Intel P35 Bearlake And DDR3 Memory Launch

Although information has been floating around for ages and product hit the channel sooner than expected, today is actually the day Intel is officially unleashing their newest mainstream desktop chipset, the P35, a member of the formerly codenamed “Bearlake” family.  In addition to a new Southbridge, the P35 chipset ushers in support for DDR3 system memory in the desktop.  It also supports legacy DDR2 memory, depending on the motherboard’s DIMM slot configuration.

We’ve taken a pair of brand-new P35-based motherboards from Asus for a spin with both DDR2 and DDR3 memory installed.  As you’ll see, thanks to some relatively high latencies currently, DDR3 doesn’t affect performance all that much.  It sure is great for overclocking though!