S3 Readies Savage/MX and Savage/IX Graphics Chips for Notebooks

S3 will announce two new notebook graphics chips on Monday, according to Reuters: the Savage/MX and Savage/IX, both mobile versions of its Savage accelerator line. The pitch is faster, more realistic 3D for gamers and business users on the road, in a notebook market where graphics have always trailed well behind the desktop. Power draw is the catch with any mobile part, and it is the problem these chips have to solve to matter.

This is the next step in S3’s comeback attempt. The company once led the desktop graphics chip market, lost that lead, and answered back in February with the Savage4, which has since landed big customers (three of the five largest PC makers, IBM among them). Serious gaming on a laptop still sounds like a contradiction to me, but somebody has to take the first real swing at it.