Chipset comparison
We had a brief look at what's new in the P35 chipset here, but let's trot out the comparison table to see how it lines up against the competition.| Chipset | Intel P35 |
Intel P965 |
Intel 975x |
NVIDIA 680i SLI |
NVIDIA 680i LT SLI |
NVIDIA 650i SLI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU Support | Core 2
Extreme* | |||||
| FSB | Up to 1333MHz FSB |
Up to
1066MHz FSB |
Up to
1333MHz FSB |
|||
| Official Memory Support | DDR2-800/DDR3-1333 |
DDR2-800 |
DDR2-667 |
DDR2-1200 (EPP Modules) |
DDR2-800
| |
| PCIe Lanes | 22 (16
MCH, 6 ICH) |
46 (16 NB
+ 30 SB) |
18 (16 NB + 2 SB) |
|||
| Multi-GPU Support | ATI
CrossFire (16x + 4x) |
ATI CrossFire (8x + 8x) |
NVIDIA
SLI (16x + 16x) |
NVIDIA SLI (8x + 8x) |
||
| SATA Drive Support | 6 (R and
DH), 4 (standard) |
4 |
6
| 4 |
||
| PATA Channels | 0 (Third
party controller usually included) |
1 |
1
| 2 |
||
| RAID Support | 0, 1, 5
or 10 with an R or DH ICH. |
0, 1, 5
or 0+1 |
||||
| Integrated Ethernet | Intel
Pro/1000 LAN (optional) |
2 x Integrated Gigabit
Ethernet |
1 x
Integrated Gigabit Ethernet |
|||
| Typical Price Range | £80 - 160 |
£55 - 150 |
£85 - 160 |
£135 - 200 |
£120 - 140 |
£70 - 120 |
* 45nm support is presumed to be included in P35 but not other currently-existing boards.
Note, too, that with P35, Intel discards support for the old Netburst-based Celeron Ds processors. Today, it would be hard to recommend any of Intel's NetBurst-based processors, let alone the sluggish Celerons, so all reference to these CPUs has been omitted from the above chart.
Intel still lags far behind NVIDIA's 680i parts in terms of PCIe lanes - a 16x + 16x solution will have to wait for X38. SLI support is restricted to NVIDIA's own drivers, so all Intel chipsets are limited to only supporting ATI CrossFire configurations, for now at least.
Beyond this, the P35 looks as though it should find easy entry into the P965's market segment. The price premium for P35 over P965 is already quite small on comparable SKUs (though there are no true budget P35 designs yet) and should decrease to nearly nothing with time.
In terms of NVIDIA, motherboards using P35 look likely to compete most directly with those featuring the 650i SLI and 680i LT SLI chipsets, though lower-priced 680i SLI boards have started to come into the P35's price range.
Since Intel and NVIDIA can each boast official support for a 1333FSB, the main differentiating factor appears to be the choice between ATI CrossFire and NVIDIA SLI multi-GPU technologies.
So, now we know what makes the P35 tick, let's take a look at the ASUS P5K Deluxe WiFi Edition.