Intel can’t be all that thrilled about NVIDIA’s attempts to grab a larger portion of the integrated graphics circuit market where it recently stole one of Intel’s biggest customers, Apple, with its fresh chipset GeForce 9300. NVIDIA’s considerably more powerful integrated graphics circuit, GeForce 9400M, tipped the scales and Intel still lacks anything even remotely close in terms of performance. There are others who have though, like ATI, nowadays owned by AMD. It seems like Intel and ATI have new means to compete with NVIDIA .
ATI has namely activated a Hybrid CrossFire like technology on Intel’s Centrino 2 platform. This means that you will need an external graphics circuit with Intel’s notebooks, but it is a more convenient alternative for those who are looking for a notebook with some extra 3D performance, but is still mobile and offers decent battery time.
The technology is dubbed ATI Switchable Graphics and the name really says it all. The computer can switch between the integrated graphics circuit and the external depending on the application. Intel and NVIDIA have a similar technology for Centrino 2 platform, which means that ATI is certainly not the first to do this, but still adds more alternatives to both manufacturers and users.
“Thanks to Switchable Graphics technology, select notebooks that feature Intel GS45 or GM45 core-logic set and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3600 or 3400 graphics chip can switch between standalone and integrated graphics cores dynamically depending on the power source and user preferences without rebooting the PC. Although dynamic switching between graphics cores does not require any complex technology inside chips themselves, the notebook and its BIOS must be specifically designed to support the capability.”
The technology does not enable any kind of multi-GPU operation for even better performance, which is the case with AMD’s desktop chipsets. But then again, in that case both IGP and GPU are made by AMD, thus compatible.
