AnandTech: Intel X48 - Much Ado about Nothing....

The launch of the Intel X38 chipset occurred just a few weeks ago and even by the most optimistic viewpoint, it was nowhere as successful as the P35 rollout last spring. In fact, we can honestly say this chipset launch is just about the only blemish on Intel's almost flawless product release schedule this year. We had grown comfortable over the past year with Intel's continuing evolution and roll out products, each one offering something distinctive whether it was performance related or a cost reduction that reset the price to performance ratios in an already very competitive market. The hype surrounding the X38 for the past several months had labeled it as the pinnacle in performance chipsets. From all early indications, it was going to be just that and then boom; it seemed like a major disappointment upon release.

The performance of the X38 was clearly not a step above the P35 upon release. Test results from new features such as PCI Express 2.0 and true dual x16 PCI Express capable slots were not available. The lack of performance oriented GPUs based upon PCI Express 2.0 from AMD meant CrossFire with the HD 2900XTs were not an alternative to NVIDIA's SLI technology featuring the class leading 8800GTX. Even without those new features, the whole launch process seemed unorganized with only a couple of motherboards available at launch. Even several weeks after launch, we are just now seeing boards from manufacturers other than ASUS and Gigabyte hitting the channels. It was not until this last series of BIOS releases that we would even consider purchasing an X38 based board over a P35 equivalent. It appears from the number of boards in the channel that many of you agreed with us.

Another kink in the X38 launch process centered on the continuing rumors of the upcoming X48 chipset. Once again, the hype machine or maybe more like the rumor machine got into full gear with claims touting the X48's greatly improved performance. If some of the rumors were true, it would soon wear the performance crown. Of course, a lack of official information from Intel about the chipset only propagated the continuing rumors around the X48 and the apparent demise of the X38 in short order. To complicate the situation, the release schedules for the X48 have bounced around from November to February and even at this point, we are still unsure.

What we are sure of at this point is that we have a mess on our hands. However, after testing the X48 for the past few days several areas of concern with the whole X38/X48 situation are clear to us now. The X48 is an upgrade to the X38 and not a replacement according to the information we have currently. Even with this statement, the motherboard manufacturers are still unsure at this point, as to how to market the chipsets or if they will even coexist in certain lineups. We see no reason as to why the X48 cannot be marketed into the very top end with the X38 replacing the upper tier P35 boards in the $150~$250 market. The X38 in our opinion is maturing quickly and we will see it replace the P35 at the top end, especially for those wanting a CrossFire setup.

With that in mind, we are going to provide a very early look at the X48 chipset and a few benchmarks that show its potential before spending the next few days concentrating on wide range of products from AMD. We will look at the X48 and DDR2 performance along with several X38 motherboards afterwards. Let us look at the feature set of the ASUS P5E3 Premium and check out its preliminary performance.