GIGABYTE Technology Co., LTD, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards today is proud to announce the new GIGABYTE GA-EG45M-UD2H powered by the Intel G45 Express chipset. Featuring the GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 Technology with 2 ounces of copper for both the Power and Ground layers, the GA-EG45M-UD2H is able to provide dramatically lower system temperatures and improved energy efficiency, and combined with a rich array of multi-media connectivity options, promises to deliver an exceptional high-definition video and audio experience for the latest high-definition digital multimedia systems.

Doubling the amount of copper provides a more effective thermal cooling solution by delivering a more efficient spreading of heat from critical areas of the motherboard such as the CPU power zone throughout the entire PCB. In fact, GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 motherboards are able to deliver up to 50°C cooler working temperatures than traditional motherboards.

Keeping its position as one of the world's industry leaders in innovation and technology, MSI, the world's top motherboard manufacturers, today launched the world's first mATX motherboard, G45M Digital, which utilizes the server-class DrMOS. It provides the best energy-saving solution for multimedia entertainment applications. The new G45M Digital motherboard provides energy-saving power transmission. All CPU power supply modules are using the high-quality DrMOS chip, and the exclusive GreenPower/APS (Active Phase Switching) power-saving technology. Even when it is used for a long time, users do not have to worry about the power consumption. G45M Digital motherboard utilizes the latest Intel G45/ICH10R chipset based, built-in Intel X4500HD graphics core and Intel Clear Video high-definition technology to provide high-performance 3D graphics and images. Through hardware decoding acceleration, users can also enjoy the Blu-ray high-resolution HD movies which significantly reduce the CPU loading. In addition, it also provides HDMI, DVI, D-Sub multiple display output, as well as 8-channel HD audio quality, enabling users to experience the perfect multimedia applications.

It's been a few weeks since Intel launched its latest chipset with integrated graphics, the Intel G45. Among other things, Intel claimed this chipset accelerated HD video formats such as Blu-ray, where the integrated graphics logic is supposed to off-load the CPU of processing the video. Such as it is, Intel's integrated graphics processors (IGP) have been hugely reliant on the CPU for its functions.

Aaron Brezenski, a product engineer for Intel at its Chandler, Arizona US facility. In his recent blog entry (read here), he writes about the G45 not exactly achieving what it set out for, in other words, it was "still imperfect". He mentions about AMD hosting a demo booth where it was publicly demonstrated that a G45 based notebook made by HP failed to accelerate Blu-ray playback, the processor tipped 100% load throughout the playback which isn't what G45 is intended to bring about.

Intel plans to release own-brand P45 and G45 motherboards in the second quarter of 2008 with Foxconn to be the OEM partner. Although shipments of Intel's motherboards are still far behind first-tier brands, the company is not giving up pushing its own-brand business to maintain leadership in design, development and marketing. The codename of Intel's P45 motherboard is Skyberg (DP45SG). The product will support 45nm-based 1333MHz FSB Core 2 Extreme, quad-core and dual-core CPUs. The G45 motherboards, codenamed Icedale (DG45ID) and Fly Creek (DG45FC), will feature support for HDMI, DisplayPort and DVI. Both will support 1333MHz FSB quad-core and dual-core processors. The major difference between Icedale and Fly Creek is that the former will support up to four DIMMs per memory channel while the latter only two.