Hardcore gamers rejoice. Intel has introduced new Core 2 Extreme processor QX6800, that’s dedicated to extreme gamers and graphics designers alike.

The company’s twelfth quad-core processor offering, running at 2.93 GHz, the fastest native clock speed yet reached with the Intel Core Micro-Architecture for the quad-core desktop.

The Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX6800 is ideal for those gamers, digital design professionals and enthusiasts who crave the highest performing computers they can get their hands on.

At the recent Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, several software developers demonstrated new games that have been “threaded” to take advantage of multiple processor cores and threads. This increased performance can help deliver smoother gameplay, more realistic game effects and more lifelike artificial intelligence.

Some of the most exciting titles of the year such as Crytek’s Crysis, Gas Powered Games’ Supreme Commander and Flagship’s Hellgate London have undergone substantial joint engineering efforts with Intel to use more than two processing threads to their advantage. One of the first games ever developed for the PC is also entering the quad-core era.

“The latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Service Pack One (SP1), due out later this month, is a great match for the extreme multi-core processing delivered by the new Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor,” said Phil Taylor, Flight Sim Program Manager, Microsoft Game Studios.

“Flight Sim X SP1 greatly increases multicore utilization and will scale as more threads are available leading to reduced load times as well as frame rate improvements and greater visual complexity during flight. The Flight Simulator team at Microsoft is pleased to work with Intel to provide our end users with a great gaming experience.” Taylor added.

In addition to delivering adrenaline to hardcore gamers, the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX6800 is also being embraced by media users and developers. Adobe, Cakewalk, DivX, Sony Creative Software and dozens of other developers have delivered applications that use all four cores.

For example, the Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor QX6800 is up to 65% faster than the Intel Core 2 Extreme dual-core processor X6800 on video encoding. This is a key capability as more users are recording and editing high-definition video to capture, preserve and share memories.

The Intel Core 2 Extreme processor QX6800 is based on Intel’s 65 nanometer process, key to enabling the large 8 megabyte cache. A 1066 MHz system bus is supported and the processor is available now at a cost of $1,199.