It seems Nvidia has “soft-launched” its new graphics processing units (GPUs) for laptops. Though the company hasn’t officially announced the GeForce 9M series, several sites including TGDaily.com noticed that the basic specs and other information now appear on Nvidia’s site.

The mainstream GeForce 9300M G has 16 stream processors, a core clock of 400MHz, and up to 256MB of graphics memory (600MHz). Step up to the performance GeForce 9500M GS and you get 32 stream processors, a 475MHz core clock, and as much as 512MB of graphics memory (700MHz). Both GPUs support Microsoft DirectX 10 games and include Nvidia’s PureVideoHD, which offloads the HD video decoding from the CPU to the GPU when viewing Blu-ray or HD-DVD movies. The GeForce 9M series replaces the current 8M series.

Acer is the first to offer laptops with the unannounced GPUs. The U3Sg, Acer’s 13.3-inch model, includes GeForce 9300M G. And the M51Sn, a larger laptop with a 15.4-inch display, will include the GeForce 9500M GS, though the specs aren’t listed on Acer’s site yet.

At CES in January, Acer was quietly showing two models that it reportedly said will offer the GeForce 9500M GS, the M51 series as well as G1Sn, a gaming laptop.

Is it in with the new, out with the old at Dell.com? Last night, I wrote that Dell had added a few Penryn options to one of its most popular laptops, the XPS M1330. Now comes word that the company may have dropped systems using AMD processors from Dell.com altogether. This screenshot appeared on Dell.com’s site earlier today (though it seems to have suddenly disappeared).

Several sites reported the news last night, pitching this as the latest blow to a company already reeling from the botched rollout of its most important product, the native quad-core Barcelona found in Phenom desktop chips and the latest Opterons for servers. While it certainly isn’t great news, it may not be as dire as it sounds. Why? Dell has spent the past year bulking up its retail channels–signing deals with Best Buy, Staples, Wal-Mart and others, and Dell PCs are now available in 10,000 retail stores worldwide. So the company could simply be allocating its inventory of AMD processors, which are typically less expensive, to PCs sold in retail where margins are thin and where AMD is already a big part of the mix. And it may be trying to use up its remaining inventory of Athlon X2s while it waits for the Phenom B3 stepping, which fixes a problem with the cache, and faster clock speeds sometime in Q2.

Then there’s the odd fact that Dell.com still seems to be taking orders for at least one laptop with an AMD processor, the Inspiron 1501 with a 15.4-inch display, which currently starts at $600 and offers three different AMD chips: the 1.8GHz Athlon 64 X2 TK-55, the 1.9GHz Turion 64 X2 TL-58, or the 2.0GHz Turion 64 X2 TL-60.

All of which means this may not be as big a deal as it seems. The most likely explanation: Dell is offering a limited number of AMD-based systems almost exclusively in retail, where they tend to be very competitive on price. I’m checking with Dell for some clarification on all of this. [Updated: 2/8/2008 12:07 PM EST: Dell has posted a full response on its Direct2Dell blog, but here’s the short version: “We currently offer AMD-based Inspiron notebooks and desktops through our retail partners like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Staples. We still offer AMD-based SMB and enterprise-based notebooks, desktops and servers through Dell.com. We are committed to AMD as a long-term partner to provide the maximum choice for our customers.”]

Exactly one month after Intel released its first 45nm laptop chips, Dell is offering the Penryn processors on the XPS M1330, a popular thin-and-light with a 13.3-inch widescreen display. But you have to really look for it, and for now you’ll pay a premium.

The Tech Report hardware site first spotted the addition on Dell’s site. The default high-end configuration still includes a 65nm Core 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB cache) for $1,479. But once you choose a default configuration and start to “Build Yours,” you can now upgrade to one of three Penryn parts:

• Core 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz; 800MHz FSB; 3MB cache), for an additional $75
• Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz; 800MHz FSB; 6MB cache), for an additional $200
• Core 2 Duo T9500 (2.6GHz; 800MHz FSB; 6MB cache), for an additional $475

It doesn’t look like Dell is offering Penryn on any other XPS, XPS Gaming or Inspiron laptops yet. HP already offers the 2.50GHz T9300 on several Pavilion models including the 14.1-inch dv2700t series, 15.4-inch dv6700t series, 17-inch dv9700t series, and 20.1-inch HDX Entertainment Notebook PC.

Intel shipped its first five Penryn mobile chips at CES in early January.  So far the ramp-up seems slow, but that should change in the next few months and Intel says that by mid-2008 it will be shipping more 45nm processors–both desktop and mobile–than older 65nm processors.