Chipset features compared
Before we move on, let's take a quick look at how the 845PE and GE stack up to other Intel chipsets and to the Taiwanese competition. Below is a soul-sucking table full of core-logic chipset features. Feel free to poke through it until you drool on your keyboard. I think I've got everything right.

Intel 845E Intel 845PE Intel 845G Intel 845GE Intel 850E SiS 648 VIA P4X400
Memory types
(DDR only listed)		 PC1600 PC2100 DDR SDRAM PC1600 PC2100 PC2700 DDR SDRAM PC1600 PC2100 (PC2700) DDR SDRAM PC1600 PC2100 PC2700 DDR SDRAM PC800 PC1600 RDRAM PC1600 PC2100 PC2700 DDR SDRAM PC1600 PC2100 PC2700 DDR SDRAM
Max. effective memory clock speed 266MHz 333MHz 266MHz (333MHz unofficial) 333MHz 1066MHz 333MHz
(400MHz unofficial)		 333MHz
(400MHz unofficial)
Memory bus width 64 bits 64 bits 64 bits 64 bits 2 x 16 bits 64 bits 64 bits
Peak theoretical memory bandwidth 2.1GB/s 2.7GB/s 2.1GB/s
(2.7GB/s)		 2.7GB/s 4.2GB/s 2.7GB/s
(3.2GB/s)		 2.7GB/s
(3.2GB/s)
Maximum addressable RAM 2GB 2GB 2GB 2GB 2GB 3GB 3GB
Max. AGP mode 4X 4X 4X 4X 4X 8X 8X
North/south bridge interconnect Accelerated Hub Accelerated Hub Accelerated Hub Accelerated Hub Accelerated Hub MuTIOL V-Link
Interconnect clock speed 266MHz 266MHz 266MHz 266MHz 266MHz 533MHz 533MHz
Interconnect bus width 8 bits 8 bits 8 bits 8 bits 8 bits 16 bits 8 bits
Peak theoretical interconnect bandwidth 266MB/s 266MB/s 266MB/s 266MB/s 266MB/s 1.06GB/s 533MB/s
Disk interface support up to... ATA/100 ATA/100 ATA/100 ATA/100 ATA/100 ATA/133 ATA/133
USB mode support 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.1 2.0 2.0
USB controllers/ports 3/6 3/6 3/6 3/6 2/4 3/6 3/6
IEEE 1394 controllers/ports 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 2/6 0/0
AC97 audio channels 6 6 6 6 6 6 6
Network interfaces 10/100Mbps Ethernet 10/100Mbps Ethernet 10/100Mbps Ethernet 10/100Mbps Ethernet 10/100Mbps Ethernet 10/100Mbps Ethernet
1/10Mbps HPNA		 10/100Mbps Ethernet

If you're still with us, you can probably see that even these newest Intel chipsets don't have all the latest features supported by the VIA P4X400 and SiS 648 chipsets. Those chipsets both have support for AGP 8X, faster interconnects between the north and south bridge chips, ATA/133 support, and unofficial support for DDR400 memory. Remember what I was saying about Intel being more deliberate about supporting new memory standards? The same goes double for other things in core logic. Not that any of these new features matter greatly now. In the case of AGP 8X and DDR400, the current implementations are somewhat imperfect.

I should follow up that statement by saying that VIA's AGP 8X implementation worked beautifully with a Radeon 9700 graphics card in our testing. The SiS 648 wasn't quite as smooth. We saw repeated crashes in 3D applications, and one of them, Unreal Tournament 2003, simply locked up every time we tried to benchmark it. Our attempts to turn off AGP 8X mode in the board's BIOS didn't help, either.

Wisely, both VIA and SiS have backed off of supporting DDR400 memory officially. This new memory speed has not been easy to implement successfully, and even with good Corsair XMS3200 memory, we've not been able to make it go. Our VIA P4PB 400 board wouldn't boot with DDR400 memory. The SiS-based Abit SR7-8X would run DDR400 stable enough to produce benchmark results, but the conservative memory timings required for stability dragged on performance. DDR400 scores were consistently slower than DDR333.

So Intel's conservative approach to chipsets isn't all bad. Effectively, the VIA and SiS products offer a few extra features, but as you'll see shortly, those features don't always add up to better performance.