Intel's QX9770 quad-core to blow away competition in Q1
![](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/bDLcffR0S1IPtcThnprhjw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTY2NQ--/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/hEFkkKtRJA5JNv6hx.C5.g--~B/aD00MTU7dz00NDA7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/11/crysis-benchmark.jpg)
Want to see what AMD is up against come Q1? You're looking at it, the 3.2GHz, quad-core, QX9770 Core 2 Extreme processor from Intel. Like Intel's current headliner -- the QX9650 -- we're talking 45-nm Yorkfield class silicon here with 1600MHz front side bus and 12MB L2 cache. HotHardware got their hands on the proc a bit early and call it the fastest quad-core processor they've ever tested, "bar none." Generally speaking, they found it to be about 5 - 8% faster than the QX9650. As you can see from the graph up there, it easily smokes the $300 Phenom 9700 and the $350 2.6GHz Phenom 9900 (both due in Q1) likely won't fare much better. Just keep in mind that Intel's top-performer will cost you around $1,200 by the time it pops in Q1. Somehow, we don't think that's going dissuade any Crysis gamers out there.