NVIDIA has announced an update to its entire range of laptop graphics solutions. Known as the GeForce 800M line, the new GPUs provide a significant performance boost over the 700M series cards, and offer a range of new, built-in functionality.
Though the company has yet to provide specifics, the new GPUs offer between 30 and 60 percent more performance than their 700M counterparts, making them a significant upgrade over their predecessors.
In addition to the increased performance, the line also provides some new features. The first of these is a battery saving technique known as Battery Boost, that throttles the system’s hardware to achieve a user defined frame rate target. The company claims that by not constantly running the machine’s CPU, GPU and memory at full tilt while gaming, the new feature can provide “up to double the gaming battery life, automatically.”
The new hardware will also features built-in game capture and streaming functionality. Known as GeForce ShadowPlay, the feature will allow users to broadcast directly to services like Twitch with “virtually no performance impact.”
The 800M line will also fully support GameStream, the technology that lets users stream games via Wi-Fi from their PC to devices such as the NVIDIA SHIELD.
These features may make the upgrade to a brand new 800M-touting machine a tempting prospect. Before you run out to make a purchase, it’s worth noting that both the GeForce ShadowPlay and GameStream features will be available on the entire GeForce 700M range, as well as GeForce 680M, 675MX, 670MX and 660M GPUs via an update scheduled to land later this month.
Manufacturers have already started updating their systems with 800M GPUs, perhaps most notably on the new Razer Blade laptop, which features a GeForce 870M, as well as an impressive 3200 x 1800 multitouch display.
Source: NVIDIA
Why could this not be provided on the 6xx and 7xx series if ShadowPlay and GameStream can?