Today NVIDIA announced its new Geforce 6100 series integrated graphics line, finally bringing its DirectX 9 mainstay to the integrated market. Rather than being branded with NVIDIA's nForce chipset moniker, the new integrated solutions have been dubbed the Geforce 6150 and 6100 respectively. The chipsets have the standard Geforce 6 graphics features such as DirectX 9 effects support, PureVideo, and Shader Model 3.0. Each comes with two pixel pipelines and a single vertex shader, so don't expect standalone card performance. The 6150 comes clocked at 475MHz and the 6100 at 425MHz. Aside from clock speeds, the 6150 and 6100 are differentiated by a number of other features as well. The 6150 offers a TV encoder, DVI output, and 720p/1080i video playback.
Coupled with the new integrated graphics options are two new south bridge chips that retain NVIDIA's nForce branding name - the nForce 430 and 410. The 430 has support for four SATA devices, RAID 0, 1, 0+1, and 5, gigabit ethernet and NVIDIA's ActiveArmor firewall. The 410 only supports two SATA drives, RAID 0 and 1, and standard 10/100 ethernet connectivity.
With the new chipset components being compatible, system builders are free to mix and match components. The Geforce 6150, 6100 and nForce 430 and 410 could prove to be a big step forward in lower-end system capabilities.
News source: The Tech Report
