Episode II: Attack of the Chipsets – Intel 845E and 845G for 533 MHz FSB and DDR-SDRAM – THG.RU

Episode II: Attack of the Chipsets – Intel 845G and 845E

Note: The initial article, posted on May 20, 2002, assumed that DDR333 support would be initially available. As a matter of fact it is, but according to Intel, DDR333 validation will be finished in H2/2002. We apologize for that.

It’s only a couple of weeks ago that Intel launched new Pentium 4 processors that run at 533 MHz processor bus clock or FSB (in reality 133 MHz at 4x data rate). Initially, Intel released only one core logic for this new batch of processors, the RDRAM-chipset i850E. Today Intel is adding two more chipset models that support the much more popular DDR-SDRAM, to finally ensure that the new Pentium 4 ‘B’ will become a mass product. SiS and VIA have already launched their DDR-solutions for the new Intel processor models, so Intel is consequently under pressure. Starting today, the re-worked 845E, as well as the 845G are available as Intel’s mainstream platforms for Pentium 4 ‘B’. The question is whether or not they can take the crown for performance in the DDR category.

Due to dealings with Rambus Inc., Intel’s very first Pentium 4 chipset had been a RDRAM-solution and it took a long while until Intel had finally been willing to add SDRAM and eventually DDR-SDRAM support for their flagship processor. While RDRAM has never become very popular due to several different reasons, Pentium 4 was always able to benefit from this memory type, making RDRAM chipsets the fastest Pentium 4 platforms. While in the past, i850 platforms were unpopular due to the high prices of RDRAM, today i850E seems a bad choice because it lacks Intel’s official support of the new PC1066 RDRAM and it was not validated to run with Intel’s latest “ICH4” south bridge that offers USB 2.0 support.

The chipsets Intel releases today do not share the problems mentioned above. DDR-SDRAM is more popular than ever, offering performance that is close enough to that of RDRAM. With i845E or i845G you will also not have to do without the new USB 2.0 standard, as ‘ICH4’ is the south bridge of choice for the two newcomers.

i845E and i845G in Detail

There are a total of three new i845 chipsets: 845E, 845G and 845GL. The latter represents a low-cost variation and won’t be launched for another few days, so we’ll only investigate the 845E and G models here.

The 845E is technically the same as the 845, but it also supports Pentium 4 processors with 533 MHz FSB. With the introduction of ‘ICH4’, Intel showed that it wasn’t satisfied to simply extend the specification, but went further to integrate support for USB 2.0. Without this addition, the 845E would have been left with no advantages over rival products from SiS (645DX) and VIA (P4X333), except for its brand name. This would not have made for a good start.

As for the 845G, we can attest to the fact that there are even more improvements. It also comes with the new ‘ICH4’ south bridge and thus with up to 6 USB 2.0 ports. However, the two most important new features are in the MCH (Intel’s Northbridge chip), the 82845G. This north bridge chip is what’s responsible for the ‘G’ in the name of the chipset. ‘G’ stands for ‘graphics’ and that’s the first important difference between i845E and i845G. Intel included an integrated 3D-graphics controller, which may not be exactly at the level of NVIDIA’s nForce or ATi’s Radeon IGP340, but fast enough to at least outdo a GeForce 2 MX200 and certainly i815’s 3D-solution. For those ones of you, who can only yawn about this feature, Intel was nice enough to add support for external 3D-graphics as well, so i845G motherboards will come with AGP slots and support of 4x AGP.

This is not all, however. Undoubtedly, the memory interface is the most important new feature of i845G. Its memory controller is made for DDR memory based on the PC1600, PC2100, but also ready for the PC2700 or DDR333 standard. The support of this high-end DDR-memory type allows i845G to boost the performance of Pentium 4 significantly and enables Intel’s new chipset to compete with DDR333 solutions from VIA and SiS. Unfortunately, the validation of this faster interface has not been finished due to the late completion of the DDR333 standard by the JEDEC, making this option a common overclocking feature. The higher memory bandwidth provided by the fast PC2700 DDR-SDRAM will of course also benefit the integrated graphics solution of i845G, but this issue will only play a minor role, as integrated graphics are hardly ever found in high-performance systems.

82801DB: ICH4 with USB 2.0

Intel calls its south bridge component ICH (I/O controller hub). The model used by the 845E and 845G chipsets is called “ICH4”, or “82801DB”. The only, but highly important new feature is the inclusion if a new USB controller. As we mentioned above, “ICH4” supports the USB 2.0 standard, allowing a bandwidth of up to 480 MB/s, which is 40 times faster than USB 1.1. Within the next year, USB 2.0 will become the dominant interface for external devices; scanners, printers, portable hard drives and even network adapters will be using USB 2.0 in the future.

Intel also uses the ICH4 to prepare the way for Gigabit-Ethernet. It’s normal for chipsets to have an integrated interface plus control unit for a network controller. It enables motherboard makers to optionally equip their products with a LAN controller chip, so the customer saves the expense for a network card. Intel also offers a suitable network controller for the ICH4 that has a transfer rate of 1 Gbit/s, the 82854GB (see photo).

