Intel vs AMD: The Complete Walkthrough

Much debate has surrounded the internet about which processor is the best choice for gaming, Intel or AMD. Like the Apple vs. Android war, there are strong opinions on both sides of the coin as to which is best.

The problem is: there’s no right answer.

Some are biased and say that the Intel core line is still better for fps, but on the other hand, AMD has been gaining the highest market share for quite a while, and for a good reason (we’re going to address that later).

The truth is, the Intel vs. AMD debate is still holding today. The argument has heated up even more since AMD revealed their flagship CPU, the Ryzen 9 3950X with no less than 16 cores and 32 threads.

The new Ryzen 3000 line was released in July 2019 and they are currently working on a 4000 line. It is still uncertain if this new line of processors is going to position AMD as the “King of processors” and kick out Intel from the throne it has been sitting on for the past decade. But it appears to be looking so.

Okay, we’ve set the stage. The purpose of this article is to help you choose the right processor for your needs.

So we’re going to travel through every corner of the internet looking for expert opinions in order to save you the extensive research.

Performance

When AMD launched the Ryzen line, TechRadar held a deathmatch between the Intel Core i7-7700K and the AMD Ryzen 7 1700.

It turned out in a tight fight, both offering nearly the same performance though AMD was a bit cheaper (by around a $50 difference). Even so, they still crowned Intel as the winner…

But time has passed since then. TechRadar ran a more updated comparison between the giants. This time, comparing the low-end, medium-end, and high-end products in both prices and performance.

The AMD lineup traditionally has lower prices than Intel.

Even with the lower price tag, Ryzen had better performance for multi-threaded operations (video encoding would be the best example of this) as a result of their core and thread quantities. Intel provides better gaming performance because of their typically higher clock speeds and more so, their instructions per cycle.

The overclocking point was rather important. All new Ryzen processors allow users to go beyond their expected capacity (overclocking) without any restriction (unlocked). Meaning that AMD is very clear about letting people do whatever they want with their property (how things should be).

On Intel’s side, their CPUs are quite limited in that respect, since only the models with  “K” or “X” at the end can be overclocked. So it looks like Intel has the restrictive belief of an overprotecting mother that recently realized that her 25-year-old son is big enough to make his own lunch!

Caution: It’s important to note that some precaution is needed when trying to overclock your processor.
Overclocking does provide more power, but it also generates much more heat than normal and can potentially overheat your hardware if you’re not careful.

In that case, overclocking would cause more damage than the benefit you would receive.

Investing in a good fan cooler like this one is highly recommended, although Ryzen CPUs do have very decent stock coolers.

Also, none of the companies will accept your warranty claim if you damage your processor while overclocking, so it’s obvious that you need to know how to overclock properly.

Upgradability

WePC had a similar approach to TechRadar regarding points of comparison. While explaining the concepts, he was talking about for the casual reader (very important).

A good point there was the compatibility. AMD has stated that their current motherboard type (AM4) will be supported until 2020. However, an article from extremetech suggests that AMD’s new 3rd generation CPUs may not be supported fully.

This does cast some doubt as to if it’s worth buying an AMD motherboard now or if we should wait until we know for sure for support of the new 3rd gen CPU.

If the support continues with the new series of CPUs, the AMD lineup is easy to upgrade without having to change the motherboard.

This means that a second (or maybe 3rd?) generation Ryzen model will be compatible with older generations and vice-versa. This is critically important for people on a budget since you’re paying less when upgrading your CPU, in that you don’t have to upgrade your motherboard, as well.

Unfortunately, an Intel processor is compatible only with a motherboard of the same generation. Meaning that upgrading is far more expensive than AMD’s equivalent.

So on this point, if you’re an upgrader and looking to get a new CPU every couple of years or so, AMD is the way to go.

Value

Another interesting part of the WePC post was the conclusion.

They argue that four cores with eight threads are enough for gaming, and the rest of the money should be invested in a GPU.

