It’s no secret that we here at Maximum PC are fans of Intel’s new Core i7. In fact, Intel has held a place of distinction in our best of the best round up pretty consistently now ever since Athelon’s day came and went several years ago. Despite this fact, we are pretty fickle with our affections, and are all secretly still rooting for the underdog. We are also the first to admit that we are glad AMD is still around to keep Intel on its toes. Though both Phenom & Phenom II failed to set the world on fire, we were all pretty impressed when we discovered how much overclocking headroom we received as a result of the die shrink. We were even more excited when we saw the videos of AMD pushing the new CPU past 6.5Ghz, setting a new record in terms of clock speed.

Intel however, never wanting to concede its speed crown, was quick to go on the attack. In an email exchange with TGDaily, an Intel employee pointed out that the AMD 3DMark score of 45,474 submitted on January 12^th 2009 was actually 1,170 points lower than a Core i7 score turned in by Intel just 8 days earlier. He also stated that the AMD results were achieved with unapproved drivers, and curiously were only run when the clock speed was at 4.481 Ghz. So as for who holds the 3DMark speed crown, I guess it all depends on who you ask.

It’s good to know that even if Phenom II didn’t quite bring them up to where they need to be, at least they have Intel taking notice of them again. And I for one can’t wait until I see the portable liquid helium cooling system that lets me duplicate these AMD scores at home! They are working on that right?