according to xbitlabs. Optimus will enable consumers to automatically switch between discrete and the integrated graphics chips.
NVIDIA's Optimus technology will basically enable consumers to take advantage of the performance enabled by a discrete graphics chip, when that is required, while switching back to Intel's integrated graphics to save battery life. Switching between the integrated graphics or the discrete graphics chips should be pretty straightforward, due to Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, that allows users to install two graphics drivers at once.
The NVIDIA Optimus technology should enable NVIDIA to remain active on the notebook market, as Intel gains more share with its new processors with integrated graphics chips. Currently, NVIDIA only offers the GeForce 9400M integrated graphics chip compatible with Intel's processors, but the chip will slowly lose its appeal, as Intel continues to update its products.
Unfortunately, we have no way to confirm the news, as NVIDIA did not make any comments on the unreleased product. However, the company should introduce Optimus in the upcoming days, as the company wants to keep to its promise.