ATI 9100 IGP PRO: Optimized for Prescott

Final Words

The fact that the ATI RS350 performed best with an Intel Prescott chipset was quite a surprise. Clearly, chipsets that are optimized for Prescott E chips appear to have the potential to perform better with Prescott than earlier chipsets like the Intel 865/875, which were primarily designed for Northwood operation. If you plan to buy a Prescott Socket 478 processor, the ATI 9100 IGP PRO is a great match to that CPU.

On a larger plane, this gives us great hopes for the performance capabilities of upcoming chipsets for Prescott Socket 775. Please keep in mind that RS350 can also be used with Socket 775, so you are also looking at the first Socket 775 chipset to hit the market.

Consider the Prescott/775 perspective just one part of the picture. In all of our tests, the RS350 finally performs about the same as a chipset as the best Intel 865/875 chipsets. This means that the 9100 IGP PRO can be considered an equivalent choice to the Intel 865/875 chipsets - and a preferred choice to the 865/875 with a Prescott CPU. We know that this was where ATI was aiming with RS350, and it certainly appears ATI succeeded in reaching this goal. Performance in every area is improved compared to our earlier tests of the RS300. The memory controller in particular has moved from ho-hum to fully competitive with Intel's best. If you do not overclock your system, then we know that the 9100 IGP PRO will serve you very well as a platform for your Intel CPU - particularly if that processor has a name ending in "E" .

Our concern is what we still don't know about RS350 after looking at the Reference board. There were absolutely no overclocking options at all on the Reference Platform, which is often the case with Reference Boards. While ATI is enthusiastically telling us the overclocking will be great on RS350, we would like to see that for ourselves. There are other competent Pentium 4 chipsets out there besides Intel, namely the SiS655TX and the VIA PT880. However, with the exception of a lone board based on the SiS655TX, they all suffer from poor overclocking performance compared to the remarkable overclocking that we have enjoyed with Intel 865/875 for the past year. This makes all 4 of these boards decent choices for the computer user who never longs to reach new heights with his Pentium 4, but until we see some convincing evidence, Intel is mostly alone at the top in overclocking capabilities.

We are certain ATI is sincere in their claims about the overclocking capabilities of the IGP PRO chipset, and we will join them in proclaiming the RS350 to be an outstanding choice for Intel processors just as soon as we can confirm those promised overclocking numbers.

There are some areas where the RS350 should be your choice regardless of where it goes with overclocking. Now that the performance is equivalent to the 865 as a chipset, there is every reason to choose the 9100 IGP PRO over the Intel 865G, if you are shopping for integrated graphics. As an integrated graphics solution, the 9100 IGP PRO is far superior to Intel's integrated graphics. If you plan to do any gaming at all with an integrated chipset, at least you can function with the RS350, something we cannot say for gaming on the 865G, unless Quake 3 is the only game you will ever play. You can even play Direct X 9 games with the RS350 if you are willing to run at lower resolutions for playable frame rates.

ATI did an excellent job in updating their integrated chipset. The 9100 IGP PRO is now a chipset that you should seriously consider for your next Intel purchase, particularly if that purchase includes a Prescott, or where that purchase will only include integrated graphics. Intel's upcoming 915/925X will likely bring the same performance boost to Prescott, but for now, the RS350 is the only one on the market that shines so brightly with the P4E chips. This time around, ATI's chipset is able to compete with the best on the market. If overclocking lives up to the other improvements in the ATI integrated chipset, then the 9100 IGP PRO will definitely belong on your short shopping list for motherboards for the Pentium 4.