Intel Core 2 Duo Performance

Though we've had the chance to run a few Intel-sanctioned Conroe numbers and have given you our thoughts here and here, some folks were lucky enough to find a friend in Taiwan that didn't mind sliding pre-launch CPUs out to the press, even against strict Intel embargoes.  Obviously this situation is a bit frustrating for those of us waiting for "official" launch kits from Intel (shipped so I'm told), but what can you do?  All's fair in love, war and business right?  Sort of...  Stay tuned for our full-view Conroe analysis in the coming weeks.  In the mean time, check out our buds at PCPer for an early... umm... perspective.

"For all of those gamers, enthusiasts and techies that thought Intel was cherry picking benchmarks in their custom sessions from which performance numbers have been reported on before, I think you can clearly see that is not the case. The gift left in my jacket pocket in Taiwan was able to show us that Intel wasn't just teasing us when they said Conroe was good; damn good. In everything from media encoding to high resolution SLI gaming, the Core 2 Duo processors were impressive to see in action."