The Intel 945G Express is Intel's latest integrated chipset, and follows in the footsteps of the i915G and i865G chipsets. It supports the 1066/800/533 MHz system bus speeds, and can handle virtually all Pentium 4 and Celeron LGA775 processors. The only processors not listed as supported by the i945G are the dual core Pentium Extreme Edition models. It utilizes dual-channel DDR2 memory up to DDR2-667 speeds, includes PCI Express x16 graphics and PCI Express x1 peripheral support, and features Intel-specific technology like Hyper-Threading, Matrix Storage, and High Definition Audio.
The i945G also share some features with the higher-end i955X. Intel Flex Memory Technology is also present, and this feature allows different DDR2 capacities onboard, while still maintaining full dual-channel operation. The ICH7R Southbridge also offers support for Serial ATA 3 Gb/sec. (previously known as SATA 2) and this upgrades the potential bandwidth for disk storage, as well as supporting features such as NCQ.
The main feature that truly differentiates the Intel 945G Express from the i955X and i945P is the presence of integrated graphics, or more specifically, the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950. This is the natural transition from the GMA 900 found on the i915G and is basically a slightly revamped version of the integrated video core. Clock speeds have jumped from 333 MHz for the GMA 900 to 400 MHz for the GMA 950, and memory bandwidth has also jumped, assuming you are running at DDR2-667 speeds. The new graphics core also has DirectX 9 compatibility and the GMA 950 adds support for anisotropic filtering.
Intel has also upgraded their Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT) 3.0 to support up to 224 MB of dynamically allocated system memory. The desktop and multimedia features are even better, with native 16x9 support for wide screen flat panels, motion compensation for smooth DVD playback and the GMA 950 can even handle HDTV display formats. Intel also offers an Advanced Digital Display 2 (ADD2) option that can support additional displays for multi-monitor support.
The Intel D945GTP motherboard is the main reference system for our benchmark testing, and was the home for all Pentium D and Pentium 4 processors. This was a very high-performance platform for the class, and offered seamless installation and excellent stability. It was also more like a standard ATX motherboard, and sports a 24-pin ATX and 4-pin 12V power connectors, with none of the 8-pin Xeon power requirements of the i955X motherboard used with the Pentium Extreme Edition 840. This is a bit unusual, as the dual-core Pentium D 840 and Pentium EE 840 are virtually the same processor in terms of power and thermal requirements.
The D945GTP includes both integrated GMA 950 graphics and a dedicated PCI Express x16 graphics connector, which offers flexibility when it comes to the choice of graphics. Although the i945G chipset can support LGA775 processors using the 1066 MHz bus, the Intel specs rate the D945GTP at a maximum of 800 MHz, with support for DDR2-533/667 memory. The i945G Northbridge is coupled with the ICH7R Southbridge, which includes four SATA ports (with RAID), one PATA port, one floppy port, Gigabit LAN, HD Audio, eight USB 2.0 ports, and two PCI/one PCI Express x1 connectors.
The Intel 945G Express chipset also deserves some attention, in terms of basic desktop performance, and when the integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950 video core is employed. In terms of business and media performance, there was little difference in the overall benchmark results, with the integrated graphics offering performance on par, or slightly below, that of a dedicated PCI Express video card. We have included these results in our standard benchmark tests, as the Intel 945G's integrated graphics will be judged on this basis. Overall 2D video quality is quite good for an Intel chipset, and an improvement on previous integrated i865G offerings.
Where things changed drastically is in the area of high-end 3D games, especially as the GMA 950 core is not even a mainstream 3D gaming solution, and is designed to support the Longhorn operating system and its base 3D requirements. Since many of the game benchmark results were so low, and others games like Half-Life 2 and Halo refused to run due to video requirements, there was really no reason to include these scores in the benchmark section.
Older games like Quake 3 (140+ fps) and UT 2003 (100+ fps) ran very well, and we even played a few rounds of each with no framerate issues. But once we moved to newer games like DOOM 3 (9 fps) and FarCry (11 fps), this brought the GMA 950 to its knees and real-world gameplay was not remotely in the playability range. This is still not a bad solution for general PC gaming, as long as you stay away from the cutting edge, fast action games.