The 82854GC supports 10/100/1000 MBit/s, and it can be used with all Intel chipsets based on ICH4 up till now (845E, 845G, E7500).

Previously available: the 82550EY. This supports 10 and 100 Mbit/s. It can also be used with the new chipsets.

Pentium 4 Chipsets Compared

* DDR333 will likely be supported in H2/2002

Test Setup

Benchmark Results

In this review we are not going to take a look at the integrated graphics of 845G. The reason for this decision is the powerful memory controller which makes this chipset, in our eyes, certainly not low-cost, but a performance product, nonetheless. Thus we ran all benchmarks with a GeForce 4 TI4600 card and 128 MB video memory.

Please don’t forget that DDR333 support for 845G has not yet been approved. Still we added these numbers as the vast majority of 845G motherboards already offers support for this faster memory – although it’s merely an overclocking feature so far.

OpenGL: Quake III Arena

Quake III Arena is dominated by 850E and 845G. This benchmark is still in use because Q3 remains one of the most popular 3D shooters and, more importantly, changes in CPU, memory or graphics performance can immediately be noticed in the benchmark results.

DirectX 7 Games: 3D Mark 2000

DirectX 8 Games: 3D Mark 2001 SE

MP3 Audio Encoding: mp3 Maker Platinum

MP3 Audio Encoding: Lame MP3

MPEG-4 Video Encoding: Xmpeg 4.5 and Divx 5.01

MPEG-2 Video Encoding: Pinnacle Studio 7

SiSoft Sandra 2002 Benchmarks: CPU and Multimedia

PC Mark 2002: CPU and Memory

The result from the memory benchmark corresponds pretty much to the WinACE results. Obviously, 845G performs better than VIA’s chipset in terms of rough data transfer.

3D Rendering: Cinema 4D XL 7

Here, the 845G shows off ist full potential: Rendering is finished fastest with this platform. It’s surprising to see the P4X333 lag clearly behind.

3D Rendering: 3D Studio Max 4.2

WinACE 2.11: Kompressions-Test

This real-world benchmark seems to do many transactions in the memory – most likely due to the internal &quotedictionary&quote that is used; WinACE compares data patterns of the files which are to be compressed with it. Here, 850E is clearly ahead. The 845G also is able to beat VIA’s P4X333.

3D Rendering Performance: SPECviewperf

The order is the same in all viewperf runs: Intel 850E plus PC1066 RDRAM finishes before VIA P4X333 and Intel 845G.

Conclusion: i845G Jay – i845E Nay

With the 845E and 845G chipsets, Intel has put two solid platforms for the Pentium 4 processor in its portfolio and has caught up with its competitors once more.

Clearly, i845G has its attractions. Its DDR333 support makes it pretty much as fast as VIA’s “semi-legal” P4X333 chipset and motherboard makers don’t have to fear lawsuits for using i845G. Compared to i850E running the officially supported PC800 RDRAM, it makes a very good figure as well. Only i850E with PC1066 RDRAM is still able to outscore Intel’s latest and greatest DDR-chipset fore Pentium 4.

Unfortunately however, the full-blown DDR333 support comes at a cost. First, you have to pay for an integrated graphics solution that you might not need or want. This reminds us of the initial situation at the release of Intel’s 815 chipset. Second, Intel is not able or willing to support this feature by now. Instead, we were given the information that chipset testing and DDR333 validation has not yet been finished. Different from our initial thoughts, this new chipset generation does only support DDR266.

It is hard to accept that the new i845E does not come with the DDR333 support of i845G. The only advantage of i845E over its predecessor i845D is the inclusion of the Pentium 4 ‘B’ 533 MHz FSB. The new ‘ICH4’ south bridge will most certainly work with any i845 chipset, so it’s not really a major advantage of the new 845 chipsets.

For people who want to go Pentium 4 ‘B’, we recommend the following scenarios:

• If you want top notch performance, consider i850E motherboards with officially unsupported PC1066 RDRAM and ‘not validated’ ICH4 south bridge. It will offer you the fastest Pentium 4 solution, USB 2.0 support, and maybe even Gigabit Ethernet. It lacks ATA133, as Intel does not support this standard.
• The question whether to take 845E or G can be answered by comparing prices. Both perform pretty much the same, while 845E is less expensive. In exchange, only 845G will get you an ideal platform for overclocking.
• If you look for good performance at a fair price, it’s currently VIA’s P4X333 or an overclocked 845G with DDR333. The first is not supported by the big motherboard makers, as VIA is still without a P4-bus license and the lawsuit between Intel and VIA remains. Technically, P4X333 offers ATA133 as well as AGP8x support, while i845G has its integrated graphics and the better PCI-performance. Please know that any DDR333 support offered by 845G motherboards is not officially validated by Intel, but still can be seen as one of the best tuning features ever thanks to the fact that it will be introduced soon.

For the time being, we don’t see a reason to recommend i845E until Intel equips it with DDR333 support.