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Comparison: 12 Different Chipsets For P4

1:07 PM - May 6, 2002 by Thomas Pabst

This table lists all chipsets for the Socket 478 platform. Along with the ones that are soon to come, there is a total of 12 different Pentium 4 chipsets from Intel, SiS and VIA. With regard to the best performance, the Intel chipsets are positioned quite well, while VIA, which, to be exact, does not have a P4 bus license, is at a bit of a disadvantage with its P4X component. The development at SiS is interesting: the manufacturer has a license and is working on SiS 648, which is the first of its chipsets to use a Rambus memory interface.

Chipset	Intel 850E	Intel 845G	Intel 845E	SiS 648	SiS 645DX	SiS 645
Introduction	May 2002	May 2002	May 2002	November 2002	March 2002	November 2001
Processor Plattform	Socket 478	Socket 478	Socket 478	Socket 478	Socket 478	Socket 478
Supported CPU	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4
Chipset Northbridge	Intel KC82850E	Intel RG82850E	Intel RG8245EES	SiS 648	SiS 645DX	SiS 645
Chipset Southbridge	Intel 82801 BA "ICH2"	Intel 82801 DB "ICH4"	Intel 82801 DB "ICH4"	SiS 961	SiS 961	SiS 961
Front Side Bus Clock	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100 MHz
Memory Clock	400 MHz/533 MHz	100/133/166 MHz	100/133 MHz	400/533/600 MHz	100/133/166/200 MHz	100/133 MHz
Asynchronous Memory Clock	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
max. # DIMM-Slots	4	3	3	4	3	3
max. Memory	2048 MB	3072 MB	3072 MB	2048 MB	3072 MB	3072 MB
SDRAM Support	no	yes	yes	no	yes	yes
DDR SDRAM Support	no	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
VC SDRAM Support	no	no	no	no	no	no
RDRAM Support	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Dual Channel RDRAM Support	yes	no	no	no	no	no
Ultra-DMA/33/66/100	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes
Ultra-DMA/133	no	no	no	yes	no	no
Max. # USB	4	6	6	4	4	4
USB 2.0	no	yes	yes	yes	no	no
Max.# PCI Slots	6	6	6	6	6	6
Integrated Graphics	no	yes	no	yes	yes	yes
AGP 1x / 2x / 4x	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes
AGP 8x	no	no	no	yes	no	no
ACPI Features	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes

Chipset	Intel 850	Intel 845D	Intel 845	VIA P4X266	VIA P4X266A
Introduction	January 2001	December 2001	July 2001	August 2001	December 2001
Processor Plattform	Socket 423/478	Socket 478	Socket 423/478	Socket 423/478	Socket 478
Supported CPU	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4
Chipset Northbridge	Intel KC82850	Intel 82845	Intel 82845	VIA VT8753	VIA P4X266A
Chipset Southbridge	Intel 82801 BA "ICH2"	Intel 82801 BA "ICH2"	Intel 82801 BA "ICH2"	VIA VT8233	VIA VT8233A
Front Side Bus Clock	100/133 MHz	66/100/133 MHz	66/100/133 MHz	100 MHz	100 MHz
Memory Clock	400 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz
Asynchronous Memory Clock	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
max. # DIMM-Slots	4	3	4	4	4
max. Memory	2048 MB	2048 MB	2048 MB	4096 MB	3072 MB
SDRAM Support	no	no	yes	yes	yes
DDR SDRAM Support	no	yes	no	yes	yes
VC SDRAM Support	no	no	no	yes	yes
RDRAM Support	yes	no	no	no	no
Dual Channel RDRAM Support	yes	no	no	no	no
Ultra-DMA/33/66/100	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes
Ultra-DMA/133	no	no	no	no	yes
Max. # USB	4	4	4	6	6
USB 2.0	no	no	yes	no	yes
Max.# PCI Slots	6	6	6	5	5
Integrated Graphics	no	no	no	no	no
AGP 1x / 2x / 4x	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes
AGP 8x	no	no	no	no	yes
ACPI Features	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes