Intel calls new ION overkill
After Nvidia released more information on its new ION platform saying that it would be at least five times faster than the combination of Atom processing with Intel Pine Trail, Intel retaliated by saying the ION 2 platform is an exercise in futility.
“To run multimedia you don’t need a huge graphics chip. That’s what those third-party decoder solutions will show in the marketplace. […] In terms of usages, netbooks are not meant for gaming. You can run Internet games fine today with the existing solutions,” said Anil Nanduri, director of netbook marketing at Intel, in an interview with the Laptop Mag website.
Nvidia claims that consumers are willing to pay more for a superior graphics experience. Their chipset will be able to last 5 hours, which is significantly short of the 12+ hours we reviewed on the new Pine Trail featuring ASUS 1005PE.
“There are much more innovative ways to get multimedia capabilities that will continue to provide lower power and longer battery life. We believe [NVIDIA ION] adds unnecessary additional cost and the other trade-offs make it less desirable,” stated Mr. Nanduri.
Equipment manufacturers seem to leaning on Intel’s side of the fence. Nvidia has won just 4 netbook design contracts as opposed to Intel’s claimed eighty. At the end of the day we feel that there are people willing to pay for both ends of the spectrum, but we’ll lean towards Intel’s side for two reasons. One is because there are a whole lot more Intel netbooks out there than ION ones. Secondly, gamers still do not have the confidence that a netbook will be able to play even a less demanding game. And until Nvidia delivers an intensely improved product, they’ll be fighting a lonely battle.
Filed under: Netbook