Intel has been boasting of DirectX 10 support for its various integrated graphics options for some time now, but it's only just recently gotten around to actually releasing a Vista driver that brings its GM965 and G35 Express chipsets up to speed. Of course, NVIDIA just couldn't help itself from getting a few (more) digs in at Intel's expense, and it's now kindly provided a few benchmarks to show just how badly Intel's integrated DirectX 10 solution stacks up against the bleeding-edge DirectX 10-ready games it now ostensibly supports. They couldn't find a single game that was able to crank out more than 5 fps, even at a lowly 1280 x 1024 resolution and with the usual graphics intensive settings turned off. Then again, 4.4 fps in Crysis is pretty much par for the course.

Read - Crave, "Intel updates graphics with multimedia capabilities"
Read - Hardware Secrets, "Are Intel chipsets really capable of running DirectX 10 games?"

Following up yesterday's trash talk with a little action, NVIDIA has disclosed plans to create a sub-$45 processing platform which the GPU-maker is calling, "The World's Most Affordable Vista Premium PC." The architecture will combine VIA's Isaiah processor with an integrated NVIDIA graphics chipset, which the company claims outperforms Intel's Celeron-based, 945 IGP/ICH4 setup handily. Apparently, the combo is capable of 36 GFLOPS versus Intel's 6.4GFLOPS -- which we shouldn't have to tell you is a ton of GFLOPS. We're excited about the prospect of better performance in an integrated chipset (we've all suffered at the hands of the GMA950), but we don't want to see this end in a back-alley knife fight. Keep your cool, guys.

Looks like Intel's plans to enter the graphics space in a big way with its Nehalem and Larrabee lines strike NVIDIA CEO Jen Hsun-Huang as being rather foolish -- in a conference call with analysts today, Huang said Intel's integrated graphics offerings were "a joke," and that even a tenfold increase in performance would put them behind NVIDIA's current products. Huang didn't stop there, saying that NVIDIA was "going to open a can of whoop-ass," and that while Intel's graphics chips were fine for running Office, they would never cut it for gamers and other demanding users. Huang kept going, responding to questions about all those driver-related Vista crashes by saying that NVIDIA had to support new games weekly while Intel's chips aren't ever put to the test. Actually, that's toning it down a bit -- what Huang actually said was "You already have the right machine to run Excel. You bought it four years ago... How much faster can you render the blue screen of death?" Yeah, them's fightin' words -- you going to sit there and take it, Intel?

[Thanks, Mike A.]

The latest development in the soap opera that is the PC components industry sees NVIDIA expanding beyond its usual focus on AMD systems to offer new integrated graphics solutions designed for Intel-based desktops. Reuters reports that the upcoming GeForce 7050, 7100, and 7150 will be compatible with current and upcoming Intel chips, ship in machines priced from $400 to $600, and are said to "give the performance of an entry-level separate graphics processor unit" -- a claim we'll be interested to see tested. Now that NVIDIA is taking direct aim at the world's largest chipmaker, we wouldn't be at all surprised to see Intel strike back in the discrete graphics space -- and then it doesn't take much to imagine NVIDIA retaliating once again by whipping up its own line of CPUs, does it?

AMD has some high hopes for its 690 chipset, the first to bring those in-house ATI graphics to bear on an integrated setup, and supposedly destined to leapfrog Intel in the budget space. After some substantial delays, they've finally got it out the door, and now bit-tech.net has put the chipset through its paces. Perks like HDMI 1.3 with HDCP, integrated TV encoder and dual discrete displays make the chipset plenty lovable off the bat, but unfortunately the graphics aren't going to blow anyone away. The folks at bit-tech found a few high-end games playable at a paltry 640 x 480 resolution -- games that wouldn't even run on the minimal integrated graphics from Intel -- but it's clear that if you want a truly modern gaming experience, you're still going to need to spring for a PCI-Express card. General performance was pretty comparable to Intel offerings, but what has bit-tech especially excited is the prospect of this sort of integrated tech making into ultraportable laptops, and the Intel processor-based chipsets that AMD is promising as well.

It's an utterly inevitable upgrade to Intel's ubiquitous integrated graphics mobile chipsets, but we're still pleased to hear that it's coming sooner rather than later. TG Daily has learned that Intel's upcoming GM965 Crestline chipset, the core of the "Santa Rosa" platform, is indeed DirectX 10 compatible. It was already a bit of a surprise that some integrated graphics chips could handle Vista's Aero, but DirectX 10 implies a level of performance that should considerably exceed what we've seen in integrated laptop graphics previously. Naturally, we're not expecting much in the way of Crysis-level accomplishments (pictured), but that game is only the most visible of what are sure to be many more DirectX 10 games and apps in the future. The most recent word is that the chipset should be making its debut in May, with four FSB800 processors in tow: the 1.8GHz T7100, 2.0GHz T7300, 2.2GHz T7500 and 2.4GHz T7600. A couple of low-voltage versions should show up soon after that.

We all knew it was just a matter of time, but AMD has finally completed its $5.4 billion acquisition of ATI, after jumping through all the necessary regulatory and shareholder hoops. They sure aren't wasting any time, either. The newly joined pair is taking this special moment to announce their upcoming -- and totally expected -- integrated platforms, which should debut in 2007 and will present a rough equivalent to Intel's integrated offerings. However, the new AMD also has a new "Fusion" technology in the works which goes quite a bit beyond regular old integrated graphics. The "new class of x86 processor" integrates the CPU and GPU at the silicon level, supposedly allowing for better performance-per-watts and all other kinds of good times. This sort of "modular" processing has a lot of potential, and we should be seeing Fusion-based products in late 2008 or early 2009. The chips are supposed to make it into everything from laptops to desktops to servers, and could provide a delightful twist to the AMD vs. Intel wars everybody is gearing up for.

