nVidia been on Intel's case by very strongly voicing their opinions on how a better GPU adds more value that a better CPU. This could be true for certain things on a low to medium end setup but for enthusiast gamers, the fastest of the fastest is the only option. We put this theory to test by putting three nVidia 9800GTX cards in Triple SLI mode and running some games on the highest-end Intel and AMD CPUs, the Core 2 Extreme QX9770 and Phenom X4 9850 respectively.

The Intel CPU runs at 3.2GHz while AMD's top offering tops at 2.4GHz which certainly gives the Intel CPU an 800MHz advantage. However, the argument here is that we have three very high-end GPUs redering graphics at High-Definition resolution in which case the CPU SHOULDNT matter THAT much. Want to see what we found out? Lets roll.

The testbed used for this article is made up of an Intel QX9770 CPU and the ASUS Striker II Extreme motherboard with OCZ DDR3-1600MHz modules on the Intel side. For AMD, we stuck to the MSI 780 chipset motherboard along with the Phenom X4 9850 CPU and Corsair DDR2-1066MHz memory modules. The PSU used by both setups was a Silverstone 1000W. Finally, the display we have is a 24" Benq LCD capable of supporting 1920x1200 resolution.