ATI Mobility Radeon Preview

Conclusion

There is no question that the mobile market is growing at an exponential rate. Current estimates place the mobile market at 35 million computers in 2001, and that number keeps growing. As the technology from desktops slowly make its way down into a computer the size of a binder. Luckily, with both ATI's and NVIDIA's entrance into the mobile market, we can look forward to a bright future.

There is no question that the Mobility Radeon is a step up from the current notebook solutions. Offering not only more power, but smarter use of the power, the Mobility Radeon will finally start bringing 3D to the notebook market. However, the question of whether the Mobility Radeon can take on NVIDIA's GeForce2 Go still stands.

Although we will not know which solution will rise to the top until we get some products in our hands for testing, both solutions seems as if they will provide similar performance. ATI claims that they offer "significantly lower" power consumption than the GeForce2 Go's 2.8 watts, however it is unclear whether this "significantly lower" number was generated while plugged in in "high" performance mode or while on battery power in "low" performance mode. Once again, only hands on tests will tell.

The only downside that the Mobility Radeon seems to have when compared to NVIDIA's GeForce2 Go is its lack of T&L support. As discussed above, T&L certainly would not hurt performance and could very well increase battery life to a small amount. Then again, the Mobility Radeon has iDCT, something that the GeForce2 Go does not have. This feature seems that it will increase battery life to at least some extent when performing DVD playback.

With the introduction of the Mobility Radeon, have we reached the point of equality where notebook computers are just as powerful as their full sized brothers? Not yet, but we are coming close. And the competition created in an all out battle between ATI and NVIDIA will only make us advance faster.