Is 3.2GHz Faster than 3.0GHz?

As you've undoubtedly seen by now, Intel still remains unchallenged in the high end processor market, especially when it comes to quad-core CPUs. AMD's Phenom will only ship at a maximum of 2.3GHz this year, and 3.0GHz won't happen until after the QX9770 launches next year in all likelihood.

With no real competition from AMD, the biggest challenge the QX9770 faces comes from Intel. The graph below should give you a quick idea of how obsolete the QX9770 will make the QX9650 (we used the same test configuration from our Phenom article for these numbers):

The performance gains are impressive, given that we're only looking at a 6.6% increase in clock speed. The 1600MHz FSB does seem to do a bit, giving us 7 - 8% performance boosts in a couple of instances.

Without knowing the price of the QX9770 it's tough to say whether or not you're getting what you pay for. Generally these Extreme parts aren't worth their asking prices, but if you're wondering where peak performance will be early next year, the QX9770 should give you a good indication.

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