FEAR - Multi-Threaded Test	Source: Sierra

FEAR is Sierra's latest first person shooter which relies heavily on DirectX 9 features. With its "Soft Shadows" feature enabled, even the fastest videocards run at a crawl, FEAR is definitely the new benchmark for future FPS games to follow. Prime95 was running in the background to simulate load on a one core.

Prime95 + FEAR
Minimum 640x480:	FPS	Ranking
Intel Pentium D 840	176
Intel Pentium D 940	211
AMD Sempron 3600+	210
AMD Athlon64 4000+	274
AMD Athlon64 FX-60	254
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+	219
AMD Athlon64 FX-62	256
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600	312
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (Overclocked to 3.4 GHz)	356
Maximum 1024x768:	FPS	Ranking
Intel Pentium D 840	83
Intel Pentium D 940	97
AMD Sempron 3600+	63
AMD Athlon64 4000+	105
AMD Athlon64 FX-60	103
AMD Athlon64 X2 5000+	75
AMD Athlon64 FX-62	99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600	103
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (Overclocked to 3.4 GHz)	105

In the last benchmark of the day, the Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 achieves a framerate of 312 fps at stock, 356 when overclocked. This even with Prime 95 is running in the background.

So what does all this mean, is the E6600 the best dual core processor Intel has in its stables?