Most of the attention on NVIDIA’s graphics development has been paid to its desktop lineup, with the recent launch of the GeForce RTX series built around the company’s Turing GPU architecture. What about mobile? Well, NVIDIA might be prepping a new, lower-end discrete GPU for laptops, assuming a data sheet on HP’s website doesn’t contain a typo.
As discovered by Reddit, HP has a new laptop in the works: Zhan 66 Pro 14 G2. I had never heard of the Zhan series before, but a quick Google search brings up several entries for the previous generation model, the Zhan 66 Pro 14 G1. My best guess is that it’s a line of laptops sold primarily in China, and not so much (if at all) in the US.
Either way, there’s a product sheet for the Zhan 66 Pro 14 G2, and among the list of specs is an “optional NVIDIA GeForce MX250 with 2GB GDDR5.” Here’s a look…
It’s possible that the entry is a typo and is supposed to indicate a GeForce MX150, a popular Pascal-based discrete GPU option among entry-level laptops. However, the GeForce MX250 designation appears on two separate pages of the extensive 24-page document (PDF).
Multiple entries doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not a typo, but it’s at least plausible that the GeForce MX250 exists. NVIDIA launched the GeForce MX150 for laptops in May of last year, so the timing works out for a refresh.
It’s highly doubtful that a GeForce MX250 would include any ray tracing capabilities. Instead, it was recently rumored that NVIDIA is also prepping a round of mobile GeForce RTX GPUs for higher-end laptops, which could be announced sometime around the Consumer Electronics Show next month.
As with the rumored mobile GeForce RTX GPUs, the Zhan 66 Pro 14 G2 and GeForce MX250 could both be announced at or around CES. We’ll have to wait and see.