This suggests that the AMD side of the coin is a better solution if you want a budget-friendly, easier to upgrade, and has an overclockable option; or if you’re requiring multi-thread for productivity work.

On the Intel side of the coin. Intel CPUs do offer faster clock speeds for the same budget and can be overclocked a bit more (assuming you get an unlocked Intel CPU), providing more single-thread power.

Wepc declares both as great options and stands for the “no right answer” opinion.

We agree, as we suggested in the beginning of the article.

Future Performance

Digital Trends went ahead of our time and tried to compare Intel Core i9-9900K with the most powerful Ryzen processor of the not-released-yet third generation, the Ryzen 9 3900X.

Of course, every point addressed there was on paper only, since we did’t know yet how the Zen 2 is going to perform.

What’s interesting though, was the analysis from the comparison charts that AMD showed in the E3.

They claimed that “Overall, the 3900X looks comparable, and in some cases, even more capable, than the 9900K in gaming.”

The other relevant chart was for game streaming, and although it is only important for these groups of user (like the post says), a huge difference can be seen between both processors when streaming at 1080p.

This suggests that the additional cores made the real difference at running top gaming quality while streaming at the same time.

Of course, this is according to what AMD said. The post claimed that “we’ll have to wait until closer to launch to test these ourselves, but these early results look very promising for the AMD chip”, supporting the “no right answer” opinion too.

It is interesting to consider the fact that AMD revealed a more powerful processor with 16 cores. So after reading this post, you can make up your own mind.

What the Youtube Experts Say

Jayztwocents

This video was made when Zen 2 (the 3rd gen of Ryzen) wasn’t announced yet. Jay tells the story of AMD from the last decade to this time, explaining how AMD has been putting pressure on Intel by bringing back the benefits of competition.

He claims that the current state of both brands is so competitive that if you perform a blind test, you’d be unable to tell whether you’re using Intel or AMD.

The thing is, the competition forced Intel to keep leveraging their IPC 4.0 technology and AMD to focus on their multicore processing. 

And while this is true, you can keep asking yourself “What the heck should I choose then?”

According to Jay, both processors are surprisingly powerful. But if you’re requiring optimized single-core processing for work like video or photo editing with Adobe software and such, Intel can be a good investment.

However, for gaming and everyday usage, he strongly recommends the Ryzen processors for the performance you obtain per dollar and that’s a powerful point.

Since AMD started launching competitive processors, they have done an exceptional job of keeping CPU prices low. And that’s ultimately true according to this chart: As you can see, in the entire image AMD dominates this chart.

The Intel Core i7 isn’t seen in the list, only one i3, and two i5s. The rest are from AMD hands. At the end of the video, Jay addressed that game developers are now looking to expand a way to leverage the potential of multicore processors (after so many years) in order to improve efficiency and game experience.

This will have a bigger impact for Ryzen lineup that is well known for having more cores.

A recent Quora question asks how many cores games use – the top answer declares that newer games need at least four threads and to avoid stuttering, eight threads is the minimum.

Also, motherboard manufacturers are now releasing models with such high quality for both processors, that you no longer have to worry about it.

For a long time, motherboard manufacturers were well known for cheapening the prices of AMD compatible models because of Intel having a lot more advantage over AMD for a long time. Before Ryzen came around it was hard to get a decent motherboard that had compatibility with AMD. At least that isn’t the case now.

Jay was clearly leaning towards the AMD side of the debate, and he really put convincing arguments on the table.

Now, after AMD’s Zen 2 was announced, he updated his thoughts (his full video is here).

It’s pretty technical, but he summarizes that:

• It seems that Intel is actually putting more focus on integrated graphics cards (not needing a graphics card) where AMD was so dominant
• AMD is putting a strong focus on their processors (where Intel has been dominant)
• He wishes that AMD puts more pressure on NVIDIA on the discrete graphics card side.

We’ve cut to his summary part of the video here: