Conclusion
Intel's Pentium Extreme Edition processors have always been controversial products. First, they are very expensive. At around $1,000, most people would opt to buy an entire computer rather than only a single processor. Second, these processors are not the magic bullets that you would expect would come with such as hefty price tag. There are applications with which the high clock speed double-core Intel processors such as the Extreme Edition 965 perform well. But would you really want to spend so much money on a system that offers performance improvements compared to much cheaper machines for only a few software titles?
The CPU does beat its AMD rival by offering a more sophisticated overclocking capability; The clock speed limit can be reached without requiring higher core voltage. Or in other words: Raising the core voltage did not result in better overclocking results. Consequently, you can enable the energy saving C1E feature when overclocking the device up to a speed of 4.26 GHz, although few users will ever take advantage of this „feature".
Nevertheless, Pentium Extreme Edition 965 is still a very fast processor, and it comes even closer to catching up to AMD devices
But even when the Intel CPU is overclocked at 4.26 GHz, the dualcore Athlon 64 FX processors still offer better results for most applications. Sure, the new Extreme Edition CPU is competitive, but it does not outperform the Athlon 64 FX-60, even at 3.73 GHz.
The Pentium Extreme Edition 965 does its job by keeping Intel in the news and by bridging the time until the first Conroe-based Core Duo E6000 (or E8000 Extreme Edition) processors become available. But at the end of the day, it is just another NetBurst processor that is inferior compared to the dual-core Athlons.
Tom's Hardware Exclusive Interactive CPU Charts
We continue to update our Interactive CPU Charts with the latest dual-core processors from AMD and Intel. This content, which is free to access, compares current and several older processors in 28 different benchmarks. These include traditional benchmarks as well as multitasking tests.
Our comprehensive lineup includes the Intel Pentium 4 500 and 600 series, the dual-core Pentium D 800 and 900 models and all Pentium Extreme Edition processors as well as the older Pentium 4 family for Socket 478. For AMD devices, there are Athlon XP models, the complete Athlon 64 family, the Athlon 64 X2 models, the Athlon 64 FX premium processors and last, but not least some, Sempron processors.
After selecting a particular benchmark for a processor, the Interactive CPU Charts will then output a comprehensive set of results. For comparisons, you can select two processors, which will be highlighted in the results chart. At the bottom of the page, there is also additional information about selected processors' relative and absolute performance.
