VIA PT800 Chipset

Concluding thoughts

Our initial, pre-benchmark expectations led us to believe that the PT800, hampered by running a single-channel design on a CPU that fared best with dual-channel memory, would lag considerably behind the pace set by Intel's dual-channel runners. That belief stemmed from the performance deviation between Intel's own single and dual-channel chipsets. Further consideration of the glaring fact that the KT600, VIA's latest S462 entry, fell behind NVIDIA's nForce2 Ultra 400 on a platform where dual-channel memory shouldn't afford too much great a performance advantage made us think that the PT800 was in for a hard time.

Theoretical analysis is all well and good if one is discussing a product that's yet to be produced, but VIA's PT800 will be taken up by most manufacturers. The performance exhibited by the sample motherboard, when run with two single-sided 256MB modules, was within touching distance of a Canterwood's; a fact all the more remarkable given the bandwidth deficit faced by The PT800. VIA, it seems, has certainly learned how to maximise performance from a single-channel chipset design.

If the North Bridge is all about maximising performance, the accompanying South Bridge is all about features and storage. An eclectic mix of RAID-able SATA, expandable to 4 drives through the use of an external PHY, and standard PATA will make considerable use of the 1GB/s bridge interconnect. Add in buckets of USB 2.0 alongside decent sound capabilities, and VIA's P4 chipset is brought up to date.

The question we pose ourselves before giving our verdict on the PT800 is whether retail boards will carry the same kind of speed exhibited by the reference motherboard. All too often we've seen reference boards produce startlingly fast benchmarks, yet retail samples have tended to fall a little way behind. What's more, Intel's i865PE chipset-based boards are now competitively priced with many deluxe boards hovering at around the £100 mark. And these are the boards that are now eclipsing all Canterwood benchmarks at stock speeds.

We feel that VIA needs to ensure that volume chipset supplies are available to its partners, and the partners need to get the boards out to market forthwith. Intel, it has be said, now command a strong position with respect to chipset choice for its own CPUs. VIA is back on track with a single-channel design that impresses on both the performance and feature counts. We just hope that it's not a case of too little, too late. Overall judgement is reserved until we have a number of retail boards in for testing. The bottom line is that VIA is a player in the P4 market. The PT800 chipset doesn't break any new ground, it just makes sure it's not too far behind on any count. Competition is always good for the consumer. Let's hope that the PT800 derivatives offer the buyer another purchasing avenue.

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