NVIDIA’s ION 2 promises faster graphics and long battery life

It’s official. NVIDIA’s ION 2 GPUs are coming. You’ll see them on more than 30 products come summer time. The company is promising “10x faster graphics and up to 10 hours of battery life.” So much for that whole power-versus-battery-life tradeoff.

Some of the first products we’ll see outfitted with the discrete GPU will be Acer’s 532G netbook (covered here) and the Asus Eee PC 1201PN, shown above. We’ll also see plenty of all-in-ones and small form factor PCs to boot. The GPUs attach via PCI Express to Intel’s new-ish Pine Trail platforms to provide dedicated video memory—no more sharing.

Expect honest YouTube HD streaming, “and smooth gaming performance on titles like World of Warcraft,” according to the press release. Acer’s 532G will be the first out of the gate next month, with other products to follow.