Intel has just launched G45 and G43 chipsets and let me explain you what they are all about. G45 is the top of the offer, and it has full video decoding acceleration including MPEG2, VC1 and AVC. This is Intel's first DirectX 10 chipset.
The chipset
supports HDCP, HDMI, DVI and Display Port and PCIe 16X graphics. Moreover it
supports two memory channels with up to two dims per channel, it supports Vista Premium logo, ICH10 R and Intel remote wake
technology.
G43 has
single channel memory support and it misses hardware decode acceleration but
the rest looks the same like G45.
G41
actually looks very similar to G43 as it doesn’t have a hardware video
acceleration engine and it also has single channel memory. It shares the same X4500
graphics engine but it lacks HDMI support. It can support DVI or Display Port
and it also misses out the remote wake technology.
This
chipset interconnects with ICH7 which definitely ensures that this chipset will
come for entry level market and cheaper boards. It is scheduled for Q4 2008
launch.