Introduction
ASUS P4R800-V Deluxe ATI 9100 IGP Motherboard ReviewChoosing a motherboard for a S478 processor is no easy task now. Intel has the speed bases covered, with well-tuned i865PE and i875P boards generally heading the benchmarks. Both chipsets are rich in features and stable as the day is long. What the i865xx has a poor attempt at and i875P explicitly lacks is decent onboard video. Decent is defined as something better than Intel's Extreme Graphics 2, which seem a mere afterthought. Their inadequacy is further highlighted by lacklustre 2D performance.
Intel, it seems, is content to release chipsets that are targeted at very specific markets, yet it has missed the burgeoning Home Theatre crowd and not paid attention to the needs of the casual gamer. Essentially, niche markets exist for other S478 chipset makers to exploit. ATI's realised that fact and released its Radeon 9100 IGP chipset to fulfill just the gaps in the market that Intel and others have neglected. The 9100 IGP, in our tests, wasn't as fast as, say, a decent Canterwood, but it offered an integrated DX8.1-compliant GPU that blew Intel's effort out of the water. Excellent 2D quality and a low projected street price didn't hurt matters, either.
ASUS has cottoned to just this way of thinking. ASUS being ASUS, it produces one of the broadest range of motherboard selections available, with chipsets aplenty. ASUS is positioning its Radeon 9100 IGP-powered motherboard as a multimedia hub with an attractive pricepoint. Sheer benchmark performance is eschewed in favour of connectivity and usability. Let's take a closer look at the intriguing ASUS P4R800-V Deluxe motherboard.
