nVidia ION: Better graphics for netbooks?

If there is one saving grace for the green guys of nVidia this season — their behinds have been kicked soundly by the red guys of AMD/ATI seemingly on all fronts — it is the relative success of nVidia ION.

Well, what is nVidia ION anyway? Technically it is used to refer to a motherboard configuration by nVidia with an Intel Atom processor — specifically for netbooks. But what’s great about it is the graphics solution part — ION is DirectX 10 and OpenGL 3 capable, with a GPU based on the GeForce 9400M structure but apparently better performing than its mobile GPU forefather.

If you ask a netbook owner the reason for purchasing one, the statement “I want cutting edge graphics!” will probably not be mentioned. But it doesn’t hurt you at all if you can deliver better graphics than the standard Intel GMA 950 core, which has been the bread-and-butter hardware solution for graphics in netbooks since the market was born.

HP Mini 311 ION-powered netbook

Apparently HP and Lenovo have bit the bait, and nVidia is planning to hold its ground and fight Intel on this battleground. GigaOM.com reports:

Enter Nvidia with its ION solution, which found its way into the new HP Mini 311, an 11.6-inch netbook starting at $399. At this price point — and with the high-definition video functionality and DirectX 10 support that Intel netbooks can’t currently match — consumers are sure to be swayed towards a PC-quality graphics experience on a mobile computer, meaning the netbook market could see some serious changes.

I read LAPTOP Magazine’s early look at the HP Mini 311 with Nvidia’s ION, and the initial benchmarks are telling:

• PCMark05 scores, which measure overall performance, are 35 percent higher than the current average netbook powered fully by Intel.
• The 3DMark06 test, which focuses solely on graphics, yielded a score of 1,386. The average netbook score for this test? Under 100.
• A 114MB video encoding test from AVI to MPEG-4 using supported software took 6 minutes and 14 seconds using the ION platform. The same file on a standard netbook with Intel churned for a half hour.

Read the full report from GigaOM with a supplementary report by Fudzilla.com.

Lenovo Ideapad S12 ION-powered netbook

Most netbook owners live with the simple graphics solution from Intel because they think this is all they can get on a very small platform. nVidia ION delivers strong visuals — a 1,366×768 display or DirectX 10 support for gaming. The integrated HDMI output extends the experience to larger screens as well. But do consumers want better graphics on small netbooks?

When the market started for ultra-portables, the answer would definitely be “no” — because it wasn’t possible anyways. Now nVidia provides a decent solution — not for serious gaming, obviously — but a lot of people have been pairing up their netbooks with USB DVD drives. ION can deliver very good resolutions for those who want to enjoy DVD movies from their external DVD drives, on the go.

The answer to the initial question would now seem to be, if ION can deliver better graphics at practically the same price, how is that a bad deal at all?