Specifications are all well and great, but can you really tell how much faster is one processor from another? Both Intel and AMD are trying to do just that with their model numbering scheme. But with over 30 SKUs, the Intel Core 2 family of processors has become a confusing bunch of numbers.

We begin a performance comparison project for the Intel Core 2 family of processors where we test and compare the Intel Core 2 processors' performance in five different benchmarks. It will show you exactly where a higher clock speed would be more advantageous and where the number of processing cores is far more important, as well as situations where the processor itself won't really matter much.

In this revision, we have added both Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 and QX6800 quad-core processors into the mix. Let's check out how they performed.