NVIDIA GeForce 500M Series GPUs Power Top Notebooks of 2011

NVIDIA announced at CES 2011 the GeForce® 500M series of notebook graphics processing units (GPUs), designed to power laptops featuring next-generation Intel Core CPUs (Sandy Bridge).

GeForce 500M GPUs are expected to power some of the industry's best notebooks in 2011. The GPUs feature category-leading performance in media-rich HD, 3D, Web, and Gaming applications, as well as enhanced battery life, courtesy of NVIDIA Optimus™ technology. NVIDIA Optimus technology enables extra long battery life by switching on and off the GPU so that it runs only when needed.

The new GPUs being introduced today include:

• For performance users: GeForce GT 540M, GeForce GT 550M, and GeForce GT 555M with over four times the performance of integrated graphics and twice the DirectX 11 performance of the competition.
• For mainstream users: GeForce GT 520M and GeForce GT 525M offering over twice the performance of integrated graphics.

Only NVIDIA GPUs support NVIDIA Optimus technology, which enables extra-long battery life by automatically switching on and off the GPU so that it runs only when needed. Introduced less than a year ago, NVIDIA Optimus is now designed into over 80% of 500M Series notebooks across leading OEMs.

“GeForce GT 500M GPUs combined with Optimus technology enable the most versatile laptops ever created,” said Rene Haas, general manager of notebook business at NVIDIA. “Pairing a great GPU with a strong CPU delivers Optimized notebook performance for consumers.”

Only NVIDIA GeForce 500M GPUs offer:

• NVIDIA 3D Vision™ technology support, for eye-popping immersive 3D environments
• DirectX 11 support for the most-visually stunning gaming experiences
• PhysX™ physics engine support, for experiencing games with realistic physics effects
• CUDA™ architecture support, for general-purpose GPU computing applications
• NVIDIA Verde™ notebook drivers, for system stability and optimal performance
• Support for NVIDIA 3DTV Play™ software, for delivering 3D content from your PC to a 3D TV

Acer, Alienware, ASUS, Clevo, Dell, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Medion, MSI, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and others announced GeForce 500M-based systems at CES this year, and represent a fraction of the over 200 design wins from leading notebook manufactures for GeForce 500M GPUs. For more information on GeForce 500M Series GPUs, please visit www.nvidia.co.uk.