Intel is reportedly sticking to the already available core clock frequencies in its processor lineup at least for the rest of the year. This means that the QX9770 part, running at 3.2 GHz will be the fastest processor around for quite a while.

The 3.2 GHz parts built on Intel's 45-nanometer production node seem to be enough for Intel, as there is no possible reason to rush things up. At the moment, the chip manufacturer is playing an one-player game on the high-end processor market.

Despite the advent of AMD's best shots, the Phenom X4 series cannot get too close to Intel's chips in terms of performance. At the moment, AMD is struggling to deliver 2.6 GHz parts.

More than that, the enthusiast market it fully embracing Intel's 45-nanometer quad-cores, that sport increased power efficiency and run cooler than any other x86 chips.

This leaves room to severe overclocking, and unconfirmed rumors boast 4.4GHz core frequencies reached using high-quality air-based solutions. Extreme users have also gone the hard way and managed to push a Core 2 Extreme QX9650 chip to an unbelievable speed of 6.225 GHz using liquid nitrogen.

Intel's indications say that the QX9770 and QX9775 will be its fastest offerings for the consumer market until late this year. The next generation of high-end processors might be the Nehalems, also slated for release later this year.

However, Intel will surely release faster chip offerings if only AMD manages to introduce a competitive model for its Yorkfield-based processors. This is less likely to happen given the fact that Advanced Micro Devices is still struggling to deliver the rest of its server chips in noticeable quantities.