Posts tagged nvidia ion 2
NVidia Ion 2 (nearly) outed as G310 GPU on mini-PCIe
Jan 17th
When Zotac’s new models were photographed at CES, there was a non-working unit which looked like it could be hiding the fabled NVidia Ion2 mini-PCIe expansion card. Unfortunately, there was an HSF obstructing our view.
Now it appears that Asus has let some information slip in the footnotes of a marketing imagefor their upcoming EeeTop 2010PNT. Spotted by Blogeee [Google Translate link], there’s a bulleted item for NVidia Geforce G310 Ion2 graphics.
Ok, great. We have one more confirmation that Ion2 will be some kind of a G310 GPU. And it’ll likely be on a mini-PCIe card from what we’ve seen before.
What I want to know is this: when will we be able to buy the damn thing!?
NVidia Ion 2 spotted in the wild at CES?
Jan 13th
TechReport spotted some new models from Zotac during the craziness at CES, including the system above – clearly marked as running Pinetrail + GT218. Yep, that’s the NVidia GPU which has reportedly mutated into the Ion 2 “chipset.”
It’s too bad there are a couple downsides to this picture. One, the socket is totally covered and there’s no view which shows whether or not that’s a mini-PCIe slot under there. Two, the label also clearly says “non-working.”
From what I’ve seen over the years on other laptop designs, it’s entirely possible that there is, in fact, a socket and an expansion card under that HSF. It’s also entirely possible that this particular unit at CES didn’t have anything under it.
Bottom line: Ion 2 is still “coming soon,” but at least OEMs are obviously ready to ship it once it’s ready.
Does your netbook have a free expansion slot for the NVidia Ion 2?
Jan 3rd
Is NVidia Ion 2 going to arrive in the form of a mini PCIe expansion card? All signs are pointing to yes right now. Will your netbook have room for one? Unless you’ve cracked open its shell, you may not have any idea.
As a general rule, if you purchased a 3G capable netbook without the 3G option, you’ll have at least one internal slot available. Beyond that, there’s a forum thread at Pocketables which sheds some light on the situation.
So far, the following netbook models have been listed as having at least one available mini PCIe expansion slot:
- Acer AOA110 and AOD150
- Asus 1000HE and N10
- Dell Mini 9 and Mini 10
- Gigabyte M912
- Lenovo S10
- LG X110
- HP Mini 1000, Mini 311, and 2140
- MSI Wind (all 9″ and 10″ models)
- OCZ Neutrino barebones
- Samsung NC10
- Toshiba NB100
Hat tip to Liliputing for the heads-up!
NVidia Ion 2 mini PCIe graphics card looks likely
Jan 2nd
Remember the speculation that NVidia’s Ion 2 would appear in the form of a mini PCIe expansion card? Well, that’s starting to look like a certainty.
Semiaccurate makes no bones about calling Ion 2 a GPU and not a chipset. Ion 2 appears to be a modified version of NVidia’s G218 desktop graphics chip, possibly underclocked for use in netbook systems. There’s a slight power savings over Ion 1 – one or two watts, anyway – which stands to reason. Scuttling chipset duties and moving to GPU-only is bound to reduce power consumption.
Over at Netbooked, they’re less than impressed with the development – calling it a “marketing scam.” And in truth, they’re right.
NVidia should really look at how they’re publicizing Ion 2 and be honest about it. My retail customers would be just as excited about getting a system with NVidia graphics as they would about a full chipset. Hell, for the most part they don’t even know what a chipset is.
No one’s mad at you, NVidia. You don’t need to call Ion 2 something it’s not.
Intel has made life extremely difficult for NVidia when it comes to licensing and chipset prouction. Doing an end-run around Intel and building an expansion card is a good move on their part, provided it’s done well – but they need to be up front with us in order to avoid a PR disaster.