Today we can say with absolute certainty that dual-channel DDR SDRAM has finally become a major memory type for Pentium 4 platforms. Since Intel has given up Rambus memory and speeded up the Pentium 4 processor bus to 800MHz, it appears now that only two 64bit DDR SDRAM channels can ensure sufficient memory subsystem bandwidth for a high-performance system.

The introduction of dual-channel DDR SDRAM started last year already, when i7205 chipset appeared. This chipset targeted for high-performance workstations supported dual-channel DDR266 SDRAM and allowed using processors with 400MHz or 533MHz bus frequency. At that time it was more than enough. However, time kept going: today the market offers faster processors with 800MHz bus. Specifically for these CPUs Intel launched new i875P chipset supporting faster bus and two DDR400 SDRAM channels. As a result, the bus between the CPU and the memory now boasts 6.4GB/sec bandwidth, which speeded up systems built with Intel processors quite tangibly. However, i875P features one very serious drawback: it’s the price. Mainboards based on i875P cost more than $200 today, which automatically positions this chipset as a solution for the Top End high-performance systems. And the ordinary mainstream computers are still built on the chipsets from i845 family working with single-channel DDR333 SDRAM and featuring no official support for the new 800MHz bus. However, very soon this situation should change for the better. In the nearest future, to be more exact on May 21 Intel is going to announce one more dual-channel chipset aka i865 with 800MHz bus support, which will replace the i845 chipset family. It will mean that very soon 800MHz bus will become a mainstream feature. Moreover, it also means that Intel will soon start selling not very expensive processors with 800MHz bus support and working frequencies starting from 2.4GHz, as well as low-cost mainboards for them.

This way, the new upcoming i865 chipset (new chipset family, to be more exact) also known under Springdale codename should replace the popular i845 family bringing Pentium 4 platforms performance to a completely new level. Although there are still a few days left before the official announcement of the i865, the first mainboards based on it are already selling. Today we are going to take a closer look at one of the first mainboards based on the new chipset and to evaluate the performance growth expected from the newcomer.

Intel 865PE vs. Intel 875P

At first we would like to make a few things clear about the differences between the today’s Intel chipsets supporting 800MHz bus. The first i875P chipset announced about a month ago together with Pentium 4 3.0GHz already supported dual-channel DDR400 SDRAM and 800MHz bus. Formally, the new i865PE hardly differs from i875PE in terms of its features set, however, it costs much less: only $34 against $50. Why do two so similar chipsets cost so differently? It looks as if product positioning and marketing are the two primary reasons. If i875P is targeted for high-performance systems, then i865PE is a regular mainstream product for the mass systems. However, Intel’s engineers had to make sure that this price difference is also backed up by some specifications differences. This difference in specs is the PAT technology support and the opportunity to use ECC memory with i875P. i865PE doesn’t have any of those.