[Via Randomly Accessed]

Japanese consumers looking for yet another Mac mini-style PC will soon be able to pick up the LF800 from miniPC, which won't run as silently as the ED612E we recently saw from this same company, but delivers a much more impressive set of specs. Instead of that pokey 1.2GHz VIA Eden processor powering the last offering, this model throws down a Core Duo T2300, while also doubling the RAM to 512MB and jacking up the hard drive capacity from 40GB to 250GB. If that particular configuration doesn't suit your needs then you're in luck, because you can also pick up a bare bones model that includes integrated Intel graphics, a PCI-Express x16 slot, and CF reader, along with gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, USB 2.0, S/PDIF, and S-Video ports. Both the fully assembled rig as well as the DIY version will be available sometime this month, with the former going for around $1,080 and the latter priced just under $600.

[Via Impress]

Toshiba has gone a bit "lappy happy" this week, announcing yet another 15.4-inch machine to join the two new notebooks and nine new configurations of current models that we spotted earlier. This time around, the company is targeting corporate IT buyers looking for durability on the cheap, playing up the new Tecra A8's suite of EasyGuard technology -- which features the same hard drive and keyboard protection, biometric security, and one-touch presentation button found in the consumer-level LifeSmart package. As far as specs go, you can choose from among a number of setups sporting either Celeron M or Core Duo processors, 512MB or 1GB of RAM, between 60GB and 100GB worth of storage, CD/DVD combo drive or DVD SuperMulti drive, and 802.11b/g WiFi from Atheros or 802.11a/b/g from Intel. Available immediately, these models range from $700 for the Celeron M config to $1,349 for a rig packing a T2400 CPU and that dual-layer burner.

[Via Mobile Tech Review]

Toshiba just introduced another pair of Intel-powered notebooks to join the Epson and Alienware models we spotted earlier, both members of the Satellite series: the U205 ultra-portable (pictured) and the R25 convertible tablet (pictured after the break). Weighing in at 4.1 pounds, the 12.1-inch U205 (which is pretty similar to the U200) comes in either S5002 (Core Duo T2300E, 100GB hard drive) or S5022 (T2400, 120GB HDD) configurations, with both versions sporting 1GB of 533MHz DDR2 RAM, WXGA TruBrite TFTs, integrated graphics, dual-layer DVD burners, and Toshiba's LifeSmart Technology -- which includes a fingerprint reader, shock-absorbing components, and spill-resistant keyboard. Meanwhile, the 5.95-pound R25-S3503 also sports a Core Duo processor -- though only the 1.66GHz T2050 -- along with a 14.1-inch WXGA+ display, 100GB hard drive, and the same burner, graphics, memory configuration and LifeSmart swag as the U205. Both models are available immediately, with the S5022 and the tablet each going for $1,349, and the S5002 priced at $1,199.

Read- U205
Read- R25

Japanese consumers looking for a slim-line tower PC on the cheap could probably do worse than Epson's latest Endeavor desktop, the AT960, which features a 2.53GHz Celeron D processor and 256MB of DDR2 RAM for $420. More yen lets you step up to a Pentium 4 chip as fast as 3.8GHz, up to 2GB of RAM and 250GB of hard drive space (compared to  the sparse 40GB in the base configuration), WiFi, and a DVD burner -- but no amount of money can improve upon the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 integrated graphics. Likewise, there's not much you can do about the dearth of input options, so the four USB 2.0 hookups and serial and parallel ports are gonna have to stand in for the missing FireWire.

'Tis the season for ultraportables, and now yet another Core Duo-powered model has hit the market, the 12.1-inch Toshiba Tecra M6. Also available with either Celeron or Core Solo processors, the M6 seems like a slimmed-down version of the 14.1-inch M5 we spotted earlier this year, as the $1,059 base configuration only gives you 256MB of RAM, no WiFi, a 40GB hard drive, and that pokey 1.6GHz Celeron M. It costs a little over $1,600 to put together a decent system, which includes a 1.83GHz T2400 Core Duo chip, 1GB of RAM (which also gets you a free Vista-ready logo!), 100GB HDD, 802.11a/b/g, and Bluetooth, but only integrated graphics and no DVD burner. Targeted more towards the light-traveling businessperson than the hardcore gamer, the M6 also sports such security-conscious features as a fingerprint reader, Trusted Platform Module, and a Security Assist Console, as well as hard drive protection, a spill resistant keyboard, and shock absorbing design for turbulent plane rides.

[Via Core Duo News]

If there were ever any doubts as to our complete and total dedication to you, dear reader, let them be dispelled here and now, as we've just trudged through page upon page of horrible machine translation to bring you the relevant deets and specs on no less than 26 new computers from NEC -- for the Japanese market! This cornucopia of hardware comes in both laptop and all-in-one, media-centric desktop flavors, and can be further divided into their respective series: the LaVie 15.4-inch L, T, and 12.1-inch A laptops, and Valuestar W/X, L, and R desktops. More specifically, the W lineup come in four different configurations (VW970/FG, VW900/FH, VW770/FG, VW700/FG), with displays ranging from to 20 to 32-inches, either a 2.8GHz Pentium D or 3.06GHz Celeron D processor, and RAM and hard drive capacity ranging from 512MB to 1GB, and 400GB to 800GB, respectively, while the only X model, the 20-inch, 2.80GHz VX780/FD, seems to differ from the W's in that it utilizes a tower configuration and sports a nVidia GeForce video card (all the rest of the desktops feature integrated graphics). For pics and details on the rest of the desktops and all of the notebooks, keep on reading after the jump...