Bearlake Launch & Gigabyte P35-DS3R Review - PAGE 4

Intel also provided some slides showing some of the benefits of Series 3 chipsets.

DDR3 Benefits

Intel is making the move to DDR3 in order to allow easier scaling to higher memory speeds in the near future - as well as reduce the power consumption of the memory subsystem.

Currently, DDR2 only officially supports up to 800MHz - however I've personally run DDR2 as high as 1250MHz and memory manufacturers constantly release products that push way beyond the 800MHz spec.

DDR3 is officially supported at up to 1600MHz, however it is expected to scale to over 2133MHz.

DDR3, largely due to operating at lower voltages, is expected to consume 25% less power at the same speed; therefore a DDR3-1333 module consumes approximately the same ammount of power as a DDR2-800 module.  The reduced heat output and power consumption are welcome side benefits, especially with higher energy costs and environmental concerns.

Faster Memory Access

Basically Intel says that the G33 and P35 have improved memory performance over the 945G chipset - this is not surprising, as Intel improved the memory controller when the P35's predecessor, the excellent 965P, chipset was introduced.

Improved I/O Performance

Intel's Matrix Storage manager provides RAID functionality, which can be used to improve performance and/or provide enhanced reliability.

The Series 3 ICH9 chips optionally provide for "Intel Turbo Memory" - which appears to be a FLASH based cache for the hard disks, and supports port multipliers for eSATA ports.