Nvidia announces DX8 mobile graphics

Nvidia has announced its GeForce4 4200 Go mobile graphics chip, which steps up from the current GeForce4 Go Nvidia graphics by adding DirectX 8 effects support, which is now commonly used in games with advanced visuals. The best way to understand the importance of this step is to compare the chips with what's available in GeForce4 desktop graphics cards. The existing GeForce4 Go is similar to the low-end GeForce4 MX cards, while the new chip is comparable to the midrange GeForce4 Ti 4200 products with AGP 8X.

There's usually a delay between new product announcements and the time notebooks ship with the new features, and it's expected that the first notebooks with the new Nvidia chips won't be on the market until the first quarter of next year at the earliest. ATI already has a DirectX 8-level graphics chip, the Radeon Mobility 9000, shipping in a wide range of current notebooks. The expected speed range for the GeForce4 Ti 4200 has not been announced.