Definitive system wide performance gains from CPU overclocking even affected two of the three games tests, as the "powerful" Core 2 Duo E6750's stock speed proved an FPS-limiting factor. But while our 56% overclock provided even more impressive gains in applications, we know there's still room for improvement. After all, the E6750 is only a dual-core processor...Compare Prices on Core 2 Duo E6750

Many encoding applications are designed to take advantage of multiple cores beyond the two included in the E6750, so next week we'll bring you Quad Extreme QX6850 overclocking results. Quad Cores are reputed to take greater advantage of increased memory speed, but the presence of additional heat centers makes overclocking a greater challenge. Higher speed versus additional cores becomes a real debate that we'd like to settle, at least for our benchmark set.

Author's Note

I'd like to extend our special thanks to Super Talent and Swiftech for providing the industry-leading components needed to extract the highest possible performance from these platforms. Super Talent may not be "the only game in town" with DDR3-1600 CAS 7, but the company showed clear leadership by being the first to make this speed available to reviewers. Swiftech's leadership in CPU liquid cooling is rarely rivaled, and heat management was a critical factor in reaching our processor's highest speed.

Join our discussion on this topic