NVIDIA today introduced next generation NVIDIA Ion graphics processor that delivers 10x faster graphics and up to 10 hours of battery life for Intel Atom netbooks. NVIDIA achieves combination of longer battery life and higher performance by using their new Optimus technology, which automatically selects the best graphics processor for running any given application – seamlessly routing the workload to either an NVIDIA discrete GPU or Intel integrated graphics.

The NVIDIA GPU paired with Ion 2 platform is GeForce G210, which will have 16-core for nettops and 8-core unit for netbooks. The Ion 2 will bring HDMI, 1080p Blu-ray playback, HD flash video playback and mainstream gaming on netbooks and nettops based on Intel Atom processors. Companies like Acer, Asus and Lenovo will start shipping systems using NVIDIA Ion 2 in April.

Drew Henry, General manager of GeForce and Ion GPU said, “If you want a netbook with the horsepower to play HD video and PC games, your only choice is ION. The new ION netbooks deliver an unbeatable combination of performance and battery life. We continue to raise the standard for what a netbook should be.”

The video below shows the performance difference between a standard Intel Atom netbook and a netbook using NVIDIA Ion 2 GPU.