Oct 18, 2010 09:58 GMT  ·  By

Now that the competition between AMD and NVIDIA has really started, both on the desktop and laptop fronts, PC makers are, naturally, making use of the newest hardware, and Dell is preparing a trio of notebooks equipped with NVIDIA's Fermi discrete GPUs.

The three new mobile PCs that Dell is working on are known as the XPS 14, XPS 15 and XPS 17, all of which are powered by a combination of Intel and NVIDIA hardware.

The Calpella platform is, of course, present, represented by the Intel Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7 central processing units that end-users can choose from.

These chips have varying performance ratings and, of course, their own integrated graphics, while being supported by a HM57 motherboard.

Nevertheless, since Dell aimed for a certain level of performance when he put these machines together, it also added NVIDIA discrete graphics.

The available video cards for the powerful XPS 17 are the Fermi-based GeForce GT 435M, with 1 GB of VRAM, and the GTS 445M, which has 3 GB of memory.

The XPS 15 is not too far behind its elder sibling with the GeForce GT 435M, whose memory capacity is of 2 GB.

As for the XPS 14, users can select between the GeForce GT 420M, with 1 GB, or the 2GB GT 425M.

The NVIDIA Optimus technology automatically switches between the integrated and discrete GPUs, depending on application requirements.

All three mobile computers can be configured or already boast WLED-backlit HD displays, up to 16 GB of RAM, a 9-in-1 card reader, a 720p webcam, JBL designed & certified speakers and an optical drive, which can be a DVD or Blu-ray unit.

Finally, as their names imply, the XPS 14, 15 and 17 have screen sizes of 14 inches, 15.6 inches and 17.3 inches, respectively.

Unfortunately, even though all the notebooks have already been listed, their prices are still under wraps.