ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe: An Early Preview of P45 Express Performance
by Kris Boughton on May 13, 2008 2:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Memory Performance (Read, Write, Copy and Access Latency)
Our memory read performance results indicate that P45 is a strong performer moderate to high bus speeds when compared to X48. The X48 chipset holds a commanding lead until an FSB of about 450MHz wherein P45 pulls ahead and takes the gold. The combination of higher bus speeds and high CPU frequencies seems to magnify the P45 performance advantage when compared to X48. Clock-for-clock the 790i-Ultra chipset clobbers both P45 and X48, at least when it comes to raw memory read bandwidth.
Seeing as how memory write performance scales almost perfectly with FSB and little else, there were no surprises when it came testing each memory controller's ability to write to system memory. Our results were well within the margin of error needed to quote each controller as being equal when it came to handling sustained memory writes.
Once again X48 puts on a superior performance at low to moderate bus speeds but falls behind P45 when pushing towards 500MHz FSB. Those that are looking to purchase low-multiplier CPUs that will demand high bus speeds in order to achieve maximum core frequencies will be wise to consider a P45-based board. Interestingly, the 790i-Ultra board, the Striker II Extreme, shows problems keeping up with Intel when it comes to memory copy performance. Intel's heavy investment in prefetcher algorithm tuning has definitely paid dividends as Intel chipsets consistently out-perform NVIDIA chipsets when it comes to effectively simultaneously balancing memory read and write performance.
Depending on where you plan on running your system each of the three chipsets performs differently when compared to the others. However, if asked we would give the nod to the Intel X48 chipset for consistently putting up the lowest access latency times, a fact which sometimes provides a significant performance advantage when running memory-sensitive benchmarks.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
30 Comments
View All Comments
dingetje - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
a p45 shootout article would be awesome.i won't buy asus anymore because of their EPU scam, but am very interested in the gigabyte and msi p45 offerings
Hxx - Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - link
Asus = EPU scam, Gigabyte = dynamic energy saver scam. Unless your running your system at stock speeds, these features are useless, which brings out the following question? why are these 2 embedded in high end motherboards?Hulk - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
I've written this before but a lot of people (like myself) might be considering this board as a big upgrade from an older board, like my current P5B Deluxe rig. Please include some "legacy" benchmarks so we can see if the performance improvements are worth the dimes.hansmuff - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Certainly the P35 is mature by now and will be eclipsed, but I'd like to see a consideration of performance/$.A good P35 board is $120, 4GB of name brand DDR2-800 with an 8GB option (2x2GB) is $85. I can't even buy this P45 for those two combined, so DDR3 cost really comes into play.
Frumious1 - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Well, you can't even buy any P45 boards right now, so it's a bit premature to discuss retail prices. This particular board is DDR3, so for budget-conscious buyers it would probably be a poor choice. ASUS will have a DDR2 model as well, and so will other companies. How much will those boards cost and how will they perform relative to, say, X38 DDR2 boards? Or P965, 975X, and P35 DDR2 boards? Those are all things we will hopefully examine in a future article. (Not being the motherboard reviewer, I can't make any promises. :))Hxx - Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - link
This board doesn't look "mainstream" to me for a 250 dollar board. I know that intel boards can go as high as 500 bucks a piece but a mainstream board is a stripped down of all the features such as dual ethernet, wireless build in, etc, and this board has it all, except maybe watercooling blocks. But anyway, just like the author stated, a major shift to a different socket type and processing power si drawing near, hopefully by the end of this year aka nehalem, which will pretty much make the x38/48 and p35/45 series become obsolete. So this board is definitely not futureproof. Having said that, most enthusiast/mainstream users will skip this product and look further ahead to the coming up nehalem processors. As for people looking to upgrade or building a new system, P35 can be had for less than $100 without sacrificing too much performance, or x38 for under 200 for crossfire purposes.P45 will only increase Intel's revenues without bringing anything new or worthy of attention to us, the consumers.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - link
$249 as an estimated price prior to launch is not indicative of the market as a whole. I imagine we'll see P45 boards at much more reasonable prices - they should only carry a small premium over P35 boards really.You can also see updated results with P35 performance in the charts now, and from that it's quite clear that P45 isn't a major leap forward. We'll have to wait for further tests on stuff like CrossFire, as that might show more of an advantage, but unless P45 comes in at a price lower than X38 it won't really be a huge chipset launch. Luckily, I expect we will see $150 and lower priced P45 boards - just probably not from ASUS. ;-)
Hxx - Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - link
Wow, performance difference between p45 and p35 is so small it's scary. One might state that P45 is just a refresh of its older brother, which is not.Frumious1 - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Edit: *they* will hopefully examine. Whatever. I know that's what I want to see benchmarked.goosemilk - Tuesday, May 13, 2008 - link
Does this board support Crossfire and SLi?