YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE NOTICED, but yesterday Nvidia launched its new mobile graphics chip, the 8800M GTX. Whilst the release may have gotten buried under the weight of Intel and AMD reviews, its actually probably more interesting than either of those two big dogs.

AMD Spider was, by all accounts, a disappointment, and the Intel quad-core release was barely a speed bump. The new 8800M GTX, on the other hand, is actually a rather good bit of kit, it seems. The number of stream processors is now at 96, up 3x from the previous top of the range kit - the 8600 M - which had 32. The memory interface is now 256-bit, which also accounts for a massive increase in frame rates in the latest games.

Perhaps the most striking indication of the performance is in this video review which shows the 8600M and the new 8800M side by side benchmarking Crysis. The 8600 is barely more than a slideshow, whilst the 8800 rips through the benchmark like hot butter, as Steve Jobs would say. If a picture is worth a thousand words, we suspect a video is worth at least two Excel charts.

As you'd expect, then, all the usual suspects are lining up to add in 8800 GTX mobile parts to their lineup, including Alienware and the UK's very own Rock. If you're after a gaming notebook, it looks like this is the one to have. µ