Related Articles

Ahhh… Another NDA bites the dust!
 
Now that the non-disclosure agreement has expired, we can finally bring you more information about Intel’s P35 “Bearlake” chipset; and we can also bring you a full set of benchmarks on Gigabyte’s P35-DS3R motherboard.
 
We will also tell you about Intel’s new G33 Express chipset, however we do not have any G33 benchmark results for you, as we have yet to receive a G33 based motherboard.
 
This launch will be followed in Q3 by the X38 and G35 chipset launches.. stay tuned :-)

Now before we get to the good stuff - the benchmarks - let's go over the interesting bits of the launch materials provided by Intel.

Intel considers the market for its "desktop" processors to consist of mainly four segments:

As you can see, there is a great deal of overap between the market segments; and frankly, the division into four categories is somewhat artificial - from my point of view there is really no difference between the "Mainstream & Essential" and "Business" categories.

Intel series 3 chipsets are promoted as providing key benefits to Gaming, Business and Consumer users:

The key benefits of the new chipsets are:

For Gamers:

• DDR3 support for higher speed modules
• PCI Expres 2.0 support
• "overspeed protection removed" - ie no deliberate crippling of overclocking

For Business:

• lower TDP
• decreased idle power consumption

For Consumers using integrated graphics:

• improved Clear Video Technology
• enhanced DX10 compatibility