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Introducing the P965

Intel has brought out a new chipset for the Core 2 Duo as well as existing Pentium D processors.  Unveiled at Computex, the P965 is billed as having been optimized for digital home computing and entertainment. It isn't meant as a replacement for the 975X, which remains Intel's "flagship" chipset.  Motherboard manufacturers are releasing refreshes of 975X boards with Core 2 Duo support.  There's some small confusion because 975X boards that have been out for a while are not compatible with Core 2 Duo in spite of the same chipset name and the same Socket.  

The P965 incorporates Intel's "Fast Memory Access" - an updated memory controller hub backbone architecture that optimizes the the available memory bandwidth and reduces memory access latency. The MCH supports dual channel DDR2-800 memory, for a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 12.8GB/sec.

Fast Memory Access has the following attributes:

• Just in Time Command Scheduling - allows overlapping of commands on the system memory bus
• Out of Order Execution - allows for re-ordering of memory access to reduce page opening delays
• Opportunistic Writes - issues pending writes to memory when it is idle if possible
• Clock Crossing Optimizations - transfers data on first usable clock phase

Other features of the chipsent include:

• 1066/800/533 MHz system bus supporting all Socket 775 Intel processors
• PCIe 16x interface for graphics, and a PCIe 1x interface for a PCIe peripheral
• USB Ports

The P965 chipset's I/O Controller Hub (ICH8/R/DH) provides the following capabilities:

• Matrix Storage Technology (MST) - now supporting external SATA ports; supports RAID 0/1/5/10
• High Definition Audio (HD Audio) - supports multiple audio streams in order to listen to two different streams in two separate rooms
• Quiet System Technology - more intelligent fan speed control

The P965 looks pretty good as far as specifications go, but how well will it perform on the Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6?