Thoughts
It was inevitable that Intel would release a couple of i945-series chipsets to complement its range-topping i955X Express. The transition from i915G to i945G reflects the same transition from i925X to i955XE, that is, support for dual-core processors, CPUs that chug along at 266MHz FSB (they are few and far between), and a beefed-up southbridge that can offer an extra couple of PCI-Express lanes a further 2 RAID flavours.It's actually more crucial to Intel that i945-series does well. It will be shipped in the vast majority of new PCs that support LGA775 CPUs. General performance is just a touch behind the i955X Express and NVIDIA nForce4 SLI I.E's, yet i945-derived mainboards will be significantly cheaper. I'd also expect a few savvy motherboard manufacturers to come up with their own way of boosting performance to at least i955XE levels, and given the chipset's out-of-the-box support for 266MHz FSB CPUs, enthusiasts with lower-clocked 200MHz FSB P4s may flock to it knowing that chipset limitations will only come into play at 33% above their CPU's base speed.
Intel's given the i945's onboard graphics a new name. The GMA 950, though, is just a faster version of the present GMA 900. Benchmarks have shown it to struggle, as expected, with modern games, and it's generally on a par with ATI's XPRESS 200. In short, the i945G (or i945P) is a reasonable proposition for all but the die-hard enthusiast who needs the ability to run two graphics cards in tandem. I hope that motherboard manufacturers quickly release versions equipped with the ICH7R southbridge. You'll then be able to purchase it with, say, a Pentium D 820. Perfect for huge and varied storage potential, decent sound, and the loveliness that a dual-core CPU brings. Expect Dell to offer you something like this in the coming months.
