Unlike the 4600 and 3800 below them, the 5200 and upwards haven't chucked a meg and a half of cache over the edge in a desperate attempt to lose cost-weight. This still carries a full 2MB of L2.

AMD's fallen upon hard times lately: this sub-£70 chip went for £120 just three short months ago, for a start. The better news is that, with Core 2's high-end action largely revolving around quad core, the 4600+ hasn't slipped in the rankings any

Life always finds a way. Find a rock in the Core 2-ravaged post-apocalyptic processor wasteland, peer under it and look! There's a little 3800 cowering from the light. Less than £50, a mere 2GHz and 1MB of shared cache, yet still it survives.

Context. That's what Intel's latest processor is all about. On the one hand, this is the fastest CPU in Christendom. Courtesy of four cores, each one benefiting from Core 2 architecture, the QX6800 isn't just the weapon of choice for multitasking.

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 review: Has Intel been sandbagging with its sickeningly successful Core 2 Duo processors? It's a tempting conclusion to draw, even with the launch of this new Extreme QX6800 model, the most powerful Core 2 chip to date

The first Centrino release provided the first consensus of targeted mobile computing improvements - battery life, wireless connectivity and overall performance. Now it's been updated, promising to break new ground with a host of exciting new features

Intel's four core Kentsfield processors have been out for a few months now, but we're still at the very early stages of the quad core revolution. Supreme Commander will be the first game that can make use of four separate CPU cores at once

Adequate dual-core performance at an affordable price? That'll be the Pentium D 820. It may be produced using relatively ancient 90nm manufacturing technology and based on Intel's soon-to-be-extinct Netburst architecture

The launch of Intel's Core 2 processor was a rude shock for AMD, at the time happily extracting top dollar from PC enthusiasts for its Athlon 64 X2 dual-core chips. Now you can buy this mid-range X2 for just £123

Six months ago, Intel blew our socks off with its new Core 2 Duo processors. So what is the standard bearer of the range doing languishing near the bottom of the table? The answer is simple and it has to do with that old chestnut, value

Has Intel jumped the gun on quad-core computing? Well, it's certainly true that many of our benchmark results fail to demonstrate any benefit to quadcore CPUs. In fact, it's clear that Intel's new Quad chips are actually slower than their dual-core rivals

Nearly £150 for an extra 200MHz. If you're of the opinion that that sounds like a pretty rum deal, then join the club. Unlike its Extreme Edition sibling, the E6700 can't even claim to offer the dubious benefit of an unlocked CPU multiplier

And so to our winner. In most regards, there's little to choose between this and the more affordable E6300 Core 2 Duo model. Both are specified with the more compact 2MB shared cache memory but still produce respectable performance

Previously, we've placed the baby of the Core 2 range at the top of the pile when it came time to dole out the awards. After all, why pay more when this chip can deliver nearly as much grunt as an Extreme Edition chip costing six times as much?

When AMD first launched its X2 range of dual-core Athlon 64s, they were comfortably the most desirable CPUs on the planet and boasted untouchable multithreaded performance. Today, this flagship chip has been left high and dry

Life is tough for the 3800 plus. This is the single-core, non-X2 variant of the 3800 which boasts a lone cache memory pool of just 512K and runs at 2.4GHz. And very definitely not to be confused with the Athlon 64 X2 3800 dual-core processor

Since Intel wheeled out its new Core 2 processors, it's been a bruising time for AMD. If the clear advantage in performance and power consumption parsimony of Core 2 in dual-core trim wasn't bad enough, Intel unsheathed the quad-core Kentsfield revision

Just 18 months ago, Intel wheeled out the world's first dual-core PC processor. Fast forward to today and the Santa Clara, California-based silicon colossus is moving the game on again with the first everquad-core desktop chip...

Give it up for Kentsfield, the first ever quad-core CPU for the desktop PC - four processing cores, a quartet of software threads and a whole mountain of processing power.

Just 18 months ago, Intel wheeled out the world's first dual-core PC processor. Fast forward to today and the Santa Clara, California-based silicon colossus is moving the game on again with the first ever quad-core desktop chip, Core 2 Extreme QX6700.

Comfortably the quickest and most efficient PC processor ever.

By carefully bin-sorting the processors that come out of its fabrication plants, AMD's finding that many run at lower voltages than originally intended

Intel's hideously fast new flagship processor has the measure of AMD's finest. But is it worth the price premium?

While it has the chance, AMD is going to milk its performance leading cash cow. Intel has been floundering trying to fix its roadmaps and change tack moving from Netburst architecture to Core technology. Meanwhile AMD has had a free reign...