Sources inside the laptop industry have told tech.co.uk that there's a good reason why we haven't seen any Vista-powered notebooks capable of DirectX 10 graphics just yet.
The first mobile graphics part capable of running DX10 - an integral part of Vista and a big update to the way 3D graphics are rendered on screen - will most likely be based on Nvidia's G80 desktop chip, which has been around since late last year. So far, though, Nvidia hasn't commented on when such a part will be released.
We've been told by one manufacturer, however, to expect the first DX10 graphics chips to arrive at the same time as the next update to Intel 's Centrino chipset - which is codenamed Santa Rosa and expected to be launched in May. The main features will be a faster front side bus than the existing Centino specification - increasing it to 800MHz - and a larger 2MB on board cache for the CPUs.
Nvidia already has the G80 mobile chip ready and waiting to deliver - or so we're told. The reason the two will launch together is because the main companies that produce laptop chassis won't implement two major revisions to their designs so close together. With no games yet supporting DX10, Nvidia is under no pressure to push the issue either.
Speaking of DirectX10 - anyone who already has a Vista PC with a Geforce 8800 series 3D card should head over to www.nzone.com and grab the first proper DX10 tech demo. It'll give you some idea of what's in store for your PC when more applications and games are released.
