Wolfdale Core2 processors are not on the market yet, but the 2.33GHz chip for the next-gen desktops is built on Intel’s new 45nm process, making it a smaller version of the existing Core 2 chips. The engineering sample benchmarked was running at 2.33GHz, 1333MHz FSB and stacked up 6MB of L2 cache.

In tests against an existing E6550 Conroe chip, the Wolfdale managed to best the E6550 in every single facet..

For gamers: with a GeForce 8800 Ultra card installed, Doom 3 and Far Cry see 10 per cent performance improvements at CPU-bound resolutions, and Half-Life 2 sees a 30 per cent improvement, up from 132 FPS to 181.