pctechguide.com

  • Home
  • Guides
  • Tutorials
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • Glossary
  • Contact

i945 Chipset

Since the current chipsets didn’t recognise more than one CPU, Intel had no choice but to release new chipsets at the same time as its dual-core Pentium D and Extreme Edition processors. Formerly codenamed Lakeport, the mainstream 945 chipsets essentially provide the same features as the earlier 915 chipsets, plus support for the Pentium D processors.

However, the new chipsets aren’t simply an artificial designation to allow motherboards to handle dual-core processors; there are technical differences and improvements too, albeit incremental ones.

Intel

The 945 chipset can handle front-side bus speeds up to 1066MHz and DDR2 memory up to 667MHz, providing up to 10.7GBps of peak memory bandwidth. The latter should provide a noticeable performance boost compared to DDR2-533 systems. Maximum RAM is be limited to 4GB and there’s no provision for ECC support.

As with its predecessor, the 945 chipset is available in both P and G versions. The 845G differs from the 945P by the integration of Intel’s GMA 950 onboard graphics on to the northbridge. This is a faster version of the GMA 900 present on the 915G chipset, up from 333MHz to 400MHz. The moderate speed hike allows a throughput of up to 1.6G Texels/sec, more than adequate for 2D applications, allowing desktop resolutions of up to 2048 x 1536 pixels at 75Hz and the ability to run two monitors simultaneously via an ADD2 extension card. However, while DirectX 9 3D performance is improved, with Vertex Shader 3.0 and T&L operations still performed in software, this is insufficient for geometry-intensive games.

In addition to providing improved graphics, the GMA 950 supports Media Expansion Cards, allowing a user to take advantage of several video output options in a single-card solution, to provide video input capability and PVR functionality and to support a wide range of display types and configurations, including support of HDTV playback on consumer electronic displays at either 720p or 1080i resolutions.

As with the previous ICH6 chips, the 945’s southbridge chip is available in two versions, the basic ICH7 or the ICH7R. Both include four integrated Serial ATA ports – supporting SATA’s new 3 GBps transfer rates to suitable hard drives or optical devices – 8 USB2.0 ports, support for 6 PCI slots and High-Definition Audio, a worthwhile improvement over basic AC’97. The ICH7 offers 4 PCI-Express x1 lanes that can be combined to form a single x4 port. The ICHR version differs by adding a further two PCI-Express and an enhanced version of Intel’s Matrix Storage Technology.

The latter allows two separate RAID partitions to be combined on one physical set of drives. In addition to RAID0 (striping) and RAID1 (mirroring), the new version also allows for a combination of RAID5 (striping with parity) and RAID10 (stripped mirrors). It also provides support for the AHCI specification, enabling hardware-assisted Native Command Queuing (NCQ) for faster boot times and file transfers and the hot-plugging of devices.

Available as options on both 945P and 945G chipsets are an Intel Gigabit LAN interface and Intel’s Active Management technology, useful for monitoring and controlling PCs in an enterprise environment.

  • Intel’s Triton Chipsets Explained – their history, architecture and development
  • Intel 440 Chipsets – 440LX, 440EX, 440BX, 440ZX, 440GX
  • i810 Chipset
  • Intel 820 Chipset
  • i815 Chipsets
  • i850 Chipsets
  • i845 Chipset
  • What is the Intel E7205 Chipset? What Features Does it Have?
  • i875P Chipset
  • i865 Chipsets
  • What is Intel’s 925X PCI Express Chipset
  • i915 Chipset
  • i945 Chipset
  • Intel’s 955X Express Chipset – Glenwood
  • i965 Chipset
  • A Comparison Chart of Intel’s Chipsets from 915P to P965

Filed Under: chipsets

Latest Articles

Floppy Installation Mounting

As will have been seen earlier, the system case we're using has a 3.5in bay assembly capable of holding two 3.5in devices. This may be removed by unscrewing the two silver thumbscrews located at the bottom and sliding the drive bay assembly out. We're going to install the floppy drive in … [Read More...]

Scheduling Tasks Cleanup

Open up the Scheduled Tasks tool from the Start menu, either via Programs > Accessories > System Tools ... ... or via Settings > Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks. It's likely that some tasks have already been automatically set up, either by Windows or applications that … [Read More...]

Fast Ethernet

Fast Ethernet was officially adopted in the summer of 1995, two years after a group of leading network companies had formed the Fast Ethernet Alliance to develop the standard. Operating at ten times the speed of regular 10Base-T Ethernet, Fast … [Read More...]

Gaming Laptop Security Guide: Protecting Your High-End Hardware Investment in 2025

Since Jacob took over PC Tech Guide, we’ve looked at how tech intersects with personal well-being and digital safety. Gaming laptops are now … [Read More...]

20 Cool Creative Commons Photographs About the Future of AI

AI technology is starting to have a huge impact on our lives. The market value for AI is estimated to have been worth $279.22 billion in 2024 and it … [Read More...]

13 Impressive Stats on the Future of AI

AI technology is starting to become much more important in our everyday lives. Many businesses are using it as well. While he has created a lot of … [Read More...]

Graphic Designers on Reddit Share their Views of AI

There are clearly a lot of positive things about AI. However, it is not a good thing for everyone. One of the things that many people are worried … [Read More...]

Redditors Talk About the Impact of AI on Freelance Writers

AI technology has had a huge impact on our lives. A 2023 survey by Pew Research found that 56% of people use AI at least once a day or once a week. … [Read More...]

11 Most Popular Books on Perl Programming

Perl is not the most popular programming language. It has only one million users, compared to 12 million that use Python. However, it has a lot of … [Read More...]

Guides

  • Computer Communications
  • Mobile Computing
  • PC Components
  • PC Data Storage
  • PC Input-Output
  • PC Multimedia
  • Processors (CPUs)

Recent Posts

2021 PC Hardware Releases to Bolster Your Gaming

If you are a PC gamer, then chances are you are looking to upgrade your kit over the coming year. However, a lot of money can go into building the … [Read More...]

Some of the Best Features of Google Assistant

It is very impressive to see how quickly Google Assistant learns new to help us with daily tasks. Many of them are automated and allow us to have a … [Read More...]

Belarc Advisor – Help Keep Your System Secure and Up To Date

The Belarc Advisor tool is a useful tool for keeping your system secure and up to date. It also can tell you a good deal of information about system … [Read More...]

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2025 About | Privacy | Contact Information | Wrtie For Us | Disclaimer | Copyright License | Authors