We all know who NVIDIA is and what they do – they’re currently have the best video cards in the market after going through a few years of tussle with ATi (which has been gobbled up by AMD already along the way) for computer graphics supremacy. As a company, they’re certainly not going to rest on their laurels and continue to forge onwards with new developments in technology. Their latest effort is a joint effort with Microsoft to deliver what they dub an outstanding computing experience on a tiny, low power PC in the form of their NVIDIA ION which has been Certified for Windows Vista. The combination of NVIDIA ION and premium versions of Microsoft Windows is a potent one, enabling both small form factor notebooks and desktop PCs to own rich media capabilities and full graphics support for the first time without having to break the bank.

Microsoft has already validated NVIDIA ION with certified Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) drivers for Windows Vista Home Premium, and both companies are working closely with other PC manufacturers, software developers and Windows eco-system partners so that ION-based PCs will be able to hit the market by the time summer of 2009 rolls around. As usual, us consumers are extremely price sensitive (and even more so in this uncertain economic climate), but fret not – you will be surprised to learn that these ION-based mini-notebooks and compact desktop PCs will offer industry-leading performance from price points that start as low as $299. Yeah, we’re shaking our heads in disbelief as well while getting the intern to pinch us.

Microsoft guarantees that the NVIDIA ION platform found in upcoming ION-based PCs will deliver :-

Silky smooth 1080p high definition video including Blu-ray movies

Exciting video game play with support for Microsoft’s DirectX 10 API

Support for premium Windows Vista features including Aero Glass and Flip3D

GPU acceleration for faster photo editing and video transcoding

Sounds like a dream, eh?

Press Release