A web-site has revealed that ASUSTeK Computer enables Performance Acceleration Technology (also known as PAT), an exclusive feature of i875P core-logic, on its i865PE-based mainboards.

The Performance Acceleration Technology is only officially provided by Intel’s 875P “Canterwood” chipset when 800MHz Quad Pumped Bus and PC3200 DDR SDRAM memory is used. It ensures a 3-5% performance increase in most widely spread benchmarks and applications over i865PE/i865G GMCH. The idea of the PAT implies a better optimized interaction with the memory subsystem by removing a few stages from the memory addressing procedures and will also use more aggressive memory timings. Performance Acceleration Technology of i875P “Canterwood” resembles the Super Bypass Mode implemented in AMD750 chipsets. Intel claims that this mode is only available with the i875P because of very special and excellent silicon used for its manufacturing. But ASUS tries to proof that their mainboards powered by i865PE core-logic also provide PAT despite of Intel’s official statements.

As I have just read over here, to enable Intel’s Performance Acceleration Technology on ASUS P4P800 and other mainboards based on the same i865PE chipset you need to perform the following steps:

• Enter BIOS setup utility;
• Select “Advanced” menu;
• Select “Chipset” configuration;
• Enabled Memory Acceleration Mode;
• Your system is now PAT ready.

I have no idea if ASUS really enables PAT or just performs certain other BIOS optimizations or simply increases memory or Quad Pumped Bus frequency, but this seems to be a very dangerous action against i875P core-logic in any case. If we can get PAT without paying a lot of money for i875P, then we will never buy the latter. This may force Intel to cut prices on its i875P in order to make it more attractive to end-users in DIY market especially keeping in mind the fact that difference in performance between i865PE and i875P is tiny.