Integrated Graphics: 3D Is Unconvincing

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First, the good news: the Intel 845G offers the best on-board graphics currently available. And now for the bad news: while Intel is comparable to the GeForce 2 MX 200 (with a 64 bit memory interface) in terms of performance, our test results show a very different picture. Here, it should be mentioned that Intel's own, similar graphics chip with 175 MHz GPU and 143 MHz memory never showed up on the market. The performance values of the 845G can be briefly summed up: with 200 MHz core clock and 133 MHz memory clock in combination with DDR 266, or 166 MHz when used with DDR333, the technical foundations are not bad at all. The only restrictions are in the BIOS: a maximum of 8 MB can be assigned as 2D memory, as dictated by the shared memory concept.

If certain applications need more graphics memory, as is the case with 3D Mark 2001 SE, then the graphics driver automatically allocates more memory. Because the operating system also needs to access the system memory, the graphics performance is dampened considerably. An overview of the Intel 845G's graphics performance is shown by the three benchmark charts with Quake III and 3D Mark 2001 SE.

Comparison: Chipsets For Pentium 4

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Chipset	Intel 850E	Intel 845G	Intel 845E	SiS 648
Introduction	May 2002	May 2002	May 2002	July 2002
Processor Platform	Socket 478	Socket 478	Socket 478	Socket 478
Supported CPU	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4
Chipset Northbridge	Intel KC82850E	Intel RG82845G	Intel RG8245EES	SiS 648
Chipset Southbridge	Intel 82801 BA	Intel 82801 DB	Intel 82801 DB	SiS 961
Front Side Bus Clock	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz
Memory Clock	400 MHz/533 MHz	100/133/166 MHz	100/133 MHz	400/533/600 MHz
Asynchronous Memory Clock	yes	yes	yes	yes
FSB Overclocking	up to 166 MHz	up to 166 MHz	up to 166 MHz	up to 200 MHz
max. # DIMM-Slots	4	3	3	4
max. Memory	2048 MB	3072 MB	3072 MB	2048 MB
SDRAM Support	no	yes	yes	no
DDR SDRAM Support	no	yes	yes	yes
VC SDRAM Support	no	no	no	no
RDRAM Support (Rambus)	yes	no	no	no
Dual RDRAM Support (Rambus)	yes	no	no	no
Ultra-DMA/33/66/100	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes
Ultra-DMA/133	no	no	no	yes
Max. # USB	4	4	4	4
USB 2.0	no	yes	yes	yes
Max.# PCI Slots	6	6	6	6
Integrated Graphics	no	yes	no	yes
AGP 1x / 2x / 4x	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes
AGP 8x	no	no	no	yes
ACPI Features	yes	yes	yes	yes

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Chipset	SiS 645DX	SiS 645	Intel 850	Intel 845D
Introduction	March 2002	November 2001	January 2001	December 2001
Processor Platform	Socket 478	Socket 478	Socket 423/478	Socket 478
Supported CPU	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4
Chipset Northbridge	SiS 645DX	SiS 645	Intel KC82850	Intel 82845
Chipset Southbridge	SiS 961	SiS 961	Intel 82801 BA	Intel 82801 BA
Front Side Bus Clock	100/133 MHz	100 MHz	100/133 MHz	66/100/133 MHz
Memory Clock	100/133/166/200 MHz	100/133 MHz	400 MHz	100/133 MHz
Asynchronous Memory Clock	yes	yes	yes	yes
FSB Overclocking	up to 166 MHz	up to 133 MHz	up to 133 MHz	up to 166 MHz
max. # DIMM-Slots	3	3	4	3
max. Memory	3072 MB	3072 MB	2048 MB	2048 MB
SDRAM Support	yes	yes	no	no
DDR SDRAM Support	yes	yes	no	yes
VC SDRAM Support	no	no	no	no
RDRAM Support (Rambus)	no	no	yes	no
Dual RDRAM Support (Rambus)	no	no	yes	no
Ultra-DMA/33/66/100	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes
Ultra-DMA/133	no	no	no	no
Max. # USB	4	4	4	4
USB 2.0	no	no	no	no
Max.# PCI Slots	6	6	6	6
Integrated Graphics	yes	yes	no	no
AGP 1x / 2x / 4x	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes
AGP 8x	no	no	no	no
ACPI Features	yes	yes	yes	yes

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Chipset	Intel 845	VIA P4X333	VIA P4X266	VIA P4X266A
Introduction	July 2001	May 2002	August 2001	December 2001
Processor Platform	Socket 423/478	Socket 478	Socket 423/478	Socket 478
Supported CPU	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4	Intel Pentium 4
Chipset Northbridge	Intel 82845	VIA P4X333	VIA VT8753	VIA P4X266A
Chipset Southbridge	Intel 82801 BA	VIA VT8233A	VIA VT8233	VIA VT8233A
Front Side Bus Clock	66/100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz	100 MHz	100 MHz
Memory Clock	100/133 MHz	100/133/166 MHz	100/133 MHz	100/133 MHz
Asynchronous Memory Clock	yes	yes	yes	yes
FSB Overclocking	up to 180 MHz	up to 200 MHz	up to 180 MHz	up to 180 MHz
max. # DIMM-Slots	4	4	4	4
max. Memory	2048 MB	3072 MB	4096 MB	3072 MB
SDRAM Support	yes	yes	yes	yes
DDR SDRAM Support	no	yes	yes	yes
VC SDRAM Support	no	yes	yes	yes
RDRAM Support (Rambus)	no	no	no	no
Dual RDRAM Support (Rambus)	no	no	no	no
Ultra-DMA/33/66/100	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes	yes/yes/yes
Ultra-DMA/133	no	yes	no	yes
Max. # USB	6	6	6	6
USB 2.0	yes	yes	no	yes
Max.# PCI Slots	6	5	5	5
Integrated Graphics	no	no	no	no
AGP 1x / 2x / 4x	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes	yes / yes / yes
AGP 8x	no	yes	no	yes
ACPI Features	yes	yes	yes	yes

The table above lists all of the chipsets currently available for the Intel Platform (Socket 478). Older chipsets with SDRAM support (e.g., the Intel 845) are not included here, because boards with these chips are no longer produced or haven't been available on the market for a while.

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