Chipset Guide

All work and no play would make any high end workstation a bore, which is why Intel left in all of the key features the 440BX chipset brought to the table when they designed the GX AGPSet.  The AGP 2X specification is completely provided for by the GX, including multi-processor support for up to 2 CPU's.  The GX begins to differ from its older brother here, in its processor support.  While supporting the standard, run-of-the-mill Pentium II processors the 440GX also supports Intel's newest concoction, the Slot-2 based Xeon processor.  Mainly geared towards server markets, and possibly high end workstation platforms, the Intel Xeon will find its home quite comfortable on a 440GX based motherboard.  The GX, as mentioned before, features all of the benefits the 440BX brought to the industry, including support for the 100MHz Front Side Bus frequency and SDRAM while expanding on the BX design to include for memory configurations of up to 2GB of SDRAM.

Completely removing support for older memory types such as EDO DRAM, which was previously supported in the BX and LX chipsets, the 440GX AGPSet is a solution for only the most power hungry and performance crazed users.  At the same time the 440GX can make for an affordable companion to a Xeon processor without sacrificing any of the fun components such as AGP video cards and other such things that we would normally be without if a different chipset were to be chosen (i.e. the other chipset from Intel with Xeon support, the 450NX).  The 440GX, from a performance perspective, hardly differs from the 440BX to any noticable degree.   The main differences, as outlined previously, stem from support for the Xeon and support for up to 2GB of SDRAM.

The 440GX still lacks the Memory Interleave capabilities that its elder sibling, the 450NX brings to the table for maximum performance when using all DRAM banks.  A minor drawback of a chipset whose support for AGP makes up for the difference for users that plan to do a little more than crunch numbers with their system.