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The company will release two new series of mobile Direct X10 chipsets: the mid-range GeForce 8400M series and the high-end GeForce 8600M series. There will also be a Direct X 9c series, based on a combination of GeForce 7000M-series GPUs and nForce 600M I/O controllers.

The chipsets have been named to emphasise the relationship between Nvidia's notebook and desktop graphics hardware, with the 'M' suffix indicating a mobile GPU. In reality, however, the notebook chipsets have lower clock speeds and/or fewer stream processors than desktop parts carrying the same number.

The higher-end chipsets will have more stream processors (rising from 8 to 32), run at faster clock speeds and use a wider memory bus (128-bit versus 64-bit). Nvidia claims performance has improved by a factor of 1.3-2x compared to its previous generation of mobile GPUs, though we'll have to wait until notebook manufacturers start to deliver production hardware before we can verify those figures.

HD for mid-range laptops

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The new mobile GeForce range will also feature the latest version of Nvidia's PureVideo system, called PureVideo HD, as already seen in the company's GeForce 8500 and 8600 desktop cards. PureVideo HD enables the entire process of decoding, optimising and displaying Blu-Ray or HD-DVD media to be carried out within the graphics hardware, making HD video viable on a relatively modest computer, and freeing up the CPU for multi-tasking and reducing power consumption.

Battery life should also be preserved by Nvidia's 'PowerMizer' system, which includes automatic clock gating and adaptive throttling at times of low load. There's support for dynamic backlight modulation, which automatically dims the laptop's display panel when full brightness isn't required.

Notebooks built around the new GPUs are expected to start appearing from June, from OEMs including Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba. Nvidia says it will also make chips available in its MXM add-in card format - a development which it admits is principally for the convenience of system builders, but which could offer user-upgradeability.

The announcement lays down the gauntlet for AMD/ATi - although Nvidia had conciliatory words for its rival at a London launch event. 'AMD is a friend - and a very fierce foe,' said Rene Haas, Nvidia General Manager for Notebook GPUs. 'It's a friend when it comes to core logic. When AMD bought ATi, our relationship changed, but in a positive way. Nvidia is now in a good middle spot, while Intel and AMD will have difficulty working together.'