While chip vendors, like most manufacturers, don‘t shy away from exhilarated claims for their products, a bevy of enthusiast Web sites concur that Intel is finally back on top with the debut of its new Core 2 Duo processors (code named Conroe) in late July. The microprocessors mark the end of Intel’s long-running Pentium era, with the new chip‘s benchmarks leaving even its most recent dual-core Pentium D far behind.

One clear result from the tests: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) faces its greatest challenge since their Athlon CPUs–typified by the top of the line Athlon 64 FX-62–beat out Intel as the most popular, high-end desktop chip line over the past two years.

In an extensive review on The Tech Report website (techreport.com) kudos sounded: “After years of wandering in the wilderness, Intel has recaptured the desktop CPU performance title in dramatic fashion. Both the Core 2 Extreme X6800 and the Core 2 Duo E6700 easily outperform the Athlon 64 FX-62 across a range of applications…” more