Intel's upcoming 45nm Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor should quickly become the new chip of choice for many enthusiasts upon its release as it will take over where the Q6600 leaves off; it will be the new entry level quad-core based processor running at 2.5GHz (333x7.5) with 6MB of L2 cache.

German hardware site PCGamesHardware has been given the chance to tinker with an early sample of the Q9300 which they've constructively used the time to compare it to current quad-core processors on the market in a bunch of various performance benchmarks.

You can see all the test results here folks.