1. Get ready for the return of the Clockspeed Wars
When Intel unveiled its new 45nm, quad-core Core i7 desktop chips in mid-November, it looked like Chipzilla was all set to rule the high-end of processing power for another year. And there's no doubt about the raw power of the top Core i7 part, a 3.2-GHz Extreme Edition CPU that has our Test Center reviewers drooling.
But whispers coming out of the rival Advanced Micro Devices camp about the overclocking headroom in its upcoming 45nm, quad-core Phenom II chips has us wondering if AMD finally has a product to rival Intel's -- and boy, it would be about time. The first Phenom II parts -- the top one, listed at 3.0 GHz off the shelf, is said to hit 4 GHz on air cooling and a whopping 6.3 GHz on liquid nitrogen -- are due out in conjunction with AMD's "Dragon" motherboard-CPU-graphics platform in January and February, according to sources.
Bank on it: Intel will keep its performance crown in 2009 with Core i7, but AMD will make its first serious run at its bigger rival in years with Phenom II -- and if you like the smaller vendor's speeds, you'll love their prices even more.
