As we've already mentioned, the main advantage of the GeForce 8M series over the GeForce Go 7 series is native DirectX 10 support. GeForce 8M series GPUs will render next-gen DX10 games as they were meant to be seen. We've posted a couple of screenshots of the upcoming DX10 title 'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' to show you exactly what we mean. On the left are images taken when the game is in DirectX 9 mode while the images on the right were taken under DirectX 10. (Click any of the images for an enlarged view)

DirectX 10 implements significantly more sophisticated high dynamic range (HDR) rendering, denser vegetation, greater viewing distances and better lighting models. The difference in image quality is obvious. While Age of Conan certainly looks good in DirectX 9 mode, it looks absolutely stunning in DirectX 10. The images on the right appear much more photo-realistic, with smoother textures and more realistic lighting.

The GeForce 8M series' support for NVIDIA's PureVideo HD video processing technology is another reason that the 8M series is more attractive than the GeForce Go 7 series. Decoding high-definition video is a very intensive task and PureVideo HD allows the GPU to take the brunt of the workload. This might prompt more laptop manufacturers to offer Blu-ray and HD DVD drives in mid and lower end machines which would not otherwise be able to smoothly decode HD video without the assistance of a GeForce 8M GPU.

Despite the lack of a high-end model at the moment, the new GeForce 8M series looks very promising. The 8400M will bring DirectX 10 graphics capability and hardware HD video decoding to thin-and-light as well as value oriented mainstream notebooks while the 8600M will provide full-size performance notebooks with ample power for gaming. Unfortunately , the much anticipated mobile version of the GeForce 8800 is not part of the initial GeForce 8M line-up but we are confident that NVIDIA hasn't forgotten the DTR lovers out there. NVIDIA's five new mobile parts are very similar to their desktop counterparts in terms of their features and specifications and they will likely perform similarly too. With several DirectX 10 games around the corner, it seems NVIDIA is right on time with their GeForce 8M series.

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