NVIDIA GeForce 7050

The NVIDIA GeForce 6100 and 6150 integrated graphics processors have been relatively popular among Linux and Windows users. These IGPs have been common in HTPC setups with the NVIDIA driver working out well with MythTV. NVIDIA's GeForce 6100/6150 parts have also appeared in a number of desktop systems, and while these IGPs cannot really handle modern games, they have no troubles with Beryl or Compiz. However, it's now time that the GeForce 6 series moves on with NVIDIA having recently introduced the NVIDIA GeForce 7025 and 7050 with the nForce 630a as the replacement for the GeForce 6100 and 6150 with the nForce 410/430. We have decided to look at the NVIDIA GeForce 7050 today as we compare it to the GeForce 6150 and test it in a variety of Linux graphics benchmarks.

While the GeForce 6100 and 6150 both support NVIDIA's PureVideo technology and it's featured in the NVIDIA GeForce 7050 PV, the GeForce 7025 lacks PureVideo support. PureVideo is designed to enhance the video playback experience on supported NVIDIA graphics systems through improving the picture quality, delivering vivid colors, and offering hardware acceleration for some video compression standards. PureVideo HD expands upon PureVideo in the high definition world for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD playback while maintaining low CPU utilization. It's unfortunate that PureVideo support cannot be found on the GeForce 7025, but PureVideo support has yet to appear in NVIDIA's binary display driver for Linux or Solaris. The GeForce 7 motherboard graphics also support Microsoft DirectX 9.0, Shader Model 3.0, TV encoding, DVI support, and high quality (5x4) video scaling. Another exclusive for the GeForce 7050 is integrated HDMI capabilities.