NVIDIA GeForce4 4200 Go: Bringing mobile gaming to new heights

Conclusion

As the performance numbers show, the GeForce4 4200 Go and the NV28M core bring mobile gaming to a whole new level. NVIDIA may have not been first to market with DirectX 8 support in a laptop (ATI holds that prize), but they are the first to announce a mobile graphics chip based completely on the current high-end performance part. The NV28M looks promising, does it not?

The answer to that is not so easy actually. There is no question that the performance of the GeForce4 4200 Go leaves little to be desired. The chip regularly outperforms the Mobility Radeon 9000 and by no small amount; in today's most stressful gaming situation, Unreal Tournament 2003, the GeForce4 4200 Go performed, on average, 39.5% better than the Mobility Radeon 9000 in the resolutions we tested at. Turn on 2x anti-aliasing and that average jumps to 49.7%. We complained a bit in our Mobility Radeon 9000 review that performance was not drastically better than other mobile offerings out there. We certainly do not have the same complaint for the GeForce4 4200 Go but we do have some complaints.

First off is the heat and power consumption that stems off the fact that the GeForce4 4200 Go is based off the NV28 core. The fact that NVIDIA would not comment on the maximum power that the chip draws suggests that the chip draws an insane amount of power while in full performance mode. It does not matter much while the system is plugged in, but using the chip to its full potential away from a power outlet will probably drain your battery pretty darn fast (something that we will certainly look into in future GeForce4 4200 Go reviews). The GeForce4 4200 Go will be most at home in a desknote or desktop replacement notebook.

Finding a home for the GeForce4 4200 Go is actually the second, and perhaps largest, problem we have with the chip. ATI set a new mobile standard for time to market: notebooks based on the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 were shipping seven days after the product was announced. Unfortunately for consumers NVIDIA will not be following the same path. We were told to expect the GeForce4 4200 Go to be in laptops towards the end of this year and the start of next year. That is quite a while to wait, especially with the holiday season about to go into full swing. We are also somewhat concerned with what OEMs will opt for a GeForce4 4200 Go solution being that the power and thermal requirements of the chip are very demanding

There is no question that the GeForce4 4200 Go holds the performance crown in the mobile world today, however it only holds this crown on paper. If NVIDIA is able to bring the product to market by the end of this year, they will find themselves in a very comfortable situation; the chip will be the undoubtedly the mobile GPU of choice. However, if OEMs are slow to adopt the GeForce4 4200 Go or if NVIDIA is not able to bring the chip to market on time, they will be faced with some competition. ATI is not ready to roll over and let NVIDIA steal the performance crown from them one more time. There are certainly forthcoming mobile ATI products on the horizon that set to not only perform on par with the GeForce4 4200 Go but offer better power management and thermal characteristics. From what we have seen today, it will be difficult to match or beat the GeForce4 4200 Go performance-wise any time in the near future but ATI remains optimistic.

With performance that can be described as nothing short of breath taking, the GeForce4 4200 Go sets a new standard in mobile gaming. No longer must performance be sacrificed in order to play games on a system that can be moved from point a to point b without hassle. All we have left to do now is hope that GeForce4 4200 Go systems make their way to market soon, as the chip is every mobile gamers dream. With the GeForce4 4200 Go, NVIDIA sets the mobile performance bar higher not by inches but by feet.