Nvidia just recently announced the launch of its GeForce GTX 560M graphic chip for notebooks, a GPU the company claims is capable of pulling 50 frames per second in Duke Nukem Forever. But the 560M isn't the end of the road for Nvidia's 500M series, nor is it the fastest mobile graphics chip in Nvidia's stable. That distinction still belongs to the GTX 485M, at least until later this summer when Nvidia drops its 580M into the mobile mix.

Duke Nukem Forever is actually going to ship despite the absence of an apocalypse, and Nvidia wants to make sure you'll be able to play the long awaited follow-up on gaming notebooks. That's where Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 560M graphics chip comes in, one of two mobile GPUs Nvidia unwrapped at the Computex convention in Taiwan. As the more powerful of the two, Nvidia says "the GeForce GTX 560M and Nvidia Optimus mean gamers get 50 frames per second in Duke Nukem Forever and five hours of battery life in Microsoft Office," which translates into "real power and real portability."

Well folks, it's official. Putting an end to speculation and expanding upon the sneak performance peek recently offered up, Nvidia today cut the ribbon on its GeForce GTX 560 (non-Ti) videocard, a mid-range part that nudges in between the GeForce GTX 460 and GTX 560 Ti in both performance and price. Confirmed specs after the break.

Nvidia today made available the first set of WHQL-certified drivers from the 'Release 270' family of drivers (versions 270.xx to 274.xx) for GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500-series desktop GPUs, as well as Ion desktop GPUs. The release kicks off with version 270.61 and adds support for the newly launched GeForce GTX 590, 560 Ti, and 550 Ti graphics cards.