For most hardcore PC gaming enthusiasts, a desktop computer is mandatory. When it comes to options for hooking up the latest video cards, the most RAM, and elaborate overclocking and CPU cooling setups, laptops just can't compete. Even dedicated gamers need to get out and socialize with their peers nvidiafrom time to time, and rather than have them lug around their heavy desktops, laptop manufacturers have begun offering some high-end machines that at least help approach desktop gaming performance levels. To that end, graphics chip maker NVIDIA announced its latest line of mobile GPUs, including the GTX 280M, which it calls the world's fastest.

NVIDIA is bringing out four new GPUs, including two GTX 200M series models and two in the GTS 100M group. Those, the GeForce GTS 160M and 150M, feature the same graphics technologies NVIDIA uses in its chips for desktop systems, including CUDA and PhysX. CUDA lets the chip work as a high-power custom processor, which games can use to handle extra geometry and scene calculation tasks, or non-game programs can use to tap into the chip's raw power to accelerate certain computations. PhysX also lets games use the GPU for extra geometry processing, this time using a physics model to take some of the load off the laptop's main CPU.
The chips in the 200M series, the GeForce GTX 280M and 260M, include those features from the 100M chips, while also improving performance and support SLI mode. SLI lets manufactures build systems with two NVIDIA chips running in parallel, boosting the frame rate and letting you run more complex games. NVIDIA's power management system lets one GPU work as the main graphics chip and can power-down the second to save battery life when its services aren't needed.

Some of the first systems featuring these chips should be coming from ASUS, Clevo and MSI, all of which are lined up to demo their machines at CeBIT this week. There's no word on when any will be commercially available.

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