Chipset Guide

Take all of the features of the VP2/97 chipset, double the CPU-to-DRAM Write Buffers, add a full gigabyte of cacheable memory area (which is greater than the 512MB supported by the Pentium II!!!) and AGP support and you get the Apollo VP3 chipset. As the VP2/97 was essentially a combination of the Intel HX and TX chipsets, the VP3 is a combination of the VIA VP2 and the Intel 440LX chipsets. Although the performance of the VP3 has yet to be proven, it will soon by FIC with the release of their PA-2012, the very first Socket-7 AGP Motherboard. VIA has a huge hit on their hands with the combination of the success of the VP2/97 and the imminent success of the VP3 chipset.

Unfortunately there are two significant "let downs" the VP3 chipset leaves us with. The first isn't all that prominent, just that the VP3 doesn't support BEDO DRAM like its predecessors the VP2 and VPX did. Its support for SDRAM as well as DDR-SDRAM does compensate for that shortcoming so it really isn't a huge problem for most users. The big letdown is the lack of a 100MHz bus speed support natively with the VP3 chipset, we will unfortunately have to wait for the next stop in VIA's travels for 100MHz bus speed support with the MVP3 (Mobile VP3).