WE'RE BACK AT IT again. Intel has a new Pentium 4 to release, and we're going to test it against AMD's surprising new Athlon XP 2600+ to see which is faster. This time out, Intel is making something of a leap; the fastest Pentium 4 was previously 2.53GHz, but today's release is the 2.8GHz variant. Almost scary, innit?

Beyond the jump up in clock speeds, there's not much new to report, but the contest with the Athlon XP 2600+ is compelling. To keep things spicy, we're using our updated processor test suite, all the latest drivers, and a whole lotta Cajun hot sauce.

Err... overclocking.

Anyhow, read on to find out just how fast this new Pentium 4 really is. If you're good, there might even be a little surprise at the end.