While AMD keeps postponing the launch of their quad-core processors to the end of this year - beginning of next, Intel Company is offering very affordable quad-core CPUs from Core 2 Quad family. However, can Core 2 Quad processors be regarded as a worthy alternative to popular dual-core solutions?

According to our tests and numerous overclockers' reports online, quad-core Core 2 Quad Q6600 processors can overclock up to 3.6GHz with proper air-cooling. In this case they can perform better than Core 2 Duo CPUs overclocked to their maximum. Moreover, we see this tendency even in those applications that are not optimized for multi-core processors and that are getting fewer day by day. As we saw there are very few tasks left, where overclocked quad-core processors cannot outperform overclocked dual-core CPUs. They defeat their rivals not only thanks to twice as many computational cores, but also thanks to twice as large L2 cache. So, we think Core 2 Quad Q6600 seems to be a much more attractive offering these days than Core 2 Duo E6850.

However, those computer users who do not want to mess with processor overclocking may think differently. In this case Core 2 Duo E6850 with 25% higher clock speed performs better in a lot of applications, including games. Moreover, it is also more economical. As a result, the most optimal choice for a system working at nominal speeds would depends a lot on the type of tasks it is intended for.

Another review can be found on Virtual Hideout.