TomsHardware overclocks Intel's Core 2 Extreme and AMD's Athlon FX-62 processors
One has been a star for some time now, while the other is rising to stardom. The AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 and the Intel Core 2 Extreme are ready to duke it out for honors as the fastest of all x86 systems. Let's get on with our contest, and pitch the old champion against a new one.
In this battle, performance is the only thing that counts. We'll explore the upper bounds of thermal stability for both of these top-of-the-line CPUs with standard retail components, the Intel versions of which have just hit store shelves. This occurred on July 24, the very same day that AMD introduced massive price cuts.
3.68 GHz represents the upper bound of what the Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 can handle, remaining stable with air cooling only. The chip specification calls for 2.93 GHz.
Our testing of standard members of the Core 2 processor family has already foreshadowed what the Extreme can deliver. This time, however, it goes up against a performance-tweaked Athlon 64 FX-62 that should really be called an FX-66 or something similar. We pushed the AMD clock up to 3.05 GHz, and the memory operates at 508 MHz, though the standard speed is 400 MHz. That's 25 percent more than the wizards at AMD will officially admit...
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