Nvidia adds PhysX engine to new line of video chips for notebooks

Nvidia has unveiled a new generation of notebook video cards based upon the Ageia PhysX physics engine, which Nvidia acquired last year.

There are five new Nvidia GPUs available, with the GeForce 9800M GTX, GeForce 9800M GTS, and GeForce 9800 GT serving as the three higher-end cards. The GeForce 9700M GTS and GeForce 9700M GT are the two mid-range cards for mainstream notebooks the average customer will purchase.

The 9800M GTX and 9800M GTS both have 112 processing units, which is equivalent to the Nvidia 9800 GT GPU designed for desktop PCs. They feature have a 500MHz core frequency and operate at 1250MHz.

In addition, the two higher end cards will make use of Hybrid SLI technology, so they are able to run cooler and save battery power. There also will be PureVideo and Blu-ray support, along with MXM3.0, designed so the GPU can be upgraded later.

Toshiba is the first company to announce notebooks featuring the new NVidia GPUs, with the Toshiba Qosmio X305 powered by the 9M series.

Nvidia closed the deal with Ageia in February, and promised to include PhysX technology into GeForce GPU products as soon as it could. Analysts expected products to be rolled out sometime over the summer, and were accurate with their prediction.

Nvidia has had a steady control of the video game graphics card market, although AMD hopes its recent agreement with Havok will help the struggling ATI brand better compete in the future. AMD was forced to make a move with Intel-owned Havok after Nvidia purchased Ageia.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company plans to continue to roll out both mobile and desktop graphics gaming cards with Ageia technology throughout the remainder of the year